Voyage Voices
Sustainability, Conservation and Race
Dear friend, colleague and young leader,
We are grateful, pleased and really excited to speak about our plans for growing and expanding our programmes of work against a backdrop of so many unusual challenges. Throughout covid restrictions and the challenges of the pandemic Voyage has continued to support our young people and explore how best to support and nurture them as young leaders. We remain committed to this.
I also wish to give thanks for the huge support, love and kindness from our amazing and growing network of environmental partners who have been so generous with their time nurturing us and being on hand to collaborate, debate and share best practice ideas. Through them we have come a long way in devising our new green agenda and new course that has been created to diversify the environment sector, empower our young leaders and carve out new and more streamlined pathways into incredible careers. Especially in a sector with just 3.1% of those who work in the environment sector identify as from a minority, according to research by Policy Exchange.
A key part of our green commitment is our new and bespoke Young Leaders for Sustainable Cities accredited course which is set to launch in March 2022 and will reflect much of the same structure and core elements of our unique and successful Young Leaders for Safer Cities course. Our new leadership course grew from our aim to address the lack of representation in the environment sector, which is only 3.1% non-white in the UK as well as our responsibility to change the current state of nature and the disproportionate impact environmental degradation and climate change has on black lives. To support our adoption of this new course we wish to ensure young people are supported as they learn by connecting powerful opportunities that will not just support our learning outcomes but also build their resilience and confidence to ensure they perform better at school and become responsible leaders in their community. This is why we are introducing in course support focusing young leaders on academic pathway scanning, skills development, work experience, professional mentoring as well as individual and group opportunities to visit green places of interest.
I am pleased to say we have just onboarded two amazing course contributors who will assist us with the writing of our new course, it’s teaching materials and its accreditation ready to be trialled with young people in the new year. We have a keen and committed sustainability network made up of young people who are working alongside us to ensure the course is dynamic and engaging, as well as a multitude of environmental activists, professionals and partners including Judy Ling Wong who will be consulting on our course and supporting us with pipelines into green employment. We wish to combine these efforts with our wider team of partners who are part of our Race for Nature project including Action for Conservation, RSPB and SOSUK as well as Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, London Wildlife Trust, Client Earth and many more. All are committed to helping us to ensure we play a critical and unique role within the environmental sector to ensure it becomes even more relevant to black young people.
If you would like to join us on this exciting green venture to empower our young leaders with clear routes to incredible opportunities and careers please register your interest here. We have a plethora of opportunities to become a contributor to the course including being a participant in our roundtables, workshops, recruitment phase for young people, and course delivery and we welcome individuals with passion and from a range of backgrounds and skill sets.
We look forward to sharing more with you as the course develops so watch this space and as always, we stay forever grateful and humbled for all your support.
Please continue to stay safe and enjoy your summer.
Kind regards
Paul Anderson MBE CEO