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Turning Tides: a new resource to connect and support young changemakers
Turning Tides is a resource, created by Jasmine Rodman, World Ocean Day Youth Advisory Council alumna, which provides resources and peer advice to young advocates.When Jasmine Rodman started her journey as an ocean advocate and artist, she admits that she didn’t know what she was getting into. Skills like networking, creating a website, building a social media presence, and simply balancing school, work and activism were all things she had to teach herself along the way. And reaching out for help seemed intimidating.“For a long time, I hesitated to share when I didn’t know something and felt that I needed to learn, afraid that it would limit my opportunities or make people think I was less capable of my job,” said Jasmine, a 19 year old from Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.Over the years she spent as an environmental advocate, Jasmine was fortunate enough to connect with many other youth leaders worldwide through her work with Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Programs, The Ocean Project’s World Ocean Day, and the National Geographic Society. In talking with these other youth advocates, she discovered that she wasn’t alone in her initial lack of knowledge. Jasmine found that feeling burnt out, frustrated, and lost were not felt by her alone, but commonly experienced by most young activists she met.“What I knew most, and heard over and over from other youth, was that this work was isolating,” expressed Jasmine, “Every single person I talked to assumed that they were the only one feeling this way.”With the support of the National Geographic Society, Jasmine decided to create a project to help others starting out on the sometimes challenging path of youth advocacy. “This project is what I wished I had when I was starting out, and what I need now –- a resource to continually teach missing skills, to show the wide variety of ways we can all be advocates, and to let us know that everyone feels lost once in a while.”The result was Turning Tides, a comprehensive website created by youth, for youth which aims to make advocacy work easier and more transparent, one toolkit at a time. On the site are a range of free, accessible resources with concise and practical information on all the skills that are often expected of young people, though rarely taught. Within these webpages, there is advice from some of the world’s leading changemakers on everything from “Balancing Work and School” to “Using Art for Advocacy.” Turning Tides was created to walk young people through every step of their advocacy journey with resources to help them start their initiatives, develop skills, and sustain their efforts. “To all the young changemakers out there who are trying hard and doing their best: your contributions are both needed and wanted,” says Jasmine. “Hopefully, Turning Tides can help us help each other as we continue to make positive change in the world.”Access Turning Tides at www.turningtidespod.com About Jasmine Rodman: Jasmine Rodman, a National Geographic Young Explorer, is an artist, student, entrepreneur, and storyteller with a goal of making the world a little bit more beautiful, whether that be by helping youth environmental projects or by painting murals. She grew up exploring the gorgeous ocean, forests, and mountains around her home on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. At age 15, she started her own sustainable small business, Ocean Child Creative, using her art to start conversations about the ocean and raise funds for non-profits. She then joined Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Program’s Future Blue Youth Council, where she worked to create a brand- new granting program for young changemakers. As a National Geographic Young Explorer, she created the project Turning Tides, a multimedia exploration of youth advocacy. Turning Tides offers young people resources and advice, in order to encourage and empower them to start and continue this work in a way that aligns with their evolving life.
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Announcing the 2023-2024 World Ocean Day Youth Advisory Council!
We are excited to introduce 25 new members from 21 countries to the 2023-2024 World Ocean Day Youth Advisory Council! Congratulations to these inspiring young leaders who represent diverse countries and backgrounds! Each will provide unique perspectives and ideas to help World Ocean Day grow in exciting ways.They will work together in informing and motivating their local communities and countries to take action through a variety of projects and inspire youth and others around the world. By collaborating with one another and others, the Council will achieve real impact, in June and throughout the year, to protect and restore our blue planet.Thank you to all the hundreds of young people from over 70 countries who applied this year to join the Council! It was incredibly challenging to select the winners, and we want to extend special thanks the following individuals who helped in this process:The World Ocean Day Youth Advisory Council Alumni Review Committee:Cade Terada, 2018-2019 Council Alum, United StatesJoe Wilkins, 2021-2022 Council Alum, WalesKal Glanznig, 2021-2022 Council Alum, AustraliaMaría Paz Vasquez, 2021-2022 Council Alum, PeruPaul Ayomide, 2021-2022 Council Alum, NigeriaPrashant Mohesh, 2021-2022 Council Alum, MauritiusSiobhan O’Connor, 2021-2022 Council Alum, New ZealandSruthi Gurudev, 2021-2022 Council Alum, United StatesThe Selection Committee:Allison Alexander, Vice President, Program Operations, National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, United StatesFanny Ekholm, CSR Manager, Didriksons, SwedenJared Ben, Partnerships Lead, Canva, AustraliaDr. Rodolfo Werner, Science and Policy Advisor, Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy & Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, ArgentinaShirley Yan, SSI & Mares Country Manager, ChinaTamara Wainer, Founder & CEO, Voice 4 Oceans, United StatesYou can meet the new Youth Advisory Council here!For updates about the Council and our youth initiative, and events and opportunities for youth around the world, subscribe to the Rising Blue Network newsletter.
