The Global Youth Mentor Program gives motivated Youth Leaders the tools and support to create lasting systemic change in their communities. Youth Leaders are paired with Mentors from all over the world and directed through change-based projects.
Our program provides students with educational resources, networking opportunities, and global perspectives on environmental crises, while also helping them to productively engage with their community to enact positive change. We are seeking self-driven students currently in grades five to eleven who want to make a change in their community and can commit time to this project.
Are you a busy professional? Have you been wanting to find an engaging and fulfilling way to support a vibrant future on planet earth? Our Youth Leaders need your guidance. You don’t need any special skills or expertise, only a passion to support inspiring youth and a commitment of 5 hours a week.
Youth Leaders and Mentors who join GYM are onboarded onto our program platform and walked through expectations, project basics, and community. Our platform is home to all mentor and youth leader communications, provides parents access, and is monitored by our team internally. Youth Leaders can brainstorm with one another and provide each other support and mentors can troubleshoot Project hurdles by speaking with those who have successfully led their Youth Leaders over those same obstacles.
The pairing process is straightforward and vital to project success. The program accounts for many variables to make the absolute best Mentor-Youth Leader teams.
GYM project ideas range broadly, but their objectives are always the same - lasting, systemic, quantitative change. Youth Leaders can work with Mentors to develop their own projects or can select from our Project Models.
Project models are the key to the broad success of the GYM program. While we encourage Youth Leaders to develop their own projects, our models are based on proven successes around the world and give GYM teams defined steps along the way. Project models range from switching schools from plastic utensils to a sustainable alternative to campaigning locally for restaurants to stop using plastic bags. To date, our utensils model has diverted 2,000,000 single-use plastic utensils from the waste stream and our oceans!
Mentors and Youth Leaders develop milestones and timelines at the very beginning to keep everyone on track. Plastic Tides always announces milestone achievements and works hard to feature the successes of our Youth Leaders.
Just because GYM teams have completed a project, doesn't mean their time with the program is over! GYM fosters a lasting community of changemakers and plans to develop Youth Leaders to become Mentors for the future of the program.
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Sue Kemp was a long time supporter and advisor for the Plastic Tides team before joining the board in an official status. Sue is a respected interior designer by profession, but her skills and insight support her prolific civic engagement. As a Bermudian, Sue is well connected in the local community and has provided valuable advice and direction to the organization.
26-year-old Environmental engineer bachelor from Peru. Researcher and passionate about the environment. Trying to solve the plastic pollution problem through new inventions and engineering. Languages, music and horror movies fanatic.
Wishka Tilakaratne is a B.A. student at the University of Colombo where she is interested in majoring in English. She is also studying Law at the University of London. She is keen about social issues including gender inequality, environmental pollution and poverty. She aspires to pursue a career in the legal field and focus on human rights. Wishka lives in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
My name is Katy Wicks! I live in Moscow, Idaho and attend to the University of Idaho. I love spending time outdoors, but when I am not I can usually be found doing graphic design projects, listening to podcasts, or making vegan snacks. I have always loved the ocean and been obsessed with everything about it, I see the ocean as a whole world outside of our own. I am super passionate about saving the ocean and all the creatures in it so many generations can experience the feeling of putting a dive mask on and discovering another world.
Hi there! I’m Rhe and I am a junior organizational communications major at the University of Portland. Besides sustainability, I also love creating delicious vegan recipes and messing around on my yoga mat.
Emily is a student at the University of Richmond, in Richmond, VA (not directly on a coast, but not far!), focusing on Environmental Studies and Business Administration. She is passionate about raising awareness of the need to protect our waterways and encouraging a sustainable environment for all. Emily always has a reusable water bottle with her, as well as reusable bamboo cutlery and does her best to avoid single use plastic! Emily lives just north of Chicago, three miles west of Lake Michigan. In the summer, when not working (or traveling), she is at the beach, sailing, SUPing, kayaking, or swimming, and also loves to hike whenever she can find some mountains