Maine Youth for Climate Justice is first and foremost a youth built and led space meant to serve you and your activism needs. Take a quick survey to share your thoughts on how we’re doing!

Upcoming events.

Check out MYCJ’s monthly programming and keep an eye on our newsletter and social media feeds for updates!

There are so many ways to get involved in climate justice activism!

So, what kind of activist are you?

  • Ah, the political activist! When someone says “activist,” you are the person they’re picturing. You want to advocate for laws that address climate change, you want to be heard by the people that represent you in the State House and the Senate, and in the Governor’s mansion.

    MYCJ’s legislative campaigns are a great fit for you. You’ll learn all about the legislative process in Maine and how to lobby for change at the State House, how to write testimony and Letters to the Editor or Op-Eds for your local paper! Join our legislative team meetings, energy campaigns calls or join our Slack workspace for more information!

  • The history of protest art is about as long as the history of human societies, as long as there have been injustices, power struggles, and war, people have used art to disrupt the status quo.

    You belong to this long line of freedom fighters, MYCJ and our coalition partners often host art builds to make signs for rallies, as well as poetry and storytelling workshops to help you turn your climate related stories into art! Keep an eye out for art builds and workshops through our newsletter and social media accounts!

  • Whether you’re a life-long learner, or a newbie to climate justice, we get it, there is so much to learn that it can feel overwhelming. Climate science is constantly progressing, movement building has a long and complicated history, integrating justice principles to environmental and climate change advocacy takes time and intentionality.

    It’s A LOT! We’re still learning too. That’s why we host monthly Teach-Ins on topics relevant to climate justice in Maine, and a Fall Speaker Series to dive deeper into complex issues. Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on upcoming educational events!

  • Community.

    We couldn’t make progress without it, we couldn’t survive without it. Literally. Community is at the heart of movement building. At MYCJ we are striving to build a wide and diverse community of youth climate activists across the state of Maine.

    MYCJ has cohorts meant to cultivate community such as the LGBTQ+ Cohort, BIPOC Cohort, Women & Gender Expansive Cohort, the Food Sovereignty Cohort, the High School Support Cohort… We’ve hosted a Summer Book Club and have an Outing Club where we go for hikes or do other outdoor activities together. Sign up for a hike or join a cohort check out our Cohorts page!

    In order to make these activities accessible, we strive to help with transportation costs and any other accessibility need.

  • So do we, dude! We are all pretty zoomed out, honestly. We love getting together in-person to protest, or make art, talk to our state representatives, or go for a hike.

    We organize a Youth Day of Action at the Maine State House in Augusta every year in April to rally for climate justice and lobby our representatives to take action on climate change. We also help organize Climate Strikes around the state.

Campaigns

Every year MYCJ Core, members and staff choose campaigns, both legislative and non legislative, to work on. Some long-term campaigns that we work on are energy justice, Wabanaki Sovereignty, combatting fossil fuel financing, and legislative advocacy.

For example, our campaign for energy justice takes the form of an ad-hoc group that meets biweekly to discuss the progress of issues like the CMP corridor, offshore wind energy implementation, and the consumer-owned utility ballot initiative. As for Wabanaki Sovereignty, we participate in the Wabanaki Alliance coalition, attend meetings, participate in their field, advocacy, statehouse and communications teams, and share their calls to action to our members to amplify their message.

Click here to learn more about MYCJ campaigns and join a call!

Cohorts

MYCJ cohorts are spaces for youth climate activists to converge with others who share an identity, or to connect with each other around specific issues. Our current active cohorts are the LGBTQ+ Cohort, BIPOC Cohort, Food Sovereignty Cohort, High School Support Cohort, and Women and Gender Expansive Cohort.

Click here to learn more about our cohorts and join an existing cohort - or start a new one!

Youth Day of Action

MYCJ has organized a “Day of Action” to advocate for climate policy every year since 2019. These have included rallies, lobbying, occupying Maine Climate Council Meetings, press conferences, and workshops. There have been additional climate strikes across Maine in 2019, 2020, and 2023 organized by youth. We’ve made incredible progress at these events, which usually take place in April, talking to legislators and getting press coverage to illustrate the power that the youth movement has.

The team that organizes the Youth Day of Action is a broad coalition of youth from a number of different youth-led organizations in Maine, including MYCJ, Maine Youth Power, Maine Youth Action, JustME for JustUS, Maine Environmental Changemakers, and the Young People’s Caucus, among others.

Do you want to be part of the planning team for the 2024 Youth Day of Action? Join our Slack workspace to be included in the planning group!

Events

We host a number of virtual and in-person events every month for any youth in Maine to attend, whether you are already an MYCJ member, interested in joining MYCJ or just curious about a topic!

We host monthly “Teach-Ins” about climate justice issues, as well as quarterly orientations for youth interested in joining MYCJ. In the fall, we usually host a learning series about climate justice issues that are topical, last fall we hosted a learning series about Offshore Wind. In the spring we host workshops on legislative advocacy, such as “Legislature 101,” Letter-to-the-Editor or testimony writing workshops, protest art builds, etc. In the summer, we’ve hosted a book club and monthly hikes around the state of Maine.

You can register for all upcoming events through our Instagram, as well as through the links in our events calendar!