WATERSHED

Mission & Values

watershed

/ˈwôdərˌSHed/

An area of land that channels rainfall and snowmelt into streams, rivers, and eventually, larger bodies of water like lakes and oceans.

We are inspired by watersheds.

  • Health watersheds are regenerative, living systems.

  • Watersheds transcend generations, reminding us we are inseparable and interconnectedness with nature, other species, and each other. They remind us of our dependence on the natural world.

  • Watersheds provide watering places where we can reconnect and recentre -they create calm places and also places of powerful energy.

  • A "watershed moment" is a turning point.

Mission

Our work, rooted in community, solidarity, and hope, exists to build the engagement, leadership, and organizational capacity of youth (ages 18–35). Our focus areas are:

  • Regenerative learning systems

  • Intergenerational collaboration.

  • Community building.

  • Regenerative engagement and leadership

  • Mitigating systemic barriers across the youth social and climate justice ecosystem

Values

Regenerative learning and doing. We commit to learning from nature-based systems, and from both youth and legacy organizers. We maintain a leadership and organizational structure of folks across generations.

We commit to engagement practices rooted in kindness and love for each other, our planet, and the greater than human other species and places of our world.

Regenerative leadership. We reject paradigms of extraction, violence, and dominance and commit ourselves to learning and practicing leadership rooted in our inter-connectedness, our mutual dependence on each other, our strengths, limitations, and our capacity. We begin by exploring matriarchal, regenerative leadership values and practices.

Vision

A world where youth organizations have power and efficacy to effect positive social change.

2026-2028 Project and Programming Focus

  1. Produce a film and develop resources related to funding and grant writing

  2. Collaborate with BCACC-certified counsellors to provide affordable group and individual counselling for youth, social and climate justice workers

  3. Mapp the ecosystem to create a web accessible, database of youth-led and youth-facing organizations to assist with community building, collaboration, and the on-ramping of youth to social and climate justice work.

  4. Work with community partners to find reliable, safe, multipurpose, centrally located, and cost-effective physical spaces where youth can gather, build community, incubate and share ideas.

PARTNER WITH US!

We look forward to hearing from you! We seek community-building partnerships, collaborations, funding, and learning opportunities.