Impact

Youth Engagement

  • SVYCA’s Green New Year Celebration was an opportunity to highlight the successes for 2023 and outline our plans for continued advocacy into 2024, we heard from SVYCA Executive Director Rohan Pandit, the youth who attended COP28, and got updates about our new ‘Intergenerational Innovation’ program, and efforts among our members to educate others about the climate crisis and advocate for solutions.

  • Five youth leaders, along with our Executive Director Rohan and Co-Founder Hoi, had the opportunity to attend COP28, learn about innovations at international level, and meet key stakeholders from across the world who share same concerns and are working on toward solutions. Our youth leader Diya provides her perspective,

  • SVYCA’s 2023 Youth leadership Summit was a resounding success, attended by over 300 attendees, including youth, professionals, industry leaders, elected officials, environmental leaders and other community stakeholders. It was a day of learning, networking and discussion around climate solutions and strategies.

  • 2023 Green Bus tours exposed students and education partners to the emerging green jobs and sustainable solutions. We visited several sites as saw cutting-edge solutions at IDEO (a global design and consulting firm), Crissy Field Center, Mindspring (a clean tech company), the City of Sunnyvale’s new net-zero city hall, and Valley Water Advanced Water Purification.

    • You can learn about Burlingame High School student Jayden Wan’s experience here.

  • Organized the 2022 Youth Leadership Summit attended by 200+ attendees to learn about local, state and federal climate policy, emerging green jobs and climate literacy, and discussing effective organizing strategy to empower attendees to engage in climate action

  • SVYCA’s 2-Day Green Careers Bus Trip for SVYCA youth sponsored by SVCE. On Day 1, we had an inspiring and productive day at Delta Electronics and Google Bay view. On Day 2, we had the privilege of touring Levi’s Stadium and Nuro.

  • Hosted a virtual Advocacy Training Workshop to teach youth about how to effectively advocate for climate smart policies at the school, city, country, and state level

  • Hosted Leadership Workshops to equip students with skills and strategies to fight for our planet; topics covered included online team management, effective policy advocacy, and organizing in the digital world

  • 2022, Hosted a Youth Climate Summit with over 200 attendees and guest speakers Santa Clara County Supervisor Dave Cortese and State Assemblymember Ash Kalra

  • Organized a virtual Climate Speaker Series with leaders in the climate and environmental space in 2020 and 2021, bringing together environmentalists from across the spectrum to share their insights, including CEOs, policy advocates, and elected officials such as Congressman Ro Khanna

  • Prepared our community members for the November 2020 election by hosting a series of nonpartisan Candidate Forums focused on legislative solutions to global warming and effective policy making to combat our climate crisis

  • Created a two-hour climate curriculum for the Fremont Union School District; engaged 8,000+ students, 240+ teachers on climate science, impact, urgency, solutions, careers, civic education and actions

collaborations & partnerships

  • Monterey CISC Symposium: Our youth spoke on a keynote panel on the importance of climate education and literacy to 1200+ educators and educational leaders from throughout California. We discussed the importance of civic engagement, climate career pathways, and tangible solutions that administrators and teachers could bring back to their home districts and implement.

  • Partnered with Silicon Valley Youth Climate Strikes to organize the September 2019 strike, a youth-led demonstration that brought together over 2,000 attendees for a march and rally at San Jose City Hall

  • Co-sponsored and emceed the City of Cupertino’s 2021 Earth and Arbor Day Event speaker series

  • Hosted a Youth Climate Action Trivia event as part of the City of Sunnyvale's 2021 Gourmet Earth Week

  • Organized an Earth Day Event in April 2021, co-hosted with the Silicon Valley Democratic Club and the Sunnyvale Democratic Club

  • Partnered with Silicon Valley Biking Coalition to host a “Bike for Boba” event in 2022 where over 70 people came out to bike and learn about the importance of bike lanes

  • Spoke at Senator Cortese’s 2022 Earth Month Town Hall about environmental stewardship and clean energy career pathways

