We need your help as a student project mentor or advisor this spring. Please sign up by January 31st!
What is CARE?
We CARE about kids, climate, and community by turning climate anxiety and apathy into local climate action. Together, students and citizens discover how their voices and choices matter in building more sustainable communities today and for the future. Learn more.
How does CARE work?
CARE combines groundbreaking student learning and public engagement tactics to tackle community climate issues.
Grade 6-12 students in Vernon and the Central Okanagan work with community mentors to build the knowledge, learning approaches, project development know-how, and relational skills they need to create real-world climate solutions in their schools, homes, and communities.
Climate-focused projects linked to nature, agriculture, energy, waste, transportation, and human health and culture support municipal and global climate goals.
Students choose topics and approaches that provoke and inspire them, and that grow their individual abilities, talents, and interests.
Project outcomes are celebrated at CARE Expos, where Community Impact Awards and seed funding are given to teams whose ideas can be further developed for lasting local impact. Learn more.
Why is CARE important?
CARE impacts ripple widely across schools, communities, and beyond!
STUDENTS explore their climate-focused values, attitudes, and behaviours, while building the skills, passions, confidence, and agency needed to turn innovative ideas into action and advocacy. Learn more.
MENTORS give back to their communities by supporting students with passion and topic-specific knowledge that ensures quality projects with authentic local focus, flavour, and relevance. Learn more.
COMMUNITY PARTICIPANTS – School districts, municipalities, higher education, and climate-focused nonprofits and businesses – benefit by collaborating to reach shared goals for greater local climate awareness and action. Learn more.
We need your help as a student project mentor or advisor this spring. Please sign up by January 31st!
Let’s Get Social!
Follow the ripple, and then share to help build a mighty wave!
Volunteer Opportunities
Help Us CARE About Kids and Climate!
With student numbers growing every year, we’re always on the lookout for more community folks to help students design and develop their CARE projects. You don’t need to be a climate expert, and you don’t have to invest a lot of time! Learn more.
Mentors
Support student teams throughout project design and development
Advisors
Answer topic-specific questions virtually during project development
Speakers
Share topic-specific know-how and passion in classrooms or virtually.
Supporters
Provide funding or in-kind support to help teams develop their projects.
CARE Success Stories
Understanding Eco-Anxiety in Youth
Brooke Sioberg (left), Senna Entner, Danica Cowley, and Brooke Hansen collaborated with a Kelowna social worker to created their project called Understanding Eco-Anxiety in Youth.
“When my teacher announced we were doing CARE, I groaned and put my head in my hands. I didn’t need this on my plate and wasn’t certain I could even make a difference. After all, I was a teenager who’d been told the problem we’re facing is too complex for us to understand.
I never expected to make the change I did, or that adults would bound over to talk to me at the summit. Or that I could respectfully argue for sustainable development.
CARE taught me how to use my voice and how to advocate for our environment and our younger generation. It changed the way I look at past, present, and future problems. I no longer see them as unsolvable, but rather problems waiting for the right people to fix them.”
Energy Efficiency Fueled by Purpose
School District 23 student Isaac Shehadeh worked with his father Samer (left), teacher Sydney Fender, principal Nathen Elliott (right), and a CARE mentor to design WebHook, a simple and affordable smartphone app for homeowners to track and regulate their energy use.
Isaac is using seed funding from his CARE 2025 Community Impact Award to further develop his ideas. “This year what I’m most proud of is my CARE project. As a learner, I’ve discovered something about myself. I don’t give up. I’ve come to understand that my drive, when fueled by purpose, has no limit.”
Transit 4 Teens
Then-grade 10 Vernon students Haylee Andal (centre) and Jade Ha worked with UBCO professor and climate activist Mary Stockdale to promote free transit for youth under 18. Key benefits are more accessible and affordable mobility, and less community congestion and fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
Recommendations for their award-winning Transit 4 Teens project were adopted by City of Vernon, endorsed by the Union of BC Municipalities, and are now being considered by the Province of BC.
BEEing the Change We Want to See
Vernon secondary students Anna Rolshoven (centre) and Nia Hill coached grade 3 students on the importance of Mason bees as pollinators. Students planted seeds and built Mason bee houses to create habitats that can significantly boost local bee populations.
Students learned that, unlike honeybees, Mason bees do not produce honey or live in large colonies. Instead, they are solitary and nest in small cavities. Despite their size and solitary nature, Mason bees are pollinating powerhouses. A single bee can pollinate as many flowers as 100 honeybees.
Creating Health Products from Invasive Plants
CARE Botanicals were crafted and packaged by Vernon students Victoria Rush (left), Camryn Mackiewich, and Evangeline Schiehl. With mentor Norbert Maertens (North Okanagan Naturalists Club), they harvested and dried invasive plants from the wetland behind the school to make healing salves and teas that were showcased at the CARE Expo.
“CARE was a wonderful opportunity for me to dive into topics about climate action that interested me, as well as allowing me to meet others with similar interests. It was inspiring for me to see the community come together to celebrate everyone’s hard work and bring more awareness to what challenges our community and planet is facing due to climate change.” Camryn Mackiewich
A New Slant on the Butterfly Effect
Vernon students Natalie Fux (left), Polina Ignatyeva, and Ava Marginson partnered with local organizations to grow about 70 butterflies, which they set free at a Community Butterfly Release attended by hundreds of elementary students and community folks.
“BC butterfly and plant species are at risk due to climate change,” explains Polina. “Butteries are important pollinators, so we made it our mission to show the Vernon community that we need to make a change. If a small butterfly can transform, then so can we as individuals and even more so as a community.”
“Our moral goal with this project is to show that taking action and making change doesn’t have to be initiated by government,” says Ava, “nor does it have to be grand. It starts small, with a community eventually having a change of heart.”
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Fresh Outlook Foundation
Climate Action Ripple Effect (CARE) is Fresh Outlook Foundation’s flagship program that engages students with local climate experts and advocates from all sectors to create projects that support their communities’ climate action plans and UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Fresh Outlook Foundation collaborates with local school districts, governments, higher education, and climate-focused experts, nonprofits, and businesses to design and deliver this proven and popular inquiry-based learning program for students from grades 6-12.