Youth Environmental Summit 2023

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!