Engaging young people and fostering intergenerational collaboration: Assessing the impact of initiatives within the nature conservation sector

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has served as a global authority on sustainable development and environmental governance for over seventy years. Responding to broader trends within these areas, the IUCN has sought to foster engagement with young people as a strategic priority-to move beyond tokenistic involvement toward institution-wide intergenerational collaboration. The Canadian Committee for the IUCN (CC-IUCN) has been particularly dedicated to this work. Its
efforts, however, are hindered by a lack of both evidentiary support for such reforms as well as mechanisms for evaluating success.
Employing a case study methodology, this project seeks to identify how engaging young people may benefit the CC-IUCN and its partner organizations, including the potential return on investment [ROI] for resources spent on engagement initiatives and the extent to which these build constituency for nature and foster pro environmental attitudes and actions.
This project will also identify the key components of successful initiatives and the most effective and sustainable approaches to this work. This knowledge will be used to develop an ROI measurement tool, a theory of change model, a life-course model of engagement, and child/youth mainstreaming tools that set minimum standards for policy and programming.

Faculty Supervisor:

Melanie Zurba

Student:

Partner:

Canadian Committee for the IUCN

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Other services (except public administration)

University:

Dalhousie University

Program: