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The power of community collaboration!

CARE is designed and delivered by the Fresh Outlook Foundation in partnership with local organizations and individuals who share goals for community climate learning, engagement, and action.

Within each CARE community, the school district, local government(s), post-secondary institution (if nearby), climate experts and professionals, and climate-focused nonprofits and businesses join forces to:

  • Build widespread climate awareness and action
  • Enrich communication and collaboration among people from all sectors, ages, cultures, faiths, abilities, and genders
  • Foster the move toward ‘climate democracy,’ where local government fully engages citizens in planning and decision-making related to climate and other critical community issues

Reported partner benefits include more open dialogue across institutions, cross pollination of insights and ideas, and shared responsibility and cooperation for collective climate-related goals. Additionally, there could be opportunities to prevent the duplication of valuable climate-focused human and financial resources.

Once the community model is approved and funding is secured, community partners participate in the following ways.

Hands Up for Hands On

Students wanting to CARE with their hands collaborated with mentors from Mens Shed Vernon in 2024 to create shelves and step stools from recycled wood.

This intergenerational approach builds communication and trust among participants, with students being thankful for mentors’ expertise, experience, and time-shared.

Passion for Fashion

Vernon’s Ruby Kaltiainen (left) and Olivia Thompson worked with waste engineer Nicole Kohnert from Sperling & Hansen to create reusable bags from landfill-bound fabrics. They sold the bags and used proceeds to provide grad attire for students who needed help.

Restoring a Pollinator Garden

Biologist Josh Smith, with Xeriscape Endemic Nursery & Ecological Solutions, helped Canyon Falls Middle School students in Kelowna revive a garden outside their classroom by planting native species that require little water and attract pollinators

Climate Action with Artistic Flair

With inspiration from local artist Margaret Kyle, Lake Country students created art installations displayed on Earth Day that helped visitors appreciate the link between climate action and environmental protection.

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Students

Enriched student learning, innovation, collaboration, confidence, and agency are at the core of CARE. Emerging best practices in inquiry-based learning and community engagement help students create hands-on, community-focused projects that build personal, educational, and vocational skills and capacities.

More specifically, they explore personal climate values, attitudes, behaviours, and interests while learning about:  

  • Climate change and various forms of climate action
  • Project design, research, planning, development, community engagement, and presentation
  • Communication and collaboration with peers and community mentors
  • Career opportunities in climate-related fields

As reported in the CARE 2025 Feedback Outcomes Summary, students also noted a change from feeling anxious about climate change to feeling empowered through climate action. This contributes significantly to increases in confidence and agency.

Proven Benefits for CARE Students

Students across participating school districts and grades report that CARE:

  • Enriches personal, educational, and vocational skills and capacities
  • Builds skills and capacities for communication, collaboration, leadership, confidence, and agency
  • Explores personal connection to climate action
  • Develops meaningful and productive relationships with mentors
  • Enhances climate awareness, literacy, and commitment to climate action and energy conservation/efficiency
  • Promotes climate-friendly behaviours
  • Teaches about climate-focused careers and business opportunities
  • Fosters commitment to community engagement and citizenship.

School Districts

CARE is designed and delivered to meet the needs of school districts, teachers, and students.

CARE is a customizable program based on emerging best practices in inquiry-based learning and student/community engagement. Staff and teachers within each district finetune the CARE approach and resources to align with their specific structures, strategies, objectives, schedules, and organizational cultures.

CARE currently engages students from grades 6-12 in a variety of subjects. Teachers self-select into the program, which can involve all or some students within a class. Students work in teams on self-selected projects that resonate with the team members’ skills, talents, interests, personalities, and capacities.

The internal team lead is the CARE coordinator (funded by the school district), who works closely with a CARE consultant to undertake school and teacher recruitment, teacher training and support, community engagement in cooperation with a CARE mentor recruiter/coordinator (funded by CARE), event planning and management, and partnership agreements and materials.

Teachers and students use CARE-branded coaching and resources throughout the recommended CARE process and events. CARE events are hosted and funded by individual schools and/or the school district and municipality.

Proven Benefits for School Districts & Teachers:

Administrators and teachers in participating school districts report that CARE programming and events:

  • Support BC Ministry of Education Core and Curricular Competencies
  • Support school district climate-related strategic goals and learning objectives
  • Respect teacher workloads/time by providing ready-to-use lesson plans, coaching materials, and student resources
  • Reinforce the benefits of cross-curricular, inquiry-based, team-focused, and project-driven learning
  • Foster student connection with climate action in ways that enrich their skills, talents, interests, and capacities
  • Engage teachers and students with community in meaningful and productive ways

 

School District 22 (Vernon)

SD22 CARE Planning Team (left to right):

  • Rhiannon Brunello, SD22 CARE Coordinator
  • Barry Dorval, CARE Education Head
  • Jo de Vries, CARE Program Head
  • Kasey Van Sickle, CARE Mentor Recruiter & Social Media Coordinator
  • Jim Ryan, CARE Education & Technical Advisor

2025 Outcomes

“As a teacher, I hoped to jolt my students from the culture of distraction that blinds so many of us from the truly important. We received so much more. The stark reality is sobering. However, hope was provided, and a call to action made. This will resonate with me and my students. We cannot see the world as we did before. Education is not about learning what we did not know, but rather it’s about having us behave in new ways. We are on the move…watch for us!”

