Dream In Green: Empowering youth in climate change

‘’ Being able to continue for 16 years proves that the services we are providing are not all only needed but wanted as well, so I think that is a great achievement’’ Guerrero added.

One of the major achievements of Dream In Green is that it was able to reach 135 schools this year which is considered the maximum number of schools since the inauguration of the organization.

 ‘’Now we're actually expanding not only in Miami-Dade County, but we started working with schools in Broward County and we are planning a pilot program for Palm Beach County as well. So that means we have three really big counties here in South Florida that we'll be working with. So I think that is a great achievement ‘’  Guerrero said.

Guerrero announced her participation in the COP27 this year noting that this the first COP to participate in.

‘’We were involved a little bit last year through a partnership with the British Consulate since COP 26 last year was in Glasgow. We actually worked with the British Consulate last year to do a student symposium that had students from Miami-Dade College, which is our largest community college in US  with two schools in Great Britain as we did a virtual symposium with the students, so COP 26 was our kind of introduction’’ Guerrero said.

Pertaining to COP 27 Guerrero added that they are working with a national organization called Climate Generation that brings delegates every year.

‘’ So I applied to participate in COP27 and will going to participate in the second week of COP27 and I will speak in one of its panels with the other delegates’’ Guerrero added.

The idea of the panel is really focusing on youth empowerment. ‘’ The common aspect among all of us as American delegates participating in COP27 is that we all work with youth or work with leaders of youth organizations. So the purpose of the panel is to share what we do individually to engage youth and why it's important for us to give them a voice when we talk about climate change and solutions to climate change” Guerrero said.

Guerrero added that Dream In Green will perform live video during COP 27 to try to bring in some live interviews with people there.

 During COP27 Dream In Green hopes to connect not only with local boots on the ground, but to connect as well with organizations that are doing work with youth and empower them to have a voice and also seeing what is on the table to make decisions that are going to impact climate policy and how to bring that all back to Miami.

‘’ What I am really hoping to get out of COP27 is to see what solutions other countries have and to know more about the successful work other organizations are implementing’’ Guerreo recounted.

Guerrero said because they are  relatively small organization, they can't be everywhere and do everything.

Guerrero further explained that Youth play significant role in climate change sector and they're driving the movement.

‘’I think even though we had the Paris Climate Agreement that brought the big players and big countries to the table the youth are the ones who are holding these countries accountable and they are the ones saying yes we can do it, and you haven't done this and I think that this add the needed pressure on countries and corporations so leaders have to listen to youth voices” Guerrero said.

 Guerrero said that they have in Miami the Everglades, the Bay and a lot of green space.

“But it's not only about having the green space, it's about how you nurture and take care of it” Guerrero added.

Guerrero explained that through Green School's Challenge Program they are keen to make sure that the teachers have the knowledge and the information to empower their students with specific topics.

“ What's the science behind this project? What's the history? How can we promote conservation and why should we? So we build that base and then it's up to the students to take it further and go in front of their government officials and advocate for improvements” Guerrero recounted.

 Guerrero said that she is glad and excited that Egypt will host COP27.

“ Well, I think it's great to have the COP27 in Egypt because if the whole purpose of COP27 is to bring us all together it can't just be held in developed countries because I feel like then we shut out half of the population and this will be very elitist” Guerrero recounted.

Guerrero added that having Egypt as COP27 host will bring the focus to an important part of the world.

“ So I am glad to be part of COP 27 and super excited because I feel like it shows that there are other countries that are stepping up and not from the G seven or something” Guerrero added.

On how hard it is to draw the international community attention to climate change Guerrero added that it's easier now than it was 10 years ago.

Pertaining to the role of media in raising awareness about climate change Guerrero admitted that the media has improved the awareness about climate change.

“There are a couple of local news stations that now have their meteorologist and their press gives special focus to environmental issues and every week on the weekends, our meteorologists, every time talk about a storm or they talk about a system coming through, they also bring in climate change and how it has been affected” Guerrero recounted.

Guerrero’s message to the international community is to listen to the people who are working on the ground, have the needed local expertise and know their solutions to climate change crisis.

Climate change crisis requires regionally specific solutions. “You need to have those experts, those local organizations that can tell you this solution is not gonna work for this particular community or for this particular environment because of X, Y, and Z. For example Florida is a huge state, their environment and the way they do things is very different than Miami, so US can't really know everything about every particular region in the country and what they're going through. So that is the importance of the local community being at the table and really guiding their government of what's going on and what can be done” Guerrero

Guerrero personally wishes that both local and national government would give more support to organizations like Dream in Green.

“We have very small staff and every year we depend mostly on individual foundations for support and sometimes government grants” Guerrero.