Blue Pacific Youth Initiative

Overview

The Blue Pacific Youth Initiative (BPYI) is a network of activities reinforcing Pacific youths’ role as caretakers of their ocean continent and home. Structured around five interwoven pillars, the initiative trains and mobilizes rural Pacific youth to lead their communities toward adaptation and resilience.

The Peace Corps launched the Blue Pacific Youth Initiative in 2023 with the financial support of USAID, and its staff and Volunteers spearhead activities in deep collaboration with local, national, and Pacific-wide organizations. The initiative connects and strengthens the many youth environmental activities that are already catalyzing positive change in the Pacific.

The initiative's five pillars

1. Environmental education: Enhance localized environmental education resources and support youths' learning
2. Community assessments: Train youth to assess the evolving realities and needs of their communities
3. Adaptation and resilience activities: Bolster youths' ability to lead localized responses to environmental vulnerabilities, from adaptation activities to disaster preparedness
4. Camps, clubs, and networks: Expand youth networks and center environment within a variety of youth camps, clubs, and other empowerment activities
5. Summits and exchanges: Elevate youth leadership development opportunities through summits, workshops, and international exchanges

Blue Pacific Youth Champions

Blue Pacific Youth Champions is a signature program within the Blue Pacific Youth Initiative. Crafted as a year-long academy, the program engages rural youth in cross-Pacific learning and dialogue that deepens their ability to guide communities’ resilience journeys and safeguard their heritage.

Through the Youth Champions program, cohorts of rural youth from participating Pacific countries travel throughout the Pacific learning adaptation and resilience strategies, then return to their own communities to spearhead projects and train peers to do the same.