We approach climate resilience and systems change from the inside out.
CYR embeds inner practices in youth organisations, educational programmes and pedagogies, in health systems, in sporting activities, social processes, and anywhere young people are active.
Starting from the inside allows us to unlock our greatest capacities, innate wisdom, leadership, and to build worlds of belonging from this place of power.
We research and report on innovations in inner work across the globe, collect case studies, and explore responses to the impacts of the climate crisis on young people that shift the narrative beyond mental health, wellbeing, and mindfulness
We research and report on innovations in inner work across the globe, collect case studies, and explore responses to the impacts of the climate crisis on young people that shift the narrative beyond mental health, wellbeing, and mindfulness
We are grateful that our ambitions are met through our powerful partnerships with aligned organisations all around the world. Together we shift narratives.
60 Ambassadors: Onboard and support 60 young leaders who champion inner-led change and advocate for inner resilience and care within their governments and communities.
Bridge-building across 6 Regions: Deepen intra-regional and inter-regional engagement, and strengthen collaboratives for deep systems change.
Shifting the Narrative: Together with our partners, we bring Inner Resilience & Wellness to the agendas of policymakers, governments, and major climate conferences around the world. We also move beyond mental health impacts by weaving resilience and flourishing.
“Movements are born of critical connections rather than critical mass”
– Grace Lee Boggs
Climate Youth Resilience is a global South facing program that operates under the auspices of the Mindfulness Initiative, thanks to the generous support of the Robert Ho Family Foundation.
To see the kind faces that support CYR and drive the Mindfulness Initiative forward, please find the Core Team, Board, and Policy Leads here: The Mindfulness Initiative.
We research and report on innovations in inner work across the globe, collect case studies, and explore responses to the impacts of the climate crisis on young people that shift the narrative beyond mental health, wellbeing, and mindfulness
Cathy-Mae Karelse (she/her) is a scholar-practitioner, changemaker and public speaker on issues of race, difference and belonging.
Cathy-Mae is trained in numerous transformation approaches with 20+ years of experience in deep systems change that addresses the underlying social norms and narratives that keep institutionalised discrimination in place. As a Bridger, her work addresses all landscapes and resolves the inner-outer divide. Cathy-Mae is currently the Climate Youth Resilience Lead and works on various policy and change programmes globally.
Author of Disrupting White Mindfulness, her work foregrounds global South, Indigenous and queer communities.
Tiara is an environmental activist with over five years of experience coordinating campaigns for a global movement. She has supported educators, administrators, and youth in leading on-ground campaigns in 28 countries and equipped them with tools to advance their advocacies for a plastic-free world.
Her expertise revolves around project management, capacity-building, movement-building, and strategy. Prior to this work, Tiara trained as a producer for documentary films. She speaks English, Filipino, Bisaya, and is currently studying French and Kiswahili.
Lauren is a facilitator, educator, public speaker, and community builder. She is the founder of Climate Action Community, an organization that aims to support a collective transition from climate anxiety to climate action. Her work looks at how we might build momentum for systemic transformation through emotional support, contemplation and mindfulness, youth engagement, and systems thinking.
She designs workshops to facilitate authentic expression and being with what is. Her work bridges modern cognitive science, systems thinking and climate psychology to unlock the potential for wisdom and cultural evolution hidden within the meta-crisis.
Taylen Reddy is an environmental justice advocate and youth leader from Durban, South Africa, dedicated to championing social justice and amplifying the voices of African youth in global climate governance.
As the founder of Zero Waste Durban, Taylen has spearheaded campaigns tackling waste colonialism, plastic pollution, and climate-induced mental health crises, working towards bringing grassroots realities into high-level decision-making spaces. Taylen’s work aims to embody the intersection of environmental sustainability, youth empowerment, and justice-driven solutions for a resilient future
Isadora Bertoli is a certified nutritionist, breathwork instructor, and environmental educator from Brazil. She is the founder of the UFSC Plastic Free Project, which earned her the Innovation Award for a Promising Initiative at the 2018 Students for Zero Waste Conference, USA.
Passionate about co-creating social-environmental impact, Isadora has organized global sustainability events like the "WE ARE Zero Waste Youth" conference in Portugal and led zero-waste initiatives at Rio Carnival. Currently, she guides breathwork and cold exposure retreats, combining health, mindfulness, and environmental consciousness for transformative change.
Isadora Bertoli is a certified nutritionist, breathwork instructor, and environmental educator from Brazil. She is the founder of the UFSC Plastic Free Project, which earned her the Innovation Award for a Promising Initiative at the 2018 Students for Zero Waste Conference, USA.