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Check out and Subscribe to Blue Planet Beacon
Check out Blue Planet Beacon, and subscribe here to get on the list to receive future issues of this quarterly newsletter, created for youth, partners, and friends around the world to collaborate more for a healthy ocean and a stable climate. Each issue will provide updates on our collaborative youth engagement, leadership and advocacy work, info and resources for the World Ocean Day network, and opportunities to get more involved in ocean & climate national and international policy-related campaigns.Click here to learn about our other email lists, one specifically for youth and one for World Ocean Day event organizers and interested individuals.Together, we can create a better future!
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Announcing the World Ocean Day 2024 Action Theme
We currently face one of the greatest threats ever to our blue planet and all its inhabitants: the climate crisis. It is all too clear that we need a…
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Ocean Justice: Protecting and Restoring Our Blue Planet for Future Generations
Update from 2024: See the U. S. Ocean Justice Strategy. published in December 2023. “Defining” Ocean Justice Ocean justice sits at the intersection of environmental protection, social equity, and human…
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One Big Ocean Connects Us All
A few years ago, we officially dropped the “s” from World Ocean(s) Day to strongly emphasize our connectedness on this blue planet that we all have to each other…
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Register for Youth Advocacy Training!
The Ocean Project is running a free 4-week virtualAdvocacy Training program designed for youth around theworld who are looking to make a positive impact. Global leaders have committed to protecting 30% of our lands, waters, and ocean by 2030; Now it is time to follow through, andimplement these policies to safeguard our planet. The training content will build upon and refine existing advocacy skills and encourage strengthened collaborative conservation action – locally, nationally, and globally. Participants will have the opportunity to learn from and talk with experts, network and collaborate with their peers, and develop a strong foundation for all their future advocacy efforts. The content of the training was developed by experienced leaders working in ocean and climate advocacy, with input and suggestions from members of the World Ocean Day Youth Advisory Council. Topics covered will include an in-depth look at conservation policy, advocacy & organizing, social media & communications, and event planning & fundraising. About the Program Please note: You must register for all 4 sessions individually. Session 1: Conservation Policy in ActionAt 11am EST/ 3pm UTC on Saturday, 29 AprilFeaturing speakers Claudia Munoz-Colon, OceanEcho Fellow, and students from the 30×30 Illinois Conservation Task ForceParticipants will learn from youth leaders from several different regions, as they share their personal experiences while working to implement a 30×30-related project. Using these case studies as examples, participants will learn how to collaborate with community members to identify and implement creative solutions to conservation issues, and how to scale up their projects, building momentum off of collective action. Register here. Session 2: Effective Campaign OrganizingAt 1pm EST/ 5pm UTC on Saturday, 6 MayFeaturing speaker Joe Wilkins – Ecologist, Nature Campaigner, & World Ocean Day Youth Advisory Council AlumSession 2 will build off of the foundations set in Session 1, and turn our focus towards what it means to be an effective advocate. In this session, participants will reflect on their individual purpose, and connect to their conservation passions. With the help of an expert capacity-building organizer, participants will develop a strong conservation “why” to help refine the who, what, where, and how of their projects.Register here. Session 3: Social Media & CommunicationsAt 12pm EST/ 4pm UTC on Saturday, 13 MayFeaturing speaker Kate Sutter – Community Engagement Manager, World Ocean DaySession 3 begins to cover more of the technical skills needed for successful conservation communication. This session will focus on science communication and the importance of proper messaging, and how to formulate calls-to-action for social media, op-eds, letters, and other types of communication. Register here. Session 4: Event Planning & FundraisingAt 2pm EST/ 6pm UTC on Saturday, 20 MayFeaturing speaker Samantha Gibb – Senior Programs Manager, World Ocean DaySession 4 will explore the basics of what it takes to pull together a conservation event. This session will cover all things organizing; From recruiting the right people to your team, where to look for funding and how to get it, how to engage with your community for a lasting impact, and more.Register here. We encourage candidates to attend all four sessions to get the full benefit of the training. We ask anyone registering to prioritize attending the sessions live, but session recordings will be publicly available one day after each session. The content of the program is designed for young people ages 15-21, but anyone of any age may attend. Please forward this to your network if you know anyone who might be interested, and contact us if you have any questions! To learn more about The Ocean Project Youth Initiative, click here.
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30×30 Annual Update for 2022 Released
Photo thanks to Fabrice Dudenhofer / Ocean Image Bank. For more than three years, we have catalyzed collective action in support of protecting at least 30% of our lands,…
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VICTORY: A Global Commitment to 30×30!
Global leaders finalized negotiations at the United Nations Biodiversity Summit (COP15) in the early morning hours on December 19, 2022. The historic agreement includes a commitment to conserve 30% of…
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