Climate Justice Program
The Climate Justice Program is our unique leadership, professional development and job placement program for First Nations and People of Colour.
The Program’s aim is to transform the climate and social justice movement’s leadership to be more reflective of the communities most affected by the climate crisis — going beyond tokenistic representation through to genuine justice and meaningful impact.
The Climate Justice Program (CJP) provides in-depth training and coaching to build and support on-the-job learning, confidence building and up-skilling and overall professional development alongside a supportive brainstrust of like-minded campaigners of colour.
The program is designed to transform the climate and social justice movements’ inclusion and representation of FNPOC, we want to build greater participation and leadership by communities of colour to expand reach, relevance, and the overall power of the movement.
Why
The climate sector struggles with cultural safety, recruitment and retention of FNPOC talent, and meaningful representation in leadership. FNPOC in the climate sector also struggle with racial injustice: cultural unsafety, lack of leadership opportunities or outright discrimination and exclusion.
As a result, organisations and the movement are far less impactful, failing to harness talents and experience of FNPOC, nor to meaningfully work with communities of colour to win Climate Justice solutions.
The Climate Justice Program aims to Build FNPOC power within the climate movement by developing leadership, campaigning and organising skills, solidarity and relationship building, all with a strong racial justice lens. Directing this power into campaigns for policy and narrative change that centre FNPOC communities, experiences, and genuine racial justice
Democracy in Colour will open doors for FNPOC talent, supporting their professional and lived experience expertise to represent our communities, lead and build real power towards Climate Justice.
How
The Climate Justice Program provides:
- In-depth training to support on-the-job learning and up-skilling, build up resilience, Climate and Racial Justice practices and professional confidence; all training is delivered by expert FNPOC facilitators.
- Professional mentoring by FNPOC mentors to build leadership capacity, skills and knowledge and create pathways to leadership.
- Peer to Peer coaching, support, collaboration, solidarity and safety for sharing common lived experiences of injustice and strategies to overcome challenges and build leadership and confidence.
- Culturally safe, nurturing and productive spaces and experiences are actively embedded in the program to provide participants with a powerful, connected, validating, and transformative experience.
- Ongoing community of care and practise for program alumni to network and continue growing.
We offer and encourage participating Climate organisations to join Racial Justice Training and support organisational capacity to do anti-racism and climate justice work.
What our participants say
“Being able to speak to similar issues as a POC mentor meant that it not only made their experience more relatable but it also validated what we had gone through in our own previous roles and time spent as young campaigners in predominantly white, NGO spaces. Through conversations spent relaying some of these teachable moments I hoped that it would help alleviate any issues or notions of self-doubt as it is inherently a structural issue, rather than a personal one.”
Diana Sayed – CEO
Australian Muslim Women’s Centre for Human Rights
“I loved the mentorship program that allowed me to develop my leadership skills. Since then, I had developed the courage to be more vulnerable in my leadership and work. This led me to taking more initiatives and speaking out more for things that matter to me including when advocating for equity matters in the organisation. It was also amazing to stumble upon Climate Justice Gathering, a space for First Nations, Pasifika and People of Colour climate change-makers, through Democracy in Colour.”
Ken Matahari, ACF
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