Getting young people involved in climate action
Our youth engagement project aims to reach 8,000 young people between the ages of 10 and 25 across Fife through talks, workshops, and events. Activities are open to youth groups across the region. They are completely FREE.
A brief outline of our talks and workshops is below. For more information or to book a session please contact Marianne O Neill. Email marianne@youth1st.co.uk.
Workshops
Our workshops are interactive, fun and discussion-based sessions that will give young people the knowledge and tools to tackle the climate emergency.
The workshops are inclusive; anyone can have fun taking part.
Workshops include:
- Nobody is too small to make a difference: A workshop designed to make sure young people feel that their voices can be heard and that they are not powerless.
- Climate anxiety and eco grief: A workshop discussing the ways we can protect ourselves from being overwhelmed and keep a cool head in a warming planet.
- Climate change simulated: a one-hour workshop with simulations and experiments to model climate change and its adverse effects. Young people will discuss how human activities connect to the symptoms of climate change.
- How personal choices make a difference: Three different workshops that address how our actions can have an adverse effect on the environment and how to mitigate our negative influence and lower our carbon footprint. The workshops cover cooking and eating (this research-based workshop requires IT access), fast fashion and shopping and climate-friendly holidays.
- Climate buffet: Workshop looking at food, the carbon cost of what we eat, and what we can do to make a difference including a fun cooking workshop.
- Your climate footprint: How anyone can make a difference: Ideal for younger groups. Similar to ‘Nobody too small to make a difference’ and ‘Climate change simulated’ but with more focus on carbon footprint, games and activities.
- ‘Fast Fashion and Shopping’: A workshop that explains the 7 R’s of recycling, why fast fashion can be harmful to both the environment and to people, greenwashing and includes some creative upcycling activities.
- ‘Climate Friendly Travel’: A workshop that discusses how travel decisions – from commutes to holidays – affect our carbon footprint.
- Climate Crafting A fun, interactive workshop where young people are able to repurpose and upcycle clothes and junk, reimagining it into something new, This touches on the 3 “R”s as well as shopping habits and consumerism.
Time commitment: 1-2 hours
Delivery: In-person
Participants: Up to 34
Age: 10-18
Awards: Young people can use these workshops to work towards a climate action Hi5 or Dynamic Youth award.
Climate Action Games
A series of games including bingo, snakes and ladders, top trumps, go fish and twister- which all have
a climate change / action theme. These are an alternative way to get the climate change message across in a
fun and interactive way.
Climate Fresk
Using a Climate Fresk designed specifically for young people, participants work as a team to find the cause-and-effect relationships between a set climate cards. They then use the cards to build a collage that explains climate change. This is a collaborative and creative approach. Climate Fresk is perfect for those who prefer more active and visual learning
This session can be two hours or three hours. The three-hour session includes some experiments and demonstrations that model the causes and effects of climate change.
Time commitment: 2-3 hours
Delivery: In-person
Participants: Minimum 6, maximum 24
Age: 10-25
Awards: Young people can use this session to work towards a climate action Hi5 or Dynamic Youth award.
Litter picks, beach cleans and Seaweed Search
Youth1st has access to 25 litter pickers, clipboards, bags and stickers for collection (additional pickers can be requested with enough notice). The Climate Action Youth Project has run several litter picks with schools in youth groups across Fife.
Beach cleans are more formal and require permission from the Marine Conservation Society and the landowner to run. We have run these as both public and private events. Public events are advertised by the Marine Conservation Society and Climate Action Fife and are free to join without booking.
Private events can be booked with enough notice. Beach cleans form part of a UK-wide citizen science project. The data gathered is used in research and informing policy.
Projects
We have designed the ‘B: A Climate Champion’ project in collaboration with B:activ.
This project will see young people learn the basics of climate change but also be trained and prepared to deliver climate change activities themselves, thereby helping spread the climate change message.
The project will take place with a group of young people over four weeks in four two-hour sessions (eight hours total contact time). This is sufficient time for the young people to achieve a climate action Dynamic Youth Awards or Hi-5.
The aims of the project are:
- To empower young people to be able to talk about climate change
- To spread the climate change message and get more people to take action
- To build the confidence of young people
- For young people to achieve a climate action Dynamic Youth Award or Hi-5
Time commitment: Five hours minimum contact time over more than four sessions
Delivery: In-person
Participants: 10 (more can be taken but further time might be needed)
Age: 10-25
Events
We run events including litter picks, beach cleans youth work networking events, outdoor learning and citizen science projects. See the Climate Action Fife events page for full details.
In the summer of 2026, we plan to extend our Litter Pick Project, using the information that we gathered during the Pilot Project in November, we hope to run this event out over our whole network, with many more people reaching out to enjoy this group activity. For more information contact marianne@youth1st.co.uk, or marly@youth1st.co.uk. We hope you will enjoy us and help make a difference. Updates will be shared both on the Climate Action Fife Events page, the Youth 1st page, and on Youth 1st, Social Media page
Aimed: All ages – there are no barriers to taking part, we will work with all abilities to make the event fun and rewarding.