Passionate about co-creating social-environmental impact, Isadora has organized global sustainability events like the “WE ARE Zero Waste Youth” conference in Portugal and led zero-waste initiatives at Rio Carnival. Currently, she guides breathwork and cold exposure retreats, combining health, mindfulness, and environmental consciousness for transformative change.
Isadora Bertoli is a certified nutritionist, breathwork instructor, and environmental educator from Brazil. She is the founder of the UFSC Plastic Free Project, which earned her the Innovation Award for a Promising Initiative at the 2018 Students for Zero Waste Conference, USA.
Passionate about co-creating social-environmental impact, Isadora has organized global sustainability events like the "WE ARE Zero Waste Youth" conference in Portugal and led zero-waste initiatives at Rio Carnival. Currently, she guides breathwork and cold exposure retreats, combining health, mindfulness, and environmental consciousness for transformative change.
Musab Subuh is a climate journalist, filmmaker, and writer. He bridges storytelling and advocacy for climate justice, vulnerable communities, and next generations’ rights for a better future.
From covering disasters as a field producer, reporter, and photojournalist to crafting films and articles, he strives to harness the power of storytelling for healing, reconnecting to nature and ancestral knowledge, and fostering collective solidarity. His work spans documentaries on displacement and resilience, articles on the COP process and the global accountability in respect to climate change, and consulting for CSOs to empower youth and amplify collective climate demands.
Rooted in knowledge and practices of connections in honoring the land, through political science and diplomacy knowledge, creative storytelling, he reflects the spiritual and practical actions on advocacy, climate resilience. He works on seeding change for a resilient, safe, and just future—where Earth-human sacred bonds are strengthened to survive, thrive, love, sustain, and live together as one.
Isadora Bertoli is a certified nutritionist, breathwork instructor, and environmental educator from Brazil. She is the founder of the UFSC Plastic Free Project, which earned her the Innovation Award for a Promising Initiative at the 2018 Students for Zero Waste Conference, USA.
Passionate about co-creating social-environmental impact, Isadora has organized global sustainability events like the "WE ARE Zero Waste Youth" conference in Portugal and led zero-waste initiatives at Rio Carnival. Currently, she guides breathwork and cold exposure retreats, combining health, mindfulness, and environmental consciousness for transformative change.
Mézu Ofoegbu (they/them) is an artist-practitioner with over a decade of experience in arts-based interventions that explore social narratives and behaviors related to meaning, ethnic/racial identity, and spirituality.
They are the founder of Infinity Village Lab, a global organization using socially-engaged art to transform mindsets and address local community challenges. As an Ambassador for the City of Atlanta’s Office of Sustainability and Resilience, Mézu developed a global art intervention to conduct community needs assessments and advocate for regional climate innovation. Trained in diverse data storytelling methods, Mézu focuses on building internal capacity and fostering translocal community connections to unlock new potentials for social development and strengthen global resilience.
We are also grateful to Incredible Humans Africa, who bring the heart and spirit of our work to life through their beautiful website design and graphic support of CYR.
Safia Stodel
Design and Illustration
Clint Hendricks
Digital Expression
Mark Dutlow
IHA Lead
We are so grateful to previous members of the CYR team, including Winnie Cheche.
Cheche continues her incredible work as the EcoAdvocate and an active leader for climate youth in Kenya. We keep her in our hearts as our RC for Africa and our Social Media Queen.
Some of our partners
We work with youth leaders, youth-led climate organizations, resilience organisations, and youth and climate networks. We focus on young people 18-35.
We approach climate resilience and systems change from the inside out.
CYR embeds inner practices in youth organisations, educational programmes and pedagogies, in health systems, in sporting activities, social processes, and anywhere young people are active.
Starting from the inside allows us to unlock our greatest capacities, innate wisdom, leadership, and to build worlds of belonging from this place of power.
We research and report on innovations in inner work across the globe, collect case studies, and explore responses to the impacts of the climate crisis on young people that shift the narrative beyond mental health, wellbeing, and mindfulness
To see the kind faces that support CYR and drive the Mindfulness Initiative forward, please find the Core Team, Board, and Policy Leads here: The Mindfulness Initiative.
We research and report on innovations in inner work across the globe, collect case studies, and explore responses to the impacts of the climate crisis on young people that shift the narrative beyond mental health, wellbeing, and mindfulness
We work with youth leaders, youth-led climate organizations, resilience organisations, and youth and climate networks. We focus on young people 18-35.
60 Ambassadors: Onboard and support 60 young leaders who champion inner-led change and advocate for inner resilience and care within their governments and communities.
Bridge-building across 6 Regions: Deepen intra-regional and inter-regional engagement, and strengthen collaboratives for deep systems change.
Shifting the Narrative: Together with our partners, we bring Inner Resilience & Wellness to the agendas of policymakers, governments, and major climate conferences around the world. We also move beyond mental health impacts by weaving resilience and flourishing.
