Climate Changemaking In Action
By Evey Mengelkoch, January 31, 2024
Evey Mengelkoch offers advice for fellow activists on making the most out of conferences, trainings, and events by stepping outside one's comfort zone to build relationships, find common ground, and bring visibility to the cause through constructive action.
Arianna Soresi (another Climate Fellow at Change the Chamber) and I recently returned from an event in Washington, DC hosted by a partner organization focused on climate activism, including in-person Congressional meetings. As activists representing a youth-based organization, we were excited to meet other climate changemakers that work with different audiences. While this could have been a less exciting event of receiving information and then going home, we found it an excellent opportunity to put some of our climate changemaking skills into action. This event allowed us to network with other climate changemakers, meet with legislators, and create visibility for climate action.
Arianna Soresi (left) and I
The event focused on creating goals and building skills during our first day in DC. We networked with other organizations working in similar regions as we do and spent time getting to know our training group. We found that active participation, looking for opportunities to network, and creating an elevator pitch of what you do within your organization and the big goals of your organization would help make this experience much more valuable for others in a similar situation, like at an industry or advocacy conference. For other changemakers seeking to network and get involved in similar events, finding chances to speak up and participate will help you stand out to event organizers and help you find other attendees who have similar goals or backgrounds. Be sure to participate fully in icebreaker activities to help show your fellow changemakers what you are passionate about. Then, interact with those with similar areas of interest afterwards to build connections and relationships. We found it valuable to actively focus on exchanging contact information to keep other changemakers in the loop on activities that you are doing, or so that they can inform you on future events they are holding. As an example, I discussed future activism opportunities in Wisconsin after telling others that I focus on work in Wisconsin. You never know who may be connected to organizations with whom you wish to collaborate or who will be interested in learning more about your work.
Visibility Events
We participated in Congressional visits and visibility events on the second day of our event. Visibility events include tabling, flyering, sign-holding, or similar activities. These may all seem focused on gaining the attention of outsiders, however, they also create valuable opportunities to develop goals and work as a team with those you may not see daily in a less-familiar situation. If your new team members are outside your organization, ask them about their work and discuss what you do in order to find commonalities that are useful after the event for future collaborations. If they are from within your organization, use the new challenges of an unfamiliar task to find effective strategies and build your relationships so you can more easily complete tasks once you are back in a familiar environment. These visibility events proved to be helpful icebreaking activities to allow participants to work as a team during our Congressional visits, where we educated legislators on the impacts of climate change on our health, environment, and economy.
Wisconsin-based participants and Sen. Tammy Baldwin (WI) (center)
Wisconsin-based participants and Rep. Mark Pocan (WI-2) (center)
The last day of our training and advocacy event involved some final training sessions and a debrief of the past several days’ activities. This session allowed us to tie up any loose ends, a final opportunity to exchange contact information, and possibly create plans to collaborate. We planned out major expected events for the future, which led to discussions of goals throughout the coming year and how to be effective climate changemakers within our organizations and while working with others. Using our changemaker skills and actively participating in this event made it a valuable, and enjoyable, network-building opportunity. We found that looking for ways to start conversations around climate activism with others helped us strengthen our changemaking skills and find more potential advocacy opportunities and partner organizations.
Change The Chamber is a bipartisan coalition of over 100 student groups, including undergraduates, graduate students and recent graduates.