OUR GUIDING VALUES
Collectively developed by the R40 team, these are the values that ground our work and guide our decision making, project development and collaborations.
ORIENT TOWARDS SOLUTIONS
Our work centres around advocating for tangible solutions to the ecological, social justice, and climate crises. We work at a multi-scalar level with a variety of partners and stakeholders, from grassroots movements and community groups to international NGOs and institutions. Above all, we prioritise working with youth.
EMPOWER YOUTH
Youth empowerment means financing youth work, valuing youth voices, opening meaningful space for youth as equal decision-makers, and building our own spaces when necessary. We commit to noticing those not sharing decision-making power, making their absence visible, and sharing space with them.
CENTRE PEOPLE, EQUITY, AND JUSTICE
At The Resilient40, we believe that people and nature are deeply interconnected. This requires an intersectional and decolonial approach to tackling various forms of inequity and sovereignty within climate and environmental action that considers the diversity and power relations between and within different social groups. It also demands centering environmental justice, land justice, energy justice, social/economic justice and climate justice. Furthermore, it involves making a concerted effort as a network to continuously critique our own ways of knowing and working.
COMMIT TO LEARNING
Knowledge is the foundation for all of the work that we do. Knowledge is inclusive of climate and biodiversity science, lived experience, and community-held knowledge. In recognizing this we uphold the knowledge of Indigenous groups, frontline communities, and marginalized people within the reciprocal and regenerative solutions we advocate for and lead on. We commit to continuously learning from all spheres, conducting our own research, and actively listening to the experts from every corner.
UPHOLD OUR AUTONOMY
We retain autonomy over our work and identity as a by-youth, for-youth network. We retain autonomy over ourselves as individuals and as young people working in partnership with established institutions. By remaining autonomous, we assert our independence as a network and the right to make decisions regarding the work we do, partnerships we accept, and the freedom to assert our views and perspectives.
CHANGE DECISION-MAKING STRUCTURES
Ambitious, integrated action towards the environmental and social crises is necessary at a governance level if we are to maintain a livable planet for current and future generations. We advocate for policy and politicians that align with this. We must address intergenerational injustice by meaningfully integrating the role of youth as decision-makers and problem-solvers. Our vision for the future is one where bottom-up decision making is the norm, where local people share in the responsibility for governance, and diverse opinions are valued.
THINK OF THE SYSTEM
Systems-change requires systems-thinking. If we fail to act on the socio-political, economic, and ecological crises in front of us in an integrated way, we will not achieve our goals. We are committed to upholding our values in the ways that we work as a team and are actively working to break down silos through an interdisciplinary approach that is rooted in the recognition of relationships between ecological and human wellbeing that are reciprocal and regenerative, and upholds them at all times.