We don’t change systems alone.
We are grateful that our ambitions are met through our powerful partnerships with aligned organisations all around the world. Together we shift narratives.
We research and report on innovations in inner work across the globe, collect case studies, and explore responses to the impacts of the climate crisis on young people that shift the narrative beyond mental health, wellbeing, and mindfulness
All forms of justice are interrelated. Through lifting up the voices in our community, we build solidarity networks across issues and borders.
Equity
Upholding the rights of all in the ways we work is pivotal to our operations.
Inherent Dignity
Honouring, valuing and listening deeply to all community members acknowledges all our treasured lives and contributions.
Belonging
We are committed to bridging and creating a world in which we all belong. CYR is a community of Bridgers.
About Us
Values
Community
We seek to build a Beloved Community in which our many diverse voices that offer multiple perspectives, collective insights and wisdom, are heard, respected and treasured. We celebrate all unique gifts and talents as nourishment for our community.
Co-creation
Our commitment to co-creation stems from a recognition that we all need to build the networks and worlds we wish to see, together. We rely on our multiple perspectives and insights to ensure that the world richly reflects our many voices and dreams
Collaboration
“Individually we are one drop, together we are an ocean”– Ryonosuke Satoro.
We work across silos, time zones and borders to collectively grapple with issues and find common ground in how we move. We follow the principle that healthy ecosystems are diverse.
Emergence
As Bruce Lee guides us, we adopt the style of Being like water, adaptable to changing landscapes, conditions, and needs. Our work is alive and emergent, sensing the flow of all possibility, and opening to the greatest potential for impact.
Dr Cathy-Mae Karelse
Climate Youth Resilience Lead
Read More
Cathy-Mae Karelse (she/her) is a scholar-practitioner, changemaker and public speaker on issues of race, difference and belonging.
Cathy-Mae is trained in numerous transformation approaches with 20+ years of experience in deep systems change that addresses the underlying social norms and narratives that keep institutionalised discrimination in place. As a Bridger, her work addresses all landscapes and resolves the inner-outer divide. Cathy-Mae is currently the Climate Youth Resilience Lead and works on various policy and change programmes globally.
Author of Disrupting White Mindfulness, her work foregrounds global South, Indigenous and queer communities.
Tiara Samson
Regional Convenor – Asia Pacific
Read More
Tiara is an environmental activist with over five years of experience coordinating campaigns for a global movement. She has supported educators, administrators, and youth in leading on-ground campaigns in 28 countries and equipped them with tools to advance their advocacies for a plastic-free world.
Her expertise revolves around project management, capacity-building, movement-building, and strategy. Prior to this work, Tiara trained as a producer for documentary films. She speaks English, Filipino, Bisaya, and is currently studying French and Kiswahili.
Lauren Uba
Regional Convenor – Europe
Read More
Lauren is a facilitator, educator, public speaker, and community builder. She is the founder of Climate Action Community, an organization that aims to support a collective transition from climate anxiety to climate action. Her work looks at how we might build momentum for systemic transformation through emotional support, contemplation and mindfulness, youth engagement, and systems thinking.
She designs workshops to facilitate authentic expression and being with what is. Her work bridges modern cognitive science, systems thinking and climate psychology to unlock the potential for wisdom and cultural evolution hidden within the meta-crisis.
Taylen Reddy
Regional Convenor – Africa
Read More
Taylen Reddy is an environmental justice advocate and youth leader from Durban, South Africa, dedicated to championing social justice and amplifying the voices of African youth in global climate governance.
As the founder of Zero Waste Durban, Taylen has spearheaded campaigns tackling waste colonialism, plastic pollution, and climate-induced mental health crises, working towards bringing grassroots realities into high-level decision-making spaces. Taylen’s work aims to embody the intersection of environmental sustainability, youth empowerment, and justice-driven solutions for a resilient future
Isadora Bertoli
Regional Convenor – LATAM
Read More
Isadora Bertoli is a certified nutritionist, breathwork instructor, and environmental educator from Brazil. She is the founder of the UFSC Plastic Free Project, which earned her the Innovation Award for a Promising Initiative at the 2018 Students for Zero Waste Conference, USA.
Passionate about co-creating social-environmental impact, Isadora has organized global sustainability events like the “WE ARE Zero Waste Youth” conference in Portugal and led zero-waste initiatives at Rio Carnival. Currently, she guides breathwork and cold exposure retreats, combining health, mindfulness, and environmental consciousness for transformative change.
Isadora Bertoli is a certified nutritionist, breathwork instructor, and environmental educator from Brazil. She is the founder of the UFSC Plastic Free Project, which earned her the Innovation Award for a Promising Initiative at the 2018 Students for Zero Waste Conference, USA.
