Youth Environmental Press Team
The Youth Environmental Press Team is an organization run under Earth Charter Indiana, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Its mission is to spark youth advocacy on the climate crisis by providing a platform for young people to write, edit, and direct journalistic content on climate and the environment, allowing the generation who'll live with the effects of climate change to share their voices and be heard. By republishing content produced by high school journalists for their school newspapers, along with producing original content, the Youth Environmental Press Team shares stories of youth advocacy, the science of climate change, and personal opinion stories. Recent examples from Ann Arbor include “Ann Arbor’s Youth Environmental Activists,” “Ann Arbor Hosts Annual Huron River Day,” and “Ann Arbor’s Renewable Energy Revolution.” YEPT currently spans over a dozen states, and is growing weekly; at each of our Zoom meetings, the video boxes grow smaller and smaller as more people join. With monthly guests (anywhere from a climate scientist to a New York Times reporter) and near-endless opportunities for youth leadership, the Youth Environmental Press Team is creating a platform where, finally, teens get a say in how we can impact our world. Our two adult advisors, Jim Poyser and Angela Yeager, oversee the project; however, the majority of the leadership is taken on by high school students. From leading Zoom meetings to editing articles to deciding what stories matter most, high school students are leading the way in the narrative of climate change and the state of our environment. In an effort to garner more content from Michigan and create a specialized team of high school directors, the Youth Environmental Press Team is working to build a Michigan chapter of the program.