one earth youth voices
One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest
Our flagship youth program, the Young Filmmakers Contest is a national, annual filmmaking contest open to youth in 3rd grade through post-college.
Our goal is to engage youth in environmental issues and get them thinking about how they can solve these challenges.
Youth compete for cash prizes and scholarships. In 2020, $9,500 in prize money and matching grants was awarded.
Films are evaluated and judged by professional filmmakers and environmental leaders. All filmmakers submitting a film receive feedback from judges—a rarity in film contests.
One Earth Young Filmmakers Academy offers low-cost and scholarship-subsidized film training to increase accessibility.
Austin Grown
A collaboration with BUILD Chicago and After School Matters, Austin Grown is a youth sustainability leadership program based in the Austin neighborhood on the West Side of Chicago. The program engages high school students in gardening education, cooking skills and leadership skill building.
Begun in 2017, Austin Grown uses adult mentors and professionals from around Chicago to teach participants deep skills in all aspects of urban vegetable garden planning and maintenance.
Participants also enjoy seed-to-plate and food justice lessons.
They learn to cook easy, healthful vegetarian and vegan meals using harvested produce. Some of the in-garden meals included tacos, pizza, empanadas, veggie fried rice, and bicycle-powered smoothies.
Activities also include voter registration, field trips to urban gardens and a final project that allows students to express what they’ve learned through podcasts, videos, poetry, paintings, or photo essays.
HEALTH
Healing Environments Ambassadors Learning Through Horticulture (HEALTH) is a collaborative effort with the Chicago Botanic Garden, Instituto del Progresso Latino, the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, and the University of Chicago’s Center for Youth Violence Prevention.
Based in Pilsen, a Spanish-language immigrant community on the Near-West side of Chicago, this program works with teaching partners and mentors to deliver measurement-based environmental curriculum focused on various aspects of nature for healing.
Students learn to plan, plant, grow, and maintain edible and healing gardens.
Students work with chefs to learn about and cook healthy, plant-based meals.
Media experts work with the youth to help them craft their unique stories about their program experiences into film projects for a culminating Spring showcase.
One Earth Film Festival Youth Advisory Team
Young people in high school through post-college come together to advise the One Earth Film Festival, plan youth-focused programming and implement marketing strategies for drawing more young audiences to the fest.
Youth receive mentoring and opportunities to practice their leadership skills.
The Team is active year-round, with stronger emphasis in January to April, leading up to and through the One Earth Film Festival and the Earth Week Film Festival.
It’s Our Future
A program of Oak Park-based Seven Generations Ahead, in collaboration with One Earth Collective, and other partners, It’s Our Future equips young leaders in the Villages of Oak Park & River Forest, Illinois, to advocate for climate change solutions that benefit all members of the community.
One Earth Youth Voices is generously supported with a grant from
Bosch Community Fund.
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