Climate and Classism

Climate Beyond Classism

Climate beyond Classism!

In order to overcome the climate crisis, we need big social movements that demand a massive change in the way that we do economics and politics.

However, poor and working class youth are massively underrepresented in the climate movement, which in Europe is mostly run by those who are middle-class, white and university-educated youth.

SCI has the same issue also on a broader level: most people doing international voluntary services with SCI come from academic and middle-class backgrounds, while the purpose of SCI has always been to bring together people across diverse backgrounds.

Several organisations and activist groups across Europe, both in the climate and in the international voluntary service movements, have started changing their structures to be more inclusive in terms of class. These structural changes and tools need to be shared.

In September 2021, SCI Germany together with trainers from BuWa Collective and 10 partner organisations from all over Europe, organised the EU Erasmus+ funded youth workers activity

"Climate Beyond Classism"

in Sonthofen, Germany. Twenty-five youth workers, volunteers and climate activists participated in this project. 

Objectives of the activity were:

  • to discuss and share knowledge and worst practices on structures that exclude people from the climate and international volunteering movements based on their social class,
  • to share approaches, institutional structures and non-formal education methods of including all people regardless of social class in activities of the climate and international volunteering movement and empowering specifically people from economically weak and working class backgrounds to become active citizens,
  • to deepen and rise knowledge of the participants as multipliers on the topics of Climate Justice and Classism,
  • to raise awareness among staff and volunteers of climate and international voluntary service organisations around classism and class privilege as well as to strongly disseminate this awareness through workshops with other stakeholders before and after the seminar,
  • to create more and stronger alliances and solidarity between the peace and volunteering movement, the social justice and the climate justice movement,
  • to create a manual on classism for youth workers,
  • to network between the organisations involved in this project,
  • to come up with new volunteering projects on the topic of social inclusivity in the climate justice movement.

Partner Organisations:

VCV Serbia, P.E.C.O. Italia, ATIC Romania, M.E.R.L. Estonia, Change Multipliers Greece, RELEARN Sweden, SCI Catalonia, WWF Austria, SCI International Secretariat Belgium

You can download the manual "Climate beyond Classism here!