Our story
Black & Green Ambassadors was a three-year programme (2021-2023) set up to scale efforts to empower new leaders to work with and between diverse communities, businesses and other organisations. Together, they explored and enabled solutions that led towards an environmentally and socially just future for all. Building on the work of the pioneering pilot project, Asia Yousif, Olivia Sweeney and Roy Kareem joined the programme as the first annual cohort (2021) of Ambassadors. Following an open recruitment process, they handed over the baton to the next three Ambassadors: Miss Divine, Rosina Al-Shaater and Ruth Nortey.
Throughout the year, the Ambassadors undertook skills training and mentorship to support their leadership development, whilst participating in a wide range of local and national forums, events, campaigns and media opportunities. As a cohort, they developed a programme of radio shows, workshops and collaborations, and each Ambassador led a community research project to frame questions and gather the evidence needed to advocate for change locally and further afield as well as identifying tangible solutions.
Our advice
Environmentalism is for everyone, and we need new approaches to make the movement more inclusive and representative of all communities.
Engaging with communities who have been neglected from receiving the message of climate change is vital: hearing how they feel about it and deciding together what can be done individually and collectively helps bring people on board.
It's important to recognise that lots of people are already showing leadership in taking local climate action, but they might not call themselves 'environmentalists' or need to identify themselves as such.
Our Changeprint
Our Changeprint can be measured by the increased motivation of people to take action for social/environmental justice; better understanding of social and environmental equality and justice; the number of participants in our workshops and collaborations; and the number of engaged followers on social media and radio.