Passionate about co-creating social-environmental impact, Isadora has organized global sustainability events like the “WE ARE Zero Waste Youth” conference in Portugal and led zero-waste initiatives at Rio Carnival. Currently, she guides breathwork and cold exposure retreats, combining health, mindfulness, and environmental consciousness for transformative change.
Musab Subuh
Regional Convenor – SWANA
Read More
Isadora Bertoli is a certified nutritionist, breathwork instructor, and environmental educator from Brazil. She is the founder of the UFSC Plastic Free Project, which earned her the Innovation Award for a Promising Initiative at the 2018 Students for Zero Waste Conference, USA.
Passionate about co-creating social-environmental impact, Isadora has organized global sustainability events like the “WE ARE Zero Waste Youth” conference in Portugal and led zero-waste initiatives at Rio Carnival. Currently, she guides breathwork and cold exposure retreats, combining health, mindfulness, and environmental consciousness for transformative change.
Musab Subuh is a climate journalist, filmmaker, and writer. He bridges storytelling and advocacy for climate justice, vulnerable communities, and next generations’ rights for a better future.
From covering disasters as a field producer, reporter, and photojournalist to crafting films and articles, he strives to harness the power of storytelling for healing, reconnecting to nature and ancestral knowledge, and fostering collective solidarity. His work spans documentaries on displacement and resilience, articles on the COP process and the global accountability in respect to climate change, and consulting for CSOs to empower youth and amplify collective climate demands.
Rooted in knowledge and practices of connections in honoring the land, through political science and diplomacy knowledge, creative storytelling, he reflects the spiritual and practical actions on advocacy, climate resilience. He works on seeding change for a resilient, safe, and just future—where Earth-human sacred bonds are strengthened to survive, thrive, love, sustain, and live together as one.
Climate Youth Resilience is a global South facing program that operates under the auspices of the Mindfulness Initiative, thanks to the generous support of the Robert Ho Family Foundation.
We are also grateful to Incredible Humans Africa, who bring the heart and spirit of our work to life through their beautiful website design and graphic support of CYR.
Clint Hendricks
Digital Expression
We are so grateful to previous members of the CYR team, including Winnie Cheche.
Cheche continues her incredible work as the EcoAdvocate and an active leader for climate youth in Kenya. We keep her in our hearts as our RC for Africa and our Social Media Queen.
Mézu Ofoegbu
Regional Convenor – North Americas
Read More
Isadora Bertoli is a certified nutritionist, breathwork instructor, and environmental educator from Brazil. She is the founder of the UFSC Plastic Free Project, which earned her the Innovation Award for a Promising Initiative at the 2018 Students for Zero Waste Conference, USA.
Passionate about co-creating social-environmental impact, Isadora has organized global sustainability events like the “WE ARE Zero Waste Youth” conference in Portugal and led zero-waste initiatives at Rio Carnival. Currently, she guides breathwork and cold exposure retreats, combining health, mindfulness, and environmental consciousness for transformative change.
Mézu Ofoegbu (they/them) is an artist-practitioner with over a decade of experience in arts-based interventions that explore social narratives and behaviors related to meaning, ethnic/racial identity, and spirituality.
They are the founder of Infinity Village Lab, a global organization using socially-engaged art to transform mindsets and address local community challenges. As an Ambassador for the City of Atlanta’s Office of Sustainability and Resilience, Mézu developed a global art intervention to conduct community needs assessments and advocate for regional climate innovation. Trained in diverse data storytelling methods, Mézu focuses on building internal capacity and fostering translocal community connections to unlock new potentials for social development and strengthen global resilience.
Reach Out
Join the Climate Youth Resilience Community!
Together we can shape the kinds of services and resources that best serve young people in protecting their wellbeing, and letting their lights shine.
We approach climate resilience and systems change from the inside out.
CYR embeds inner practices in youth organisations, educational programmes and pedagogies, in health systems, in sporting activities, social processes, and anywhere young people are active.
Starting from the inside allows us to unlock our greatest capacities, innate wisdom, leadership, and to build worlds of belonging from this place of power.
We research and report on innovations in inner work across the globe, collect case studies, and explore responses to the impacts of the climate crisis on young people that shift the narrative beyond mental health, wellbeing, and mindfulness
To see the kind faces that support CYR and drive the Mindfulness Initiative forward, please find the Core Team, Board, and Policy Leads here: The Mindfulness Initiative.
We research and report on innovations in inner work across the globe, collect case studies, and explore responses to the impacts of the climate crisis on young people that shift the narrative beyond mental health, wellbeing, and mindfulness
We work with youth leaders, youth-led climate organizations, resilience organisations, and youth and climate networks. We focus on young people 18-35.
