Cultivating Pathways to Sustainability
2024–25
An inspiring year-long program for youth, adults, and schools
RECOGNIZED BY UNITED NATIONS UNIVERSITY AS AN INNOVATIVE PROJECT IN EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
A PARTNERSHIP OF
Empower youth to make real change in their schools and communities
WITH CULTIVATING PATHWAYS TO SUSTAINABILITY
Over the course of a year, youth-adult teams develop and implement community action projects to address the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which focus on pathways to building a socially, economically, and ecologically just society.
What to expect
Form a team of students and educators and join in Youth Participatory Action Research, with resources and support from UP for Learning and Shelburne Farms Institute for Sustainable Schools. You’ll explore the Sustainable Development Goals; connect with and assess your place; and plan and implement a project to advance the global goals.
Choose your support level:
LEVEL 1
Attend two virtual learning retreats
• Foundations of youth-adult partnership
• Rooting in the SDGs
• Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) project
• Sustainability
• Sharing across groups and celebration
LEVEL 2
Level 1 and three youthled virtual support sessions during school year
• Connect with other CPS groups
• Talk with youth facilitators who have done CPS in past
• YPAR project support
• Shared resources and strategies
LEVEL 3
Levels 1 + 2 and personalized team coaching, 1 hr./month
• Coaching with your team
• Build shared leadership, power, and responsibility
• Support for agenda setting, vision, and project management
• Support with grants
• School transformation
$100 $1,000 $7,500
SCHOOL TRANSFORMATION STORY
SHELBURNE COMMUNITY
SCHOOL | SHELBURNE, VT
The entire seventh and eighth grades focused on leadership development and skills in CPS 2023–24. Sixteen students led the schoolwide effort, bringing what they learned in CPS virtual gatherings back to more than 300 of their peers. Together, teams learned about their school’s needs and community assets. Projects included vermicomposting (that’s composting with worms, pictured here); a campaign to raise awareness for the causes of water pollution; and a program to recycle plastic snack bags.
SCHOOL TRANSFORMATION STORY
KOPILA VALLEY SCHOOL | SURKHET, NEPAL
Middle schoolers focused on the Sustainable Development Goals of advancing climate action and life on land. They developed a campaign to educate the community about the harmful impacts of burning plastic and created cloth bag alternatives to distribute locally.
