Brower Youth Awards

The Brower Youth Awards are annual awards presented to six environmental and social justice leaders under the age of 23. The awards are in honor of David Brower and his work mentoring emerging environmental leaders. In addition to a $3,000 cash award and an all expenses paid trip to the San Francisco Bay Area to attend the awards ceremony, winners receive ongoing support and mentoring from Earth Island Institute staff and other environmental leaders.
North American activist leaders ages 13 to 22 are eligible to apply. Projects must have a measurable environmental and social impact and have demonstrated significant progress by the application deadline.
The awards ceremony is held each fall in the San Francisco Bay area, most recently at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco.
Criteria.
Outstanding youth leadership and project impact.
"Outstanding leadership" means that the recipient played a major leadership role in creating, organizing and implementing their project or campaign. The juries are looking for the person with the vision, motivation, and leadership skills that made the project or campaign work.
Impact is gauged by the extent to which efforts benefited the environment and community in terms of measurable results (e.g. acres of wildlife habitat protected or restored, number of people engaged in social issues because of the project, numbers of children no longer exposed to toxins, etc.), as well as movement-building and raising awareness.
Conservation.
CONSERVATION is work to eliminate or decrease use of natural resources and negative impacts on ecosystems and communities. For example:
A campaign that plays a substantial role in organizing a local community to pass a public transportation initiative
A project that significantly reduces energy use on a school campus by requiring passive solar design and the use of efficient appliances in all school facilities.
"Conserve the golden eggs carefully. Preserve the goose or there will be no more golden eggs. If you've already damaged the goose, get going on Restoration."
~ David R. Brower
Preservation.
PRESERVATION is work to protect ecosystems, species, indigenous cultures and other irreplaceable elements of the world's natural heritage. For example:
A project that secures protected nesting area for an endangered songbird
A campaign that plays a substantial role in blocking development of Native sacred sites via ongoing peaceful civil disobedience (demonstrations, street theater, marches)
Restoration.
RESTORATION is work to re-establish the healthy functioning of ecosystems; parts of ecosystems; and human communities that manage ecosystems. For example:
A project that reclaims an abandoned urban lot, creates an organic garden.
A campaign that works to eliminate carbon emissions and mitigates the impacts of global warming.
Selection process.
The Brower Youth Award recipients are selected by an independent panel of judges, including activists, educators, journalists, and environmental advocates. The Selection Committee changes for each cycle of the Brower Youth Awards. Each jury is made up of experts from a range of disciplines. Supported by a committee of Brower Youth Awards alumni and the Earth Island Institute staff, the Selection Committee ensures that award recipients are engaged in bold, visionary, and powerful leadership and activism.
Since 2000, more than 50 experts have served on the Brower Youth Awards Selection Committee.
The 2009 Selection Committee consisted of Bill McKibben, author-educator-environmentalist; Josh Dorfman, The Lazy Environmentalist; Lynn Hirshfield, Participant Media; Rha Goddess, hip hop artist; Thao Pham, Clif Bar; Barbara Brower, Professor at Portland State and daughter of David Brower; Angie Coiro, host of the Angie Coiro Show; Dave Foreman, Rewilding Institute; Phillipe Cousteau, EarthEcho Intl; and Dune Lankard, Redzone.
More information.
http://www.broweryouthawards.org/
Application Information