HIGHLIGHTS OF YEAR 1

The Launch of You, Me & The Climate
October 2007
You, Me & The Climate was launched in October 2007. 52 young people aged 16-19 attended this event as founder representatives of You, Me & The Climate, representing 27 different charities, which in turn are each based in a different county of England. It is a youth led project to enable young people to take action on CO2.

Climatelog
November and December 2007
The young representatives took part in the Climatelog, an 8-week survey. Each week they were challenged with investigating a different area of the media, finding out how each media genre in question deals with the coverage of climate change and discovering what action these media outlets take to try and curb it. The Climatelog was created, designed and written by a 19-year old representative, and has been critically acclaimed by top designers and creatives from leading UK design and advertising agencies

Climatelog Report compiled
January and February 2008
The results of the Climatelog survey were compiled into a Report. Using the findings of all the young representatives, the Report was written by the same young person to maintain continuity of design and style.

Door-Stepping the Media!
March to April 2008
From March 27 to April 2, 27 of the young representatives who were free of school, college, work and extra curricular activities spent 7 days in central London. This residential had a full schedule of visits and meetings with senior personnel from different media organisations, and environmental organisations whose work needs and gets high-profile media attention (BBC, Defra, Friends of the Earth, ITV, Natural History Museum, Pearlfisher, Soil Association, WCRS) highlighting material which they put out on climate change. This was an invaluable learning curve for everyone in how to prepare for and use the media to broadcast information about You, Me & The Climate, as well as in project management.
On the final day, the young representatives planned and organised a PR event on a beach in central London alongside the Thames. They sculpted a map of the UK in the sand and dressed in Victorian costume to attract attention; others dressed as politicians. They handed out information to over 2000 on-lookers over the course of the day and engaged them in conversations about the project and You, Me & The Climate. Several young people also visited the Houses of Parliament to present the Climatelog Report to their MP’s.

Launch of Climatelog Report
April 2008
The Climatelog Report was launched in mid-April. Printed copies of the 36-page document were sent to MPs, as well as influential business and media personnel, plus leading figures in the environment and charity sectors. The young representatives will be following up the highlights and action points featured in the Report as appropriate.

Planning Summer / Autumn Community Projects
April to July 2008
The young representatives started planning the projects they are each organising in their respective communities over the summer holidays or in the autumn term. Key movers and shakers from each area will be invited to lend assistance and support to the projects as appropriate. The objective is to encourage lots more young people to take an active interest in You, Me & The Climate at a local level and to be part of the future development of the project.

Community Projects
Summer / Autumn 2008
The community projects were launched in Bewdley in Worcestershire, where one of the young representatives held an exhibition of art themed on climate change. Over a week, the exhibition took place at her school before it moved to a key position in the high street. Over this period, parents and key figures from Bewdley and further afield in Worcestershire were invited to private viewings at the school, before the public were able to view the exhibition whilst shopping in the town at the weekend. The art received much acclaim and interest, and inspired other people both young and old to also consider featuring today’s most important global issue in works of art. Further community projects have taken place in other counties or will be doing so during the autumn term.

Turning The Tide
August 2008
In total contrast to the spring residential in the heart of the capital, representatives traveled to West Sussex for an 8-day residential under canvas at one of the National Trust’s most beautiful sites, Gumber Farm on its Slindon Estate (4 miles west of Arundel in the heart of the South Downs). 24/7 of space and fresh air, despite some appalling weather conditions, kept everyone on their toes for a full schedule - workshops by visiting guest speakers; visits to towns in the area where the representatives held meetings about climate change with members of a variety of different organisations; similar beach projects at Littlehampton and East Head to the one they initiated in London; walks around the Estate; and a healthy amount of volunteering (coppicing).

Summary
Year 1 has provided a strong group of young representatives with a wide range of skills and knowledge with which to go into their communities and spread the word about climate change and You, Me & The Climate.

Year 2
The second year of You, Me and The Climate will launch formally in January 2009, so keep an eye on the site for the 2009 programme.

A Christmas residential will be taking place with the current representatives to put the finishing touches on the 2009 programme. They will also be looking into the theme of how un-green the festive season is!