– SD 22 Teacher

SD22 projects are designed and developed to support the City of Vernon’s award-winning Climate Action Plan and the Town of Lumby’s climate goals.

School District 23 (Central Okanagan Public Schools)

CARE planners are all members of SD23’s Learning & Innovation Team (left to right):

  • Kristi Langlois
  • Kristy Fletcher
  • Tobias Blaskovits
  • Lindsey Stevens
  • Robbi Martens

2025 Outcomes

SD23 projects are created to support the Climate Resilience Kelowna Strategy and climate goals of other Central Okanagan communities.

Local Government

CARE provides regional and municipal governments with opportunities to build awareness and support for local climate goals and objectives. It can also help them meet recommendations or requirements for funding from higher levels of government (e.g., need for robust climate-focused community outreach and engagement).

Municipal support for CARE is provided by elected officials, admin staff, environment/climate staff, and related departments and agencies connected with climate outcomes (e.g., firehalls, water and wastewater facilities, solid waste management operations).

A municipal contact works with the school district CARE coordinator to:

  • Provide information about municipal climate action plans, policies, programs, and projects
  • Share municipal climate objectives with teachers and students
  • Recruit project advisors and mentors from climate-related departments and public committees
  • Provide funding to support CARE programs and events

 

Proven Benefits for Local Government

Elected officials and staff in participating regional and municipal governments report that CARE programming and events:

  • Provide meaningful and productive climate outreach, engagement, and action opportunities for youth and the broader community
  • Support municipal climate action plans, policies, programs, and projects and UN Sustainable Development Goals
  • Support local government plans pertaining to other community responsibilities such as transportation, infrastructure, agriculture, solid and liquid waste, human health and culture, social justice, economic development, and tourism
  • Foster climate-focused communication and collaboration among key community stakeholders with complementary goals, objectives, programs, and projects
  • Generate ideas for collaboration that could be considered for implementation by local governments.
  • Enhance climate mitigation and adaptation efforts pertaining to nature and biodiversity, agriculture and food, energy and buildings, waste reduction, eco-friendly transportation, and human health and culture
  • Stimulate interest in community planning initiatives.

CARE as a catalyst for community climate action!

In keeping with its collaborative community model, CARE works with local governments to ensure student innovations support municipal climate action plans. This win-win approach also helps students and mentors understand the role government plays in the move toward local climate action, and sets the stage for enriched communication and collaboration between school districts and local governments.

The City of Vernon adopted its award-winning Climate Action Plan in 2021. CARE students in Vernon learn about the plan and report on of how their projects support the plan’s guiding principles and eight focus areas. Students in Lumby are encouraged to explore and report out on their local government’s goals related to climate action.

The City of Kelowna adopted its Climate Resilient Kelowna Strategy in 2024. CARE students in Kelowna study the strategy and highlight how their projects align with the strategy’s ten key drivers. Students in West Kelowna and Lake Country are encouraged to explore and report out on their local governments’ climate action goals.

Post-Secondary Institutions

CARE provides robust opportunities for higher education to engage with nearby communities in ways that benefit all partners.

Anecdotal evidence shows that CARE helps post-secondary institutions:

  • Share climate-related knowledge
  • Showcase climate-focused research
  • Promote climate-related programs/degrees to students in nearby communities
  • Provide mentor and advisor opportunities for faculty, staff, and students

 

Climate Experts & Professionals

CARE relies on the knowledge, passion, and networks of climate experts and professionals to mentor and advise small teams of students.

Aligning with CARE goals for mentors, they reported enjoying and benefiting from the following:

  • Sharing experience, knowledge, and passion with students
  • Building intergenerational relationships and capacities based on trust and mutual respect
  • Connecting with others and building capacity in the climate-action community
  • Working with people from different sectors
  • Learning more about climate change and climate action
  • Accelerating the move toward meaningful and measurable community climate action

Climate-Focused Nonprofits

CARE and local environment/climate-focused community groups all benefit from these partnerships.

CARE is supported by organizations whose members act as mentors and advisors to student teams. These volunteers bring local knowledge, passion, networks, and projects from which students can learn about climate change and build climate action interests and abilities.

Participating nonprofit organizations benefit by:

  • Increasing community awareness of their organizations and specific mandates/projects
  • Recruiting new members
  • Building alliances with other local groups with shared goals
  • Expanding visibility with school district (e.g., knowledge-sharing and project support) and local government (e.g., input to policy and projects, and cost-sharing opportunites)

Climate-Friendly Businesses

Local businesses can participate in a variety of ways:

  • Participate as an exhibitor at a CARE expo
  • Provide employees with volunteer opportunities for student project support
  • Participate as a case study for a student team looking to make a business more climate friendly
  • Assist a student project that’s aligned with the business’s focus (e.g., funding or in-kind support from a solar company to a group of students building a solar-powered device)
  • Support CARE as a supporter