60 Ambassadors: Onboard and support 60 young leaders who champion inner-led change and advocate for inner resilience and care within their governments and communities.
Bridge-building across 6 Regions: Deepen intra-regional and inter-regional engagement, and strengthen collaboratives for deep systems change.
Shifting the Narrative: Together with our partners, we bring Inner Resilience & Wellness to the agendas of policymakers, governments, and major climate conferences around the world. We also move beyond mental health impacts by weaving resilience and flourishing.
We don’t change systems alone.
We are grateful that our ambitions are met through our powerful partnerships with aligned organisations all around the world. Together we shift narratives.
We research and report on innovations in inner work across the globe, collect case studies, and explore responses to the impacts of the climate crisis on young people that shift the narrative beyond mental health, wellbeing, and mindfulness
All forms of justice are interrelated. Through lifting up the voices in our community, we build solidarity networks across issues and borders.
Equity
Upholding the rights of all in the ways we work is pivotal to our operations.
Inherent Dignity
Honouring, valuing and listening deeply to all community members acknowledges all our treasured lives and contributions.
Belonging
We are committed to bridging and creating a world in which we all belong. CYR is a community of Bridgers.
About Us
Values
Community
We seek to build a Beloved Community in which our many diverse voices that offer multiple perspectives, collective insights and wisdom, are heard, respected and treasured. We celebrate all unique gifts and talents as nourishment for our community.
Co-creation
Our commitment to co-creation stems from a recognition that we all need to build the networks and worlds we wish to see, together. We rely on our multiple perspectives and insights to ensure that the world richly reflects our many voices and dreams
Collaboration
“Individually we are one drop, together we are an ocean”– Ryonosuke Satoro.
We work across silos, time zones and borders to collectively grapple with issues and find common ground in how we move. We follow the principle that healthy ecosystems are diverse.
Emergence
As Bruce Lee guides us, we adopt the style of Being like water, adaptable to changing landscapes, conditions, and needs. Our work is alive and emergent, sensing the flow of all possibility, and opening to the greatest potential for impact.
Dr Cathy-Mae Karelse
Climate Youth Resilience Lead
Read More
Cathy-Mae Karelse (she/her) is a scholar-practitioner, changemaker and public speaker on issues of race, difference and belonging.
Cathy-Mae is trained in numerous transformation approaches with 20+ years of experience in deep systems change that addresses the underlying social norms and narratives that keep institutionalised discrimination in place. As a Bridger, her work addresses all landscapes and resolves the inner-outer divide. Cathy-Mae is currently the Climate Youth Resilience Lead and works on various policy and change programmes globally.
Author of Disrupting White Mindfulness, her work foregrounds global South, Indigenous and queer communities.
Tiara Samson
Regional Convenor – Asia Pacific
Read More
Tiara is an environmental activist with over five years of experience coordinating campaigns for a global movement. She has supported educators, administrators, and youth in leading on-ground campaigns in 28 countries and equipped them with tools to advance their advocacies for a plastic-free world.
Her expertise revolves around project management, capacity-building, movement-building, and strategy. Prior to this work, Tiara trained as a producer for documentary films. She speaks English, Filipino, Bisaya, and is currently studying French and Kiswahili.
Lauren Uba
Regional Convenor – Europe
Read More
Lauren is a facilitator, educator, public speaker, and community builder. She is the founder of Climate Action Community, an organization that aims to support a collective transition from climate anxiety to climate action. Her work looks at how we might build momentum for systemic transformation through emotional support, contemplation and mindfulness, youth engagement, and systems thinking.
She designs workshops to facilitate authentic expression and being with what is. Her work bridges modern cognitive science, systems thinking and climate psychology to unlock the potential for wisdom and cultural evolution hidden within the meta-crisis.
Taylen Reddy
Regional Convenor – Africa
Read More
Taylen Reddy is an environmental justice advocate and youth leader from Durban, South Africa, dedicated to championing social justice and amplifying the voices of African youth in global climate governance.
As the founder of Zero Waste Durban, Taylen has spearheaded campaigns tackling waste colonialism, plastic pollution, and climate-induced mental health crises, working towards bringing grassroots realities into high-level decision-making spaces. Taylen’s work aims to embody the intersection of environmental sustainability, youth empowerment, and justice-driven solutions for a resilient future
Isadora Bertoli
Regional Convenor – LATAM
Read More
Isadora Bertoli is a certified nutritionist, breathwork instructor, and environmental educator from Brazil. She is the founder of the UFSC Plastic Free Project, which earned her the Innovation Award for a Promising Initiative at the 2018 Students for Zero Waste Conference, USA.
