about 1 year ago
Public Choice Winners, Closing Steps & a Big, Massive THANK YOU :)
Hi Folks,
As March comes to an end, we close out our last few steps with CCM 2025 :)
First of all, CONGRATS to CLIMATE NEXUS, for securing our final CCM prize with the public choice award!
Next, some updates/ reminders on other key closing logistics or requests:
- Follow Us on Socials: Shout-out to all that have helped OATHE's IG @taketheoathe reach our 1K+ follower milestone & please do give it a follow if you haven't done so yet. YIC's IG also shares great resources @youthimpactchallenge, with our Facebook handles the same!
- Prize Distribution: Our team will be in touch over the weekend to check on some logistics around getting prizes transferred to each of the teams. Please check your e-mails.
- Certification Program: We're in the midst of checks & some follow-up's for the Climate Leadership and Innovation Program that we ran concurrent to CCM, and our certification lead Jessica may be in touch with some of you. We anticipate certificates to be ready by early to mid-April.
- Last Chance for Feedback: We have passed on judge feedback to all winning teams & will look to do so for all award winners as well. But even for others, we are more than happy to consolidate & send along your positive/ constructive feedback from judges. This can take seome time to do & hence is not done by default, but please let us know by April 8th if you'd like those feedback notes.
- Alumni Slack Channel (in Development): Although this won't be ready in the immediate, we're also exploring starting a YIC alumni Slack channel, that includes/ invites both CCM + summer innovation challenge alumni. We may send a ping on this once it opens, do join when we do!
- For Those Requesting My Calendar: We've had some folks ask to meet up to discuss their project next steps, or to get other feedback. Have opened times in my calendar until April 18th if anyone would like to book some time: https://calendly.com/shitangshuroy/ccm-alumni :)
Third, there's that question for many of y'all about "where do we go from here?" and truthfully, I don't know what that is for each of you. What we'd love to see is some of these projects continuing, and especially for Canadian-based ones via YIC's upcoming summer innovation challenge (applications likely open in May). Although ALL your projects, no matter where in the world you are, have merit and potential.
There are also other innovation opportunities that folks can explore (please do book some time with us), with a list here of a valuable set of youth opportuntiies in Africa that someone put together, the Social Shifters' Global Innovation Challenge a likely fit for many of your projects, and the global-facing Opportunities for Youth hub a resource we'd definitely recommend. There are supports out there for those who look.
And one thing we do feel confident in saying, applied to ALL of you: We know regardless of what happens to particular projects that you peeps will each become unique climate leaders in your own ways. Some of you will explore youth mobilization to challenge the very systems that got us in this mess in the first places Others will explore what responsible use of technology could mean. Others will engage nature-based solutions. Others will explore issues of equity and social justice. Others will be artists using their creations to inform and inspire. Others will be researchers, writers and educators. And many will love or work at intersections of all the above. But I've got a feeling that no matter what, ALL of you will be climate leaders in your own right!
And with that folks, our team would like to say THANK YOU. To our sponsors whose financial and in-kind support made this initiative posisible. To the brilliant guest speakers that joined us, to share their unique backgrounds and insights. To the mentors and judges that volunteered their time to guide our young people in the project development process. To our INCREDIBLE team who did the many many things behind the scenes that keep things running but which few fully see.
And finaly, to YOU(th) great people that have shown up for climate, given your time and energy, and developed brilliant projects that can change the world. It'll be a collective effort, us coming together as one, but we all can and will make a difference to this climate crisis.
Many thanks & kind regards,
Shitangshu & the CCM Team