Youth Programs
To foster leadership development among youth of all ages, the Bioneers Youth Initiative strives to create dynamic programming both at the Bioneers Conference in October as well as create relationships with individuals and organizations throughout the year.
Below you'll find information on some of our growing youth -oriented programming and ways that you can become involved!
The 18th Annual Bioneers Conference will be held October 17-19, 2008 at the Marin Center in San Rafael, California. Can't make it to California?? Look for a Satellite Conference in your region! Go to our Beaming Bioneers site to check out sites near you!
- About the Youth Program
- Scholarship Information
- 2006 Youth Program Highlights
- 2007 Youth Program Schedule
Just Us for Food Justice - Youth Food & Farming Initiative
Interested in food, farming, organic agriculture, permaculture, farmers markets, good GRUB?? Or are you interested in meeting young people from around the globe, visiting working organic farms in the Bay Area, and having a food party?? Then the Just Us for Food Justice (JU4FJ) pre-conference program is for you!
The Bioneers Youth Initiative has partnered with DreamNOW, a youth-led organization in Toronto, Canada who works with organizations around the world to create customized follow-up solutions for the programs and conferences that these organizations run. They have developed online project management tools and an online community database that will help facilitate mentorship relationships for the duration of the Bioneers Conference and beyond.
Bioneers Youth Advisory Council (BYAC)
The Bioneers Youth Advisory Council (BYAC) was created about 2 years ago to serve an advisory role to youth and the Bioneers Youth Initiative. The BYAC has several roles that ultimately work to create a diverse and dynamic Youth Program at the Bioneers Conference. This includes identifying young leaders in communities across the country who could be scholarship recipients, presenters or participants at Bioneers. For 2007/2008, we have coalesced a group of eleven diverse and dynamic young leaders! Read more about them here!
Musicians for Change (M4C)
Musicians for Change (M4C), is a project that will utilize the wave of popularity and influence of music by distributing Bioneers ideas and points of connections to an active and important Bioneers audience (music fans) through the vehicle of bands and individual musicians/performers. This unique Bioneers initiative offers a creative way to reach an alternative audience of young people through the music industry. For the initial launch, Hot Buttered Rum from San Francisco, CA and The Duhks from Winnepeg, Manitoba, Canada have partnered with Bioneers and will carry a message of hope and inspiration to their fans, through their music and with the assistance of the outreach materials created for the initiative.
Mentorship Program
This year we are looking to you to share some of your experience, advice and most importantly encouragement to a new generation of Bioneers.
As a mentor, delegates will be looking to you to provide them with the confidence and motivation they need to take action. and to follow through with their goals and world-changing ideas. As a mentor, without taking much time out of your daily schedule, you will make a lasting impact not only on the delegate you are supporting but on the communities they will go on to change.
If you are interested in learning about and participating in the launch of new ideas and new projects that are being developed by a new generation, fill out the Mentorship Application Form and we will be sure to match you with a delegate that is a fit for your interests and experience.
Mentorship is:
- A quick phone call to your delegate to check in with how their idea is progressing;
- Sharing stories and experience from your own life and projects;
- A face to face meeting over lunch at the Bioneers conference;
- Sharing contacts, insight and a network that a delegate may not know of;
- A rewarding and unique experience that will inspire you as much as them.
Being a mentor does not require:
- Any in depth experience in a particular field to be ‘useful’
- A time-consuming commitment but rather is an openness to answer questions about your career, your life and your past experiences.
- Years of experience in the field. We are looking for people who feel they have something to share whether they be twenty or eighty years old.
This opportunity for the Bioneers community has been made possible with the help of our friends at DreamNow, an organization which provides a follow-up program for events in order to ensure that the people they reach, inform, and inspire, are commited to take action upon returning home. Thank you!!