WHO ARE WE?
In 2017, a partnership between the Biennial of the Americas and the Nature Conservancy launched the Youth Congress for Sustainable Americas (YCSA) as a means to connect young leaders working towards sustainable goals across the Americas, stimulating and fomenting Climate Action Initiatives.
Today, the YCSA has more than 88 young environmental leaders from 15 countries in North, South and Central America, growing more resilient each day. The YCSA represents a broad-based citizenry composed of young leaders, community activists, and professionals committed to forging new forms of cooperation and leadership for a sustainable future.
Our mission is to unite and empower an international group of leaders across the Americas who will exponentially amplify behavioral shifts and advocate for Climate Action.
What do we do?
We develop and share ideas to restore environmental impacts.
We give seed funding for entrepreneurs or scholarships for professionals that want to continue their education.
We create opportunities and open spaces of inclusion and representation for youth and indigenous communities.
We contribute with ideas and solutions for a more resilient public and private sector.
We network with board members, governors and sustainability professionals from 15 different countries of the Americas.
Which are our programs?
Youth Accelerator Grant, seed capital to boost the projects of entrepreneur delegates with the intention of creating a bigger impact locally and across borders.
Scholarships for those delegates that want to continue with their education and professional growth/development.
Sponsor delegates to attend the Cities summit of the Americas in April 2023.
Leadership training/workshops to expand capacity and share knowledge amongst delegates.
YOUTH ACCELERATOR GRANT
In 2020, the Biennial of the Americas launched the Youth Accelerator Grant (YAG) to directly support YCSA members with seed capital for sustainable programs. Through a competitive process, projects are submitted into our sustainable initiative kickstarter and evaluated at a local level based on community impact.
Small project-based grants are awarded to outstanding YCSA members through an internal review process, allowing us to directly support these leaders in sustainability and positively impact communities throughout the Americas.
yag Positive Impact
Learn more about the 2022 Winners
Open Call for New Delegates
As young people of the Americas we believe in the unification of our hemisphere, regardless of artificial boundaries and past conflicts. We will thrive on the differences that have divided us, as a nation and people.
The Youth Congress for Sustainable Americas is a mechanism that creates consensus and direct action regarding these irrefutable facts. We seek to transform the Americas, into an example of collective action, in order to solve the present global emergency.
Together we will:
Create a network that becomes the muscle to drive change in our continent.
Connect initiatives and individuals across borders and within countries to accelerate work and change.
Share our expertise and knowledge to design radical and bold solutions.
Use the available science and knowledge to avoid paralysis by analysis.
Visibilize, amplify, replicate and scale up valuable initiatives with transformational potential.
Encourage one another to experiment, support both success and failures, as we take on these unimaginably ambitious transformations.
Undertake collective action with impact across the Americas to engage our fellow citizens.
We might disagree on specific tactics, but we will remain unified in our purpose to build a society that more justly conducts the magnificent ecology we have inherited. We will shape the present as our future legacy.
The power of our community is key in order to reach our goals. We will continue to invite young professionals to be part of the YCSA as a way of understanding their work and guiding them to the right committee in charge of evaluating their proposal.
Join us.
Follow Us
YCSA OVER THE YEARS
Sponsors
