Have you heard? The 2022 edition of #WeGotThis is back. This year, we’re diving deep into sustainability, digital skills and community building—the three ingredients to shaking things up and making meaningful noise as an influencer. There’ll be free masterclasses, a boot camp, and six-month-long mentorship support to put that learning into action. Read on for details, and if this resonates with you, join the We Got This movement. Bring your activist and artist friends and tell them to loop in their communities too. Let’s build our power through learning from each other.
We Got This
We Got This, launched in collaboration with Green Is The New Black, WWF-Singapore, Grey Singapore, and presented by Temasek Foundation, is a 6-months practicum and mentorship incubator for sustainability doers and better world seekers to learn about climate and sustainability, innovation, conscious living and digital advocacy. Participants of the incubator will learn through skills-building, hands-on projects, industry mentorship, and purpose-driven career coaching. We’re bringing on board international and national speakers, trainers and mentors, who are prominent movers and shakers in sustainability, to help youths realise their sustainability aspirations.
With the successful completion, and graduation, of the Class of 2021, came the news of the launch of the 2022 rendition. And now we’re looking for the next batch of influencers and advocates. It matters less where you currently are, and more how far you’re willing to go. If you’re an 18-25-year-old English-speaking youth based in Singapore, South Korea, and Southeast Asia, this is for you. Don’t miss your chance!
THE PROGRAMME
PART 1: 3 free masterclasses over three weeks
Master Class 1 (4 May 2022): Sustainability
We’re starting off with the basics of sustainability: climate change is here, but what does it really mean? Melissa Low, a Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions, will help us frame the environmental problem by taking us through the importance of SDGs and what climate action looks like in Asia.
Melissa previously worked at the Energy Studies Institute, NUS where she carried out research projects on a range of energy and climate issues of concern to Singapore and the region. She has participated in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of Parties (COP) for over a decade and is an active sustainability thought leader, authoring, publishing and presenting at various forums.
Subsequently, Boris Le Montagner, a sustainable lifestyle and education consultant at UN Environment Programme (UNEP), will continue the conversation on systemic change and individual change. The solutions exist. We just need to amplify them. Boris carries out research, develops partnerships and implements initiatives to promote policies that enable citizens to live more sustainably while making sustainable living appealing and desirable. Prior to joining UNEP, Boris lived in Myanmar for 5 years where he worked as a photographer, and a civil engineer, organising photo and cinema festivals as well as environmental awareness-raising campaigns.
Master Class 2 (11 May 2022): Digital Marketing
What’s your sustainability mission statement and how can you map that out effectively? Sophia Li is the one to ask. She’s a Chinese-American multimedia journalist and climate advocate, Harvard named her one of the top climate communicators of 2022. She is the host of Meta’s podcast, Climate Talks and co-host of the climate talk show, All of the Above. Sophia’s journalistic reporting has appeared in CNN, Vogue and the United Nations. Sophia is the co-founder of STEWARD, a web3 collective working for people and the planet.
Hannah Méndez will show us how to hack sustainability content creation so that you can build your own community to mobilise for change. Hannah is a Venezuelan-American graduate from Long Island University Global. She is currently working as the Social Editor for Atmos Magazine and is a member of the Bad Activist Collective.
Master Class 3 (18 May 2022): Community Building
Next up we have the founding member of Singapore Climate Rally (SGCR), Kristian Marc, to help you figure out who your target audience is, how to find them and engage a community. Most recently, Kris co-wrote and co-performed Brown Is Haram (2021) at The Substation, a performance lecture on minority-race narratives. He was also a contributing author for white: behind mental health stigma (2020), an anthology on mental health in Singapore.
To end it all, we have Tori Tsui from Bad Activist Collective to remind us to go slow and find joy. Eco anxiety and burnout are common amongst eco advocates, even more so as more time passes under this climate. How can we normalise going slow and finding joy in the work? Tori is intelligent, extraordinary and truly unapologetic in her activism. She utilises her platform to educate and spread awareness of intersectional climate activism and mental health, in an accessible manner that resonates with her followers and new audiences alike.
Tori also launched an initiative called Bad Activist Collective, in which she started with her two friends, discussing how to navigate the pressures of perfect activism in an imperfect world. With a previous career freelancing as a photographer and media creator, Tori has gained crucial insight into how brands and companies can improve on complex yet interlinked intersectional issues. As a result, Tori is an intersectional consultant for companies and global brands who are seeking expert advice from a voice of authority on topics spanning climate activism, environmentalism, mental health and inclusivity across all marginalised communities.
Our masterclasses start on 4th May 2022: sign up to join the movement!
PART 2: 5 days intensive boot camp for 50 successful applicants
As you go for these masterclasses, remember to take notes because you’ll need them for the boot camp. Applications for this intense 5-day boot camp in July are open till 20th May, after which 50 selected youth participants will be part of the incubator programme to discuss the following topics:
Day 1 – Building Sustainability Knowledge
Day 2 – Finding Your Place
Day 3 – Getting Down to Business
Day 4 – Walking the Talk
Day 5 – Sustaining Your Activism
We’ve carefully curated this programme to best empower and build the capacity (skills/knowledge/tools) of youths who aspire to drive change through their own social advocacy.
PART 3: 5-month mentorship
After the boot camp, participants will be matched (individually or in teams) with a mentor based on their interests and skills. There will be three broad teams for this and we will be covering: Sustainability knowledge; Campaigns or Project Management; and Leadership and People Development.
According to WWF-Singapore’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr R. Raghunathan, “people have shown unprecedented mobilisation around the world and are scaling up their efforts and using their skills to accelerate climate action. They will be the most affected by climate change, and we have a job to do to empower their efforts and make their voices heard.” In case anyone needed to hear it: we got this. And we can’t wait to mobilise everyone and start these waves of change. To learn more about the movement, follow We Got This on Instagram and keep an eye out for more updates.