STEAM-Powered Youth for Climate Action

K-12 STEAM education

East LA

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative (testing or implementing a new idea)

In Boyle Heights, students face limited access to engaging STEAM education and clear pathways in fields like climate resilience, architecture, and engineering. Meanwhile, extreme heat is intensifying, with more days above 95°F yearly. With 34% of residents children or seniors, the need for community-centered climate solutions is urgent.
Climate Resolve, deeply rooted in Boyle Heights, will blend climate adaptation with career exploration to deliver culturally relevant programming for youth. Through science walks, storytelling, and data collection, youth gain hands-on experience to envision cooler, healthier neighborhoods. Partners, LA Trade Tech & Kounkuey Design Initiative, will show youth how to co-design shade structures and explore college and career pathways in planning and environmental design. By blending experiential learning with real-world application, the program cultivates climate-conscious leaders whose creativity and lived experience drive equitable, community-led change.

The grant will support a 6-session youth education and empowerment program with Estrada Courts Boys & Girls Club. Designed for youth ages 13–16, students learn about climate change and its impacts in Boyle Heights–extreme heat, air pollution, and noise–using thermal cameras, infrared thermometers, air quality monitors, and sound meter apps. CR’s experience engaging frontline communities guides program development with ongoing youth input. Sessions 1-4 build scientific literacy and data collection skills, culminating in a participatory science walk where youth analyze environmental data and co-develop solutions to improve public health and community well-being.
Sessions 5 & 6 focus on real-world application and career exposure via site visits at Kounkuey Design Initiative and LA Trade Tech’s Architecture & Environmental Design Program. At KDI, youth learn how community design and advocacy create equitable public spaces, influence policy, and explore how architects and planners center resident voices to shape heat-resilient infrastructure. At LATTC, youth meet students designing innovative shade structures using biomimicry and data-informed strategies. These visits expose youth to college and career pathways in design, planning, and climate adaptation—fields where lived experience and imagination drive real change. The program concludes with an intergenerational science walk where BGC youth lead LATTC students in data collection and co-vision solutions for their community.

Success means LA County will be home to a generation of climate-literate youth, especially from frontline communities like Boyle Heights, equipped with the knowledge, tools, and confidence to drive local solutions. These young leaders will inspire their peers, families, and communities, creating a ripple effect of awareness, advocacy, and intergenerational action. As youth collect data, analyze problems, and co-develop solutions, they help shift community culture toward climate resilience, public health, and civic participation.
This pilot establishes a replicable model for youth-led climate leadership, adaptable for other Boys & Girls Clubs, schools, and youth-serving organizations across LA County and beyond. With scalable curriculum and strong cross-sector partnerships, this initiative lays the groundwork for a network of climate-ready youth empowered and ready to drive policy, design, and infrastructure solutions in communities facing extreme heat and environmental injustice.