Passionate about co-creating social-environmental impact, Isadora has organized global sustainability events like the “WE ARE Zero Waste Youth” conference in Portugal and led zero-waste initiatives at Rio Carnival. Currently, she guides breathwork and cold exposure retreats, combining health, mindfulness, and environmental consciousness for transformative change.
Isadora Bertoli is a certified nutritionist, breathwork instructor, and environmental educator from Brazil. She is the founder of the UFSC Plastic Free Project, which earned her the Innovation Award for a Promising Initiative at the 2018 Students for Zero Waste Conference, USA.
Passionate about co-creating social-environmental impact, Isadora has organized global sustainability events like the “WE ARE Zero Waste Youth” conference in Portugal and led zero-waste initiatives at Rio Carnival. Currently, she guides breathwork and cold exposure retreats, combining health, mindfulness, and environmental consciousness for transformative change.
Musab Subuh
Regional Convenor – SWANA
Read More
Isadora Bertoli is a certified nutritionist, breathwork instructor, and environmental educator from Brazil. She is the founder of the UFSC Plastic Free Project, which earned her the Innovation Award for a Promising Initiative at the 2018 Students for Zero Waste Conference, USA.
Passionate about co-creating social-environmental impact, Isadora has organized global sustainability events like the “WE ARE Zero Waste Youth” conference in Portugal and led zero-waste initiatives at Rio Carnival. Currently, she guides breathwork and cold exposure retreats, combining health, mindfulness, and environmental consciousness for transformative change.
Musab Subuh is a climate journalist, filmmaker, and writer. He bridges storytelling and advocacy for climate justice, vulnerable communities, and next generations’ rights for a better future.
From covering disasters as a field producer, reporter, and photojournalist to crafting films and articles, he strives to harness the power of storytelling for healing, reconnecting to nature and ancestral knowledge, and fostering collective solidarity. His work spans documentaries on displacement and resilience, articles on the COP process and the global accountability in respect to climate change, and consulting for CSOs to empower youth and amplify collective climate demands.
Rooted in knowledge and practices of connections in honoring the land, through political science and diplomacy knowledge, creative storytelling, he reflects the spiritual and practical actions on advocacy, climate resilience. He works on seeding change for a resilient, safe, and just future—where Earth-human sacred bonds are strengthened to survive, thrive, love, sustain, and live together as one.
Climate Youth Resilience is a global South facing program that operates under the auspices of the Mindfulness Initiative, thanks to the generous support of the Robert Ho Family Foundation.
We are also grateful to Incredible Humans Africa, who bring the heart and spirit of our work to life through their beautiful website design and graphic support of CYR.
Clint Hendricks
Digital Expression
We are so grateful to previous members of the CYR team, including Winnie Cheche.
Cheche continues her incredible work as the EcoAdvocate and an active leader for climate youth in Kenya. We keep her in our hearts as our RC for Africa and our Social Media Queen.
Mézu Ofoegbu
Regional Convenor – North Americas
Read More
Isadora Bertoli is a certified nutritionist, breathwork instructor, and environmental educator from Brazil. She is the founder of the UFSC Plastic Free Project, which earned her the Innovation Award for a Promising Initiative at the 2018 Students for Zero Waste Conference, USA.
Passionate about co-creating social-environmental impact, Isadora has organized global sustainability events like the “WE ARE Zero Waste Youth” conference in Portugal and led zero-waste initiatives at Rio Carnival. Currently, she guides breathwork and cold exposure retreats, combining health, mindfulness, and environmental consciousness for transformative change.
Mézu Ofoegbu (they/them) is an artist-practitioner with over a decade of experience in arts-based interventions that explore social narratives and behaviors related to meaning, ethnic/racial identity, and spirituality.
They are the founder of Infinity Village Lab, a global organization using socially-engaged art to transform mindsets and address local community challenges. As an Ambassador for the City of Atlanta’s Office of Sustainability and Resilience, Mézu developed a global art intervention to conduct community needs assessments and advocate for regional climate innovation. Trained in diverse data storytelling methods, Mézu focuses on building internal capacity and fostering translocal community connections to unlock new potentials for social development and strengthen global resilience.
Reach Out
Join the Climate Youth Resilience Community!
Together we can shape the kinds of services and resources that best serve young people in protecting their wellbeing, and letting their lights shine.
We approach climate resilience and systems change from the inside out.
CYR embeds inner practices in youth organisations, educational programmes and pedagogies, in health systems, in sporting activities, social processes, and anywhere young people are active.
Starting from the inside allows us to unlock our greatest capacities, innate wisdom, leadership, and to build worlds of belonging from this place of power.
