The Resilience Youth Network’s is a non-profit coalition of students and early-career professionals pursuing careers in disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation to increase the resilience of society and its built environment to physical hazards. Our mission is to “Enhance climate resilience through educational programs, community building initiatives, and professional and leadership development opportunities.”
Resilience is defined as the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. In the context of climate change, resilience is the ability of a system or community to withstand and recover from the effects of climate change. A system could be a building, a water utility, or an ecosystem. RYN focuses primarily on resilient systems in the built environment.
RYN was founded on four pillars that guide everything that we do in our mission to develop the next generation of leaders in climate resilience.
Create opportunities for members to: learn about climate resilience opportunities in both the public and private sectors; develop new skills through technical workshops; and learn from and engage with experts in virtual speaker events.
Our educational events are for high school and university students, and early career professionals and include the following:
Pair our members with jobs in impact-oriented resilience fields. Our monthly newsletter contains a job board with positions relevant to our membership. We also frequently conduct virtual networking events with our sponsors and partners.
We help our members find jobs in fields related to climate resilience. We host networking nights with our sponsors. In addition, our monthly newsletter has career opportunities in the private, public, and non-profit sectors.
Teach members how advocate for climate resilience action in their communities and support their involvement in these activities with financing, introductions to mentors, and collaborators for design projects and competitions.
We approach engagement in two different ways: projects and advocacy.
Projects:
We are partnered with UN-ARISE on real-world projects, such as the Resilient Cities Scorecard. Any of our members can get involved in these project opportunities to learn, network, and make positive change.
Advocacy:
Advocacy consists of actions done by an individual or group that aims to influence political, social, or economic decisions. Advocacy concepts, such as contacting representatives, organizing, and media training, are taught through our Fellowship program.
Uplift underrepresented groups in climate resilience action and leadership, projects, and advocacy. Additional information can be found in our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Page.
Climate change is disproportionately impacting underrepresented groups, including black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). We are working to increase the representation of these groups in the climate resilience space. Read our DEI statement here.
The goal of the Resilience Youth Network is to develop the next generation of leaders in the fields of resilience and climate change adaptation. We recognize that underrepresented groups such as people of color, women, LGBTQ+ individuals, and indigenous communities are often not present in resilience-oriented conversations and decision-making processes due to systemic inequities and injustices. We also recognize that low-income people are often members of these same underrepresented groups and are among those most impacted by the effects of climate change. We are committed to promoting equity in the fields of resilience and climate change adaptation by addressing this discrepancy.
