CYR Ambassadors for Inner-Led Change

CYR Ambassadors will learn a range of skills drawing on their own knowledges and lived experience, and on programmeme content. Listed below are some of the qualities Ambassadors will nurture.

• Capacity to advocate for the necessity of inner care in public conversation and policymaking
• Deepened confidence in one’s own gifts, inherent wisdom, embodied leadership
• Practice engaging with pathways for liberation and peacebuilding, from the inside to the outside
• Speak confidently about the importance of caring for the whole of our beings
• Bridge divides when they encounter them in their community or globally
• Feel strengthened in their leadership and in bringing inner work to general climate and environmental considerations
• Lead communities in ways that acknowledge the link between climate impacts and mental health
• Leadership in appreciating how to tap into the innate wisdom and knowledges and bring these to climate action
• We will continue to emphasise decolonisation and build capacities to show up confidently in challenging spaces that perpetuate dominant narratives
• Cultivating cultures of care

Through practicing together, CYR Ambassadors will:

• elevate inner resilience while at the same time bridging and blending the inner and outer and kindling our relationships with nature
• recognise the toll on young people of climate impacts, providing care and nurturing capacities for bridging and building worlds of belonging
• participate in a growing global movement that cares about mental health and wellbeing as well as cultivating practices that protect kindness, compassion, gratitude, joy, insight, wisdom and hidden knowledges.

If you are inspired by worldmaking, inner-led change, cultivating and spreading practices of care, tapping into our innate wisdom, weaving ancestral and indigenous sciences with modern nervous system sciences, we are so happy you found us.

To make the most of this programme, we are looking for young people who are already in positions of leadership in their organisations. We are focusing on participants who already have a platform with which to amplify this work – for example, leaders of climate organisations, community programmes, and local resilience networks. Ideally our Ambassadors are already part of the global Climate Youth Resilience community. If your organisation is not yet on the map, please join us before applying to the Ambassador programme. Contact cyr@mindfulnessinitative.org.uk for more information.

1. First, please register your interest via this form.
2. We will provide you with further information about the programme by email.
3. We will be hosting Information Sessions in April 2025 if you would like more information about the programmes and CYR before you apply.
4. Complete the application form with references. Applications will close on Tuesday 15 April 2025.
5. Applications will be reviewed between Tues 15th – 18th April.
6. Interviews held with shortlisted applicants in the week commencing April 21st.
7. Selected Applicants Notified: April 28
8. First Global Gathering of CYR Ambassador candidates will take place in the week commencing May 5

There will be a shortlisting process to select best placed applicants. We are particularly looking for young people with sufficient experience as well as organizational and community support.

If selected for the program, we ask that Ambassadors commit to full attendance and participation, including live calls, ‘coursework,’ and the preparation of a capstone project proposal that will be published on our website.

Currently, this programme will be delivered primarily in English. CYR Regional Conveners will provide translations as far as we can to facilitate greater participation, access, and understanding.

While it is our ambition to make this programme multilingual, we cannot yet guarantee that learning materials will be translated. CYR remains committed to correcting this limitation.

This programme is held completely online via Zoom. As a result, strong Internet access with video conferencing capacity is required. This virtual platform is an essential component of the CYR Ambassador programme and we request that all applicants have sufficient Internet access to participate with ease across the eight months.

All levels of inner practice are welcome. We hope that all participants have enthusiasm for this transformative approach to climate action and social change. Additionally, we ask that our CYR Ambassadors have care, compassion, and respect for one another.

Our values are: Collaboration, Community, Co-creation, and Emergence. We practice “power with” and “power within.” This means that we leverage difference, know when to step back so others can step in, and we are sensitive to power dynamics and how we show up.

We will shape the foundations of compassion, kindness, and worldmaking in our time together.

If you are aligned with these values, please join us.

No, the CYR Ambassadors programme is offered completely free to everyone who is admitted to the cohort. This is thanks to the generosity of the Robert H N Ho Foundation. Your contribution to this programme is your presence and attention during the sessions, and commitment and dedication to your learning process, your peers, and the community you represent. Your capstone project proposal will be presented to other ambassadors and will be published on our website.

If you are a potential funder and would like to support this programme, please contact cyr@mindfulnessinitiative.org.uk. We are actively looking for financial support to increase our capacity to deliver this programme in the global South.If you are aligned with these values, please join us.

For the time being, this program is offered in English. We are working hard to find a solution to deliver translations but cannot promise that translations will be available by the time the program begins. Please let us know if you have any suggestions to make the program more accessible – we are very open to your ideas!