In September, the St. Monica Green Team hosted an annual youth environmental summit (YES) to inspire and provide SoCal’s young people with the resources on how to live a more sustainable life as called by Pope Francis in Laudato Si'. Special thanks to Catholic Climate Covenant and Heal the Bay.

YES23 aimed to accomplish:

• Proclaim the call established in Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’: On Care for our Common Home and teach the connections between environmental activism and our Catholic faith.
• Inspire environmental action and civic participation in middle and high school students.
• Restore hope and combat environmental despondency plaguing young people today.

Elizabeth Johnstone, Green Team core member provided insight on the day:

“The Green Team was so excited to be able to continue our program and share our commitment to environmental action at St. Monica. This year, we had a greater emphasis on supporting students who wanted to build or grow environmental action programs at their school and parish communities. For example, we had a breakout focusing on creating well-constructed policy proposals and another on the scientific and legal justifications for better waste policy. We hope that this is only the beginning of a great tradition at St. Monica!"

Thank you to all of participants and organizers for a great day!