The People Speak and Americans for Informed Democracy will soon be launching a new initiative to support students inspired by the preservation of our climate. This initiative, called Climate Crews, will support entrepreneurial approaches toward climate and renewable energy activism on campus and create mini-films on this activism that can serve as toolkits for other young people.

The Climate Crews initiative will unfold in four phases:

Phase 1: July 1, 2007 to September 1, 2007

AID will disseminate a call for proposals on July 1, 2007, for student-led climate and energy campaigns to more than 100,000 student leaders

Phase 2: September 1, 2007 to October 15, 2007

AID will screen the proposals, select ten winners, host a weekend retreat in early October with these winners in Washington, D.C., in collaboration with The People Speak and give out 10 mini-grants of $500 each to implement the proposals.

Phase 3: October 15, 2007 to December 15, 2007

The campaigns will take place in local communities and mini-films on each of the campaigns will be sent to AID and be posted on AID’s People Speak webpage. AID will coordinate a public vote on the top three films and the winners will be featured by the United Nations Foundation through it’s The People Speak site for others to emulate

Phase 4: December 16 to January 31, 2008

AID will provide mini-grants of $200 and staff support to students who seek to use the video toolkit to launch a similar climate and energy campaign in their community. The events will especially be aimed to take place on January 31, 2008 to coincide with the “Focus the Nation” day of discussion and action on global warming.

Check back on this site on July 1^st to apply to become a climate entrepreneur!

Click here to see a more in depth step-by-step overview of Climate Crews.

Click here to learn about a similar contest currently taking place for student entrepreneurs interested in running campaigns to raise awareness and funds to fight malaria.