Got a Question or Want More Information about Young Changemakers?

Explore Frequently Asked Questions about SEEd’s transformative sustainability education programme, Young Changemakers.

Get In Touch

For Schools and Youth Groups: Contact us to find out more about Young Changemakers and how the programme could be run in your setting.

For Organisations: Contact us to see how you can get involved with Young Changemakers and connect with students to promote a more sustainable future.

Attitudes to Sustainability Survey

How do young people feel about sustainability in relation to their personal lives? SEEd run a longstanding project to collect thoughts from youth about what they think, with nearly 6,000 responses so far.

In some cases, entire school years have taken part, building a baseline of sustainability attitudes and enabling schools to measure the impact and outcomes of their sustainability work, and embed concerns into their Climate Action Plans.

Whole School Approach

Conducting a Whole School Approach to Sustainability Audit will enable schools to:

  • gain a baseline of knowledge, values and skills in sustainability;
  • identify gaps and explore where the school already has good practice in place; and
  • find supporters within the school.

A Collated List of Online Climate Change Learning Resources

Explore our collated list to help you and your students get started on the road to a more sustainable and climate-friendly future.

According to our latest SEEd Youth Listening Project Report (2023-25) based on the Attitudes to Sustainability Survey of nearly 6000 young people, we know that:

  • Young people are particularly concerned about the impact of climate change, poverty and a failed economy on the future;
  • They display a great deal of anxiety regarding the future;
  • There is a clear desire for guidance on how they can act on climate change;
  • Educators need support to empower youth to learn about the mechanism of social change;
  • Despite being aware of sustainability issues, young people feel they lack the skills needed to make a difference.

Our evaluation shows that engaging young people in local action projects with opportunities for reflective learning, and space to develop key political and practical competencies addresses these issues – and this is the work that SEEd’s YCM programme does.

Despite social media being commonly used by students, they don’t always trust the information it provides. The most trusted sources of information are “experts” and teachers. YCM helps schools to support their students to develop critical thinking skills and action competencies.

Download the latest Youth Listening Project Report (2023-25) from our Evidence Hub.

Goal: Through helping schools adopt a Whole Institution Approach to sustainability, with their students fully and meaningfully engaged in action, the sustainability education programme will equip everyone with the knowledge, understanding and skills necessary to achieve a sustainable present and future.

Impact: Young people will develop the skills for, and agency to achieve a sustainable, hopeful and happy future for themselves, each other and nature.

Learning for sustainability

  • We believe in everyone’s capacity to engage and change the way things are.
  • We believe in making the learning you go through transparent, and we focus on facilitating this understanding.
  • We believe in starting where you are, deciding what you could do next and then reflecting on the impact of what you did.

Change is possible

  • We believe change happens at all scales.
  • We believe in doing our own action learning in scaling pilots to see what worked and why.

Giving everyone the tools and insights to continue on their own

  • The people we work with also want to know what worked and why – be they participants, institutions, organisations or sponsors and funders.
  • This helps to replicate and be part of scaling up – this is our social change model.
  • We have methods and tools for transformation, research and evidence, partnerships, volunteers and schools.

Working from an evidence-base and listening to the voices of those we aim to empower – young people – is vital to our work. We are one of the only organisations conducting ongoing evaluation of our sustainability education programmes – Young Changemakers, Changemakers and the Attitudes to Sustainability Surveys.

The evidence gathered and analysed by the SEEd Team and our partners at the University of Gloucestershire (YCM) and University of Essex (Attitudes Surveys) enable us to continually refine our courses and respond to changing attitudes and science – our own action learning cycle.

We recently launched our Evidence Hub – a central resource of all our evaluations, including our latest Young Changemakers Evaluation Report for 2024-25.

Outcomes for Students/Young People

  • Teamwork and experience in working with different opinions and views
  • Development of written and verbal communication skills
  • Ability to persuade, influence and debate
  • Development of critical thinking skills
  • Enhanced well-being
  • Experience of environmental volunteering
  • Increased understanding of sustainability solutions and how to make change happen

Outcomes for Schools/Youth Groups

  • An opportunity to show organisational development for sustainability​
  • Gaining a baseline of knowledge, values and skills in sustainability
  • Student-led sustainability projects, especially on campus and relating to issues in the local community​
  • Informal careers advice and connections with ​local partners ​
  • The beginning of the school journey to a ​whole institution approach to sustainability

Can’t find what you’re looking for? Email admin@se-ed.org.uk with any questions and we’ll aim to get back to you as soon as possible.