We research and report on innovations in inner work across the globe, collect case studies, and explore responses to the impacts of the climate crisis on young people that shift the narrative beyond mental health, wellbeing, and mindfulness
To see the kind faces that support CYR and drive the Mindfulness Initiative forward, please find the Core Team, Board, and Policy Leads here: The Mindfulness Initiative.
We research and report on innovations in inner work across the globe, collect case studies, and explore responses to the impacts of the climate crisis on young people that shift the narrative beyond mental health, wellbeing, and mindfulness
We work with youth leaders, youth-led climate organizations, resilience organisations, and youth and climate networks. We focus on young people 18-35.
60 Ambassadors: Onboard and support 60 young leaders who champion inner-led change and advocate for inner resilience and care within their governments and communities.
Bridge-building across 6 Regions: Deepen intra-regional and inter-regional engagement, and strengthen collaboratives for deep systems change.
Shifting the Narrative: Together with our partners, we bring Inner Resilience & Wellness to the agendas of policymakers, governments, and major climate conferences around the world. We also move beyond mental health impacts by weaving resilience and flourishing.
We don’t change systems alone.
We are grateful that our ambitions are met through our powerful partnerships with aligned organisations all around the world. Together we shift narratives.
We research and report on innovations in inner work across the globe, collect case studies, and explore responses to the impacts of the climate crisis on young people that shift the narrative beyond mental health, wellbeing, and mindfulness
All forms of justice are interrelated. Through lifting up the voices in our community, we build solidarity networks across issues and borders.
Equity
Upholding the rights of all in the ways we work is pivotal to our operations.
Inherent Dignity
Honouring, valuing and listening deeply to all community members acknowledges all our treasured lives and contributions.
Belonging
We are committed to bridging and creating a world in which we all belong. CYR is a community of Bridgers.
About Us
Values
Community
We seek to build a Beloved Community in which our many diverse voices that offer multiple perspectives, collective insights and wisdom, are heard, respected and treasured. We celebrate all unique gifts and talents as nourishment for our community.
Co-creation
Our commitment to co-creation stems from a recognition that we all need to build the networks and worlds we wish to see, together. We rely on our multiple perspectives and insights to ensure that the world richly reflects our many voices and dreams
Collaboration
“Individually we are one drop, together we are an ocean”– Ryonosuke Satoro.
We work across silos, time zones and borders to collectively grapple with issues and find common ground in how we move. We follow the principle that healthy ecosystems are diverse.
Emergence
As Bruce Lee guides us, we adopt the style of Being like water, adaptable to changing landscapes, conditions, and needs. Our work is alive and emergent, sensing the flow of all possibility, and opening to the greatest potential for impact.
Dr Cathy-Mae Karelse
Climate Youth Resilience Lead
Read More
Cathy-Mae Karelse (she/her) is a scholar-practitioner, changemaker and public speaker on issues of race, difference and belonging.
Cathy-Mae is trained in numerous transformation approaches with 20+ years of experience in deep systems change that addresses the underlying social norms and narratives that keep institutionalised discrimination in place. As a Bridger, her work addresses all landscapes and resolves the inner-outer divide. Cathy-Mae is currently the Climate Youth Resilience Lead and works on various policy and change programmes globally.
Author of Disrupting White Mindfulness, her work foregrounds global South, Indigenous and queer communities.
Tiara Samson
Regional Convenor – Asia Pacific
Read More
Tiara is an environmental activist with over five years of experience coordinating campaigns for a global movement. She has supported educators, administrators, and youth in leading on-ground campaigns in 28 countries and equipped them with tools to advance their advocacies for a plastic-free world.
Her expertise revolves around project management, capacity-building, movement-building, and strategy. Prior to this work, Tiara trained as a producer for documentary films. She speaks English, Filipino, Bisaya, and is currently studying French and Kiswahili.
Lauren Uba
Regional Convenor – Europe
Read More
Lauren is a facilitator, educator, public speaker, and community builder. She is the founder of Climate Action Community, an organization that aims to support a collective transition from climate anxiety to climate action. Her work looks at how we might build momentum for systemic transformation through emotional support, contemplation and mindfulness, youth engagement, and systems thinking.
She designs workshops to facilitate authentic expression and being with what is. Her work bridges modern cognitive science, systems thinking and climate psychology to unlock the potential for wisdom and cultural evolution hidden within the meta-crisis.
Taylen Reddy
Regional Convenor – Africa
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Taylen Reddy is an environmental justice advocate and youth leader from Durban, South Africa, dedicated to championing social justice and amplifying the voices of African youth in global climate governance.
