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.
Our Mission
Mark Dutlow
Website Development
Safia Stodel
Design and IllustrationThe CYR Team
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 are activating a global movement of resilient, agile young climate leaders. We deliver capacity-building programs that nourish and engage the inner qualities that make good leaders: courage, compassion, peace, and imagination. We collect and share resources for inner-led change, acknowledging context and culture and leveraging our diversity.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 18-35.60 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 We are activating a global movement of resilient, agile young climate leaders. We deliver capacity-building programs that nourish and engage the inner qualities that make good leaders: courage, compassion, peace, and imagination. We collect and share resources for inner-led change, acknowledging context and culture and leveraging our diversity.Principles
Climate Justice is Social Justice
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 MoreCathy-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 MoreTiara 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 MoreLauren 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 MoreTaylen 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
Monique Sundree Rodgers
Regional Convenor – United Kingdom 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.
Monique is an ecologist whose work is rooted in love, joy and justice. Her work explores Nature-based movement practices – freediving, trail running, surfing, skating, wild swimming – as powerful practices of freedom.
She is experienced at facilitating spaces for environmental leaders and youth across the globe to lead with love and courage as an antidote to our intersecting global crises’. She believes that transforming our current crises is the call of our times, and supports leaders and young people on this journey.
Monique has authored work on marginalised communities accessing the ocean and national parks in the UK and South Africa. She has written a chapter on wild swimming as an embodied decolonial practice for her paper on Joy in Decolonising. She’s contributed to a British publication, Walkbook Recipes, with her piece titled Walking Together Across Space and Time. She has also researched and written a piece on Extinction, Economy and Environmentalism for Art.Earth.
Riza Annisa Anggraeni
Regional Convenor – Asia-Pacific 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.
Riza is an environmental advocate and mountaineer. Operating at the intersection of mountain ecosystem conservation, climate justice, and global policy transformation, her work focuses on shifting top-down systems to ensure that local knowledge voices actively drive the international environmental agenda.
Through narrative storytelling across media platforms, intergenerational advocacy alongside youth, and capacity-building for mountain communities, she equips local inhabitants to speak for their own realities: challenging dominant narratives without depending on external representatives. Her approach seamlessly integrates strategic foresight to navigate future ecological scenarios with emotional intelligence and resilience, cultivating climate leadership that is deeply empathetic, self-aware, and enduring.
She believes authentic ecological transformation is only possible when centralized structures yield to local empowerment, returning narrative sovereignty to the communities who inhabit the land
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 ExpressionWe 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.
Sinethemba Mtshali
Regional Convenor – Sub-Saharan Africa 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.
Sinethemba Mtshali is a social entrepreneur, visionary and creator who is passionate about Africa. Specifically creating systems that form the foundations of a liberated Africa. ‘Where our land our & people are emancipated.’
She is the founder of a former climate tech startup Bxrderless, where together with South African youth, decreased the learning curve of geospatial & mapping technologies. Increasing the adaptive capacity of the average African who are the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Now her work is anchored in care and moving with the rhythms instead of against it
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.calm stream
Amber Amoo-Gottfried
Regional Convenor – United Kingdom (ICRA) 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.
Amber (they/she) is a climate justice advocate and learning designer for social change. Their work brings together intersectional, interdisciplinary, and intergenerational approaches to build inclusive climate action through community-led practice. They’re passionate about the power of young people to reimagine and rebuild towards new futures which are just and joyful for all.
Outside of their work with CYR, Amber works on a Pan-European, national, and local level – with Union of Justice, Young Trustees Movement, and Bristol Tree Craft – to embed social justice in civic leadership and environmental action. They are also a Board Trustee for British nature-connection collective, The Visionaries
Ronke Ayoola
Regional Convenor – United Kingdom (ICRA) 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.
Ronke Ayoola is a youth advocate, climate educator, facilitator, and yoga teacher with a long-standing career supporting young people to lead change across climate, education, and social justice movements internationally. Her work centres young people’s lived experience, wisdom, and emotional worlds, with a particular commitment to equity, care, and collaborative leadership.
She has worked across grassroots initiatives, international networks, and participatory programmes, building bridges between young people, institutions, and community-based organisations. Alongside her advocacy work, Ronke is a certified yoga teacher, bringing contemplative and embodied practices into her facilitation and strategy work to support resilience, deep listening, and collective wellbeing. Her approach sits at the intersection of inner transformation and systemic change, foregrounding the voices of those most often excluded from decision-making spaces.
Hajar Chams Eddine
Regional Convenor – Southwest Asia and North Africa 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.
Hajar is a researcher and community facilitator from Morocco. She specialises in climate resilience, community justice, and environmental humanities in SWANA and Africa. Her advocacy explores climate action grounded in inner-led change, collective care, and community-led transformation. She worked for many years as a development consultant and policy researcher on climate action, global health, and the Global Goal on Adaptation. Hajar designs and facilitates learning spaces emphasising mental wellbeing, decolonial practice, and systems transformation. She is also the creator of The Wujud Project, a platform where she explores climate advocacy, identity, and inner transformation through creative storytelling and writing. Hajar holds a master’s in environmental economics.
Xonzy Luz Gaddis
Regional Convenor – 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.
Xonzy Luz Gaddis is an international policy advocate, community builder, and educator. She is a Community Engagement Liaison in Texas, and her work focuses intensely on bridging communities in Texas on issues of environment, infrastructure, public safety, and wellness. Her work looks at how we might build momentum for systemic transformation through restorative justice, youth engagement, and environmental policy.
She has designed community-centered programs in Colombia, legal clinics in the Southern United States, and language networks between global indigenous communities to facilitate equitable access to justice and sustainable development. Her work bridges international legal frameworks and grassroots empowerment to unlock the potential for cultural evolution and resilience hidden within systemic regional challenges.