  • Planned, co-sponsored, and presented at a 2022 Environmental Literacy Summit with the Santa Clara County Office of Education

Advocacy

Statewide & Regional

  • Our State Advocacy Team meets with legislators and their staff to provide input on a wide variety of state bills. In collaboration with key environmental groups and other key stakeholders, we made a big impact:

    • In 2020, successful in advocating for the bills AB841, AB2287, AB3214, AB3074, AB3163 that were signed into law by CA Governor and successful in opposing AB1002 and AB3279

    • In 2021, successfully advocated for the bills SB343, SB596, SB68, AB1346, AB1276, AB525, AB962, AB73, AB1201

  • The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors on Oct 5, 2021 moved forward with Silicon Valley Youth Climate Action's three recommendations:

    1. Investment in resources toward the County Office of Sustainability, including staffing positions

    2. Establishment of a Santa Clara County Sustainability Commission for collaboratively engaging key stakeholders. UPDATE: After several years of continued outreach, this commission was established in Jan 2024, and includes two youth spots which are filled by SVYCA youth leaders.

    3. Partnership with the Santa Clara County Office of Education to support comprehensive Environmental Literacy and Education across our county, including opportunities for students to get involved

  • Worked to get Climate Emergency declarations passed in San José and Santa Clara County

  • Our Transit Team continues to organize dozens of students to speak publicly at Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) Board and Committee meetings. Successfully advocated for impactful policies, including:

    • In early 2023, we were invited to the VTA’s community celebration to highlight our organization’s advocacy work and appreciation for providing public comments. See VTA’s blog here (we are mentioned as being the initial advocate to encourage VTA to draft a climate action plan).

    • Declaring a climate emergency and draft a comprehensive sustainability plan, one of the most progressive and comprehensive climate action plans in the Country, putting $118 million towards bold sustainable transportation initiatives

    • More just and equitable bike and pedestrian funding, advocating VTA to shift bond money from highway expansion to public transits. Collaborated with other transit advocates for regional transit improvements and funding from federal agencies

    • Passing 1) a "Future Ballot Measure" policy to prevent transit operations from being underfunded in the future and 2) a "Naming Rights Marketing Authorization" which will help generate revenue to save transit in Santa Clara County

    • Advocating that the VTA SR85 Corridor Policy Advisory Board to recommend that VTA avoids adding lanes to Highway 85 and instead adds sustainable public transit

  • Presented at the Fremont Union High School District School Board meeting requesting 1) A district Climate Action Plan 2) an FUHSD environmental advisory board and 3) comprehensive climate literacy throughout the District in 2022. Successful in advocating for the establishment of the FUHSD Climate Action Team and progress towards applying for a Green Ribbon Schools award

city-level

  • On August 16th, 2022 the Cupertino City Council adopted an updated Climate Action Plan 2.0, establishing a carbon neutral by 2040 goal and containing ambitious measures. The Cupertino Youth Climate Action Team, the Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter, the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society and other community members have been actively engaged in Cupertino's CAP update since 2020. Together we pressured the City to accelerate the carbon neutrality target by 5 years (from an original goal of carbon neutral by 2045) and supported strong measures for equitable existing building decarbonization and ecological restoration.

  • Helped bring aggressive Building Electrification Codes to San José, Los Altos, Cupertino, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, San Mateo, and Santa Clara in collaboration with the Fossil Free Building Coalition and many local climate groups. City staff and leaders agree, our Youth Climate Action Teams are making a difference across our county and beyond

  • Presented a Climate Crisis Package to the City of Cupertino which is being implemented. Continued work with the City to pass and implement their first Single-Use Plastics Ordinance

  • Participated in the Climate Action Plan development and implementation process in San José, Santa Clara, and Sunnyvale

  • The Morgan Hill Youth Climate Action Team successfully defended Morgan Hill's Natural Gas ban from an attempted repeal

  • The Santa Clara team successfully advocated for class 4 bike lanes on Pruneridge & Lafayette

  • Established a partnership with Ulistac to restore the natural area in Santa Clara