As the founder of Zero Waste Durban, Taylen has spearheaded campaigns tackling waste colonialism, plastic pollution, and climate-induced mental health crises, working towards bringing grassroots realities into high-level decision-making spaces. Taylen’s work aims to embody the intersection of environmental sustainability, youth empowerment, and justice-driven solutions for a resilient future
Isadora Bertoli
Regional Convenor – LATAM
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Isadora Bertoli is a certified nutritionist, breathwork instructor, and environmental educator from Brazil. She is the founder of the UFSC Plastic Free Project, which earned her the Innovation Award for a Promising Initiative at the 2018 Students for Zero Waste Conference, USA.
Passionate about co-creating social-environmental impact, Isadora has organized global sustainability events like the “WE ARE Zero Waste Youth” conference in Portugal and led zero-waste initiatives at Rio Carnival. Currently, she guides breathwork and cold exposure retreats, combining health, mindfulness, and environmental consciousness for transformative change.
Isadora Bertoli is a certified nutritionist, breathwork instructor, and environmental educator from Brazil. She is the founder of the UFSC Plastic Free Project, which earned her the Innovation Award for a Promising Initiative at the 2018 Students for Zero Waste Conference, USA.
Passionate about co-creating social-environmental impact, Isadora has organized global sustainability events like the “WE ARE Zero Waste Youth” conference in Portugal and led zero-waste initiatives at Rio Carnival. Currently, she guides breathwork and cold exposure retreats, combining health, mindfulness, and environmental consciousness for transformative change.
Musab Subuh
Regional Convenor – SWANA
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Isadora Bertoli is a certified nutritionist, breathwork instructor, and environmental educator from Brazil. She is the founder of the UFSC Plastic Free Project, which earned her the Innovation Award for a Promising Initiative at the 2018 Students for Zero Waste Conference, USA.
Passionate about co-creating social-environmental impact, Isadora has organized global sustainability events like the “WE ARE Zero Waste Youth” conference in Portugal and led zero-waste initiatives at Rio Carnival. Currently, she guides breathwork and cold exposure retreats, combining health, mindfulness, and environmental consciousness for transformative change.
Musab Subuh is a climate journalist, filmmaker, and writer. He bridges storytelling and advocacy for climate justice, vulnerable communities, and next generations’ rights for a better future.
From covering disasters as a field producer, reporter, and photojournalist to crafting films and articles, he strives to harness the power of storytelling for healing, reconnecting to nature and ancestral knowledge, and fostering collective solidarity. His work spans documentaries on displacement and resilience, articles on the COP process and the global accountability in respect to climate change, and consulting for CSOs to empower youth and amplify collective climate demands.
Rooted in knowledge and practices of connections in honoring the land, through political science and diplomacy knowledge, creative storytelling, he reflects the spiritual and practical actions on advocacy, climate resilience. He works on seeding change for a resilient, safe, and just future—where Earth-human sacred bonds are strengthened to survive, thrive, love, sustain, and live together as one.
Climate Youth Resilience is a global South facing program that operates under the auspices of the Mindfulness Initiative, thanks to the generous support of the Robert Ho Family Foundation.
We are also grateful to Incredible Humans Africa, who bring the heart and spirit of our work to life through their beautiful website design and graphic support of CYR.
Clint Hendricks
Digital Expression
We are so grateful to previous members of the CYR team, including Winnie Cheche.
Cheche continues her incredible work as the EcoAdvocate and an active leader for climate youth in Kenya. We keep her in our hearts as our RC for Africa and our Social Media Queen.
Mézu Ofoegbu
Regional Convenor – North Americas
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Isadora Bertoli is a certified nutritionist, breathwork instructor, and environmental educator from Brazil. She is the founder of the UFSC Plastic Free Project, which earned her the Innovation Award for a Promising Initiative at the 2018 Students for Zero Waste Conference, USA.
Passionate about co-creating social-environmental impact, Isadora has organized global sustainability events like the “WE ARE Zero Waste Youth” conference in Portugal and led zero-waste initiatives at Rio Carnival. Currently, she guides breathwork and cold exposure retreats, combining health, mindfulness, and environmental consciousness for transformative change.
Mézu Ofoegbu (they/them) is an artist-practitioner with over a decade of experience in arts-based interventions that explore social narratives and behaviors related to meaning, ethnic/racial identity, and spirituality.
They are the founder of Infinity Village Lab, a global organization using socially-engaged art to transform mindsets and address local community challenges. As an Ambassador for the City of Atlanta’s Office of Sustainability and Resilience, Mézu developed a global art intervention to conduct community needs assessments and advocate for regional climate innovation. Trained in diverse data storytelling methods, Mézu focuses on building internal capacity and fostering translocal community connections to unlock new potentials for social development and strengthen global resilience.
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Join the Climate Youth Resilience Community!
Together we can shape the kinds of services and resources that best serve young people in protecting their wellbeing, and letting their lights shine.
