Vision

Our vision for our stewardship project was to teach the community, specifically but not limited to youth, about caring for the environment by minimizing fast fashion consumption and spreading awareness about the various ways to extend the lifespan of clothing and avert it from landfills. Our project started on February 22nd 2023, and its anticipated ending is May 31st 2023, but we wanted our project to be memorable and allow community members to change their consumption habits in the long term.

Action

Our team is composed of Hamilton secondary school students who participate in Green Venture’s Youth Stewardship and Professional Skills Program. To execute our vision, we developed our professional skills, such as grant and email writing, communicated with local environmental and fashion experts, and planned three activities. Our main project is a magazine that features information about fast fashion, environmentally conscious shopping advice, articles written by fashion experts such as Mary Luciani from The Pale Blue Dot, and more. The majority of our articles were written by our group members. Our magazine will be distributed online and have physical copies available.

We supported Green Venture’s spring clothing swap by curating a section of clothing specifically targeted towards adolescents, asking four fashion questions, and having an in-depth discussion with youth about experiences with fast fashion and how it affected their view of fashion and sustainability. Our four fashion questions were:
– What does sustainable fashion mean to you?
– How do you define your personal style?
– How do you maintain your clothing to expand its lifespan?
– Have you ever tried upcycling or a DIY clothing project? If so, what have you made?

At the clothing swap, we spread awareness about fast fashion to approximately 85 people and diverted 639 items from the landfill.

We hosted one of Green Venture’s Nature Kids programs. Our events were bracelet making, clothing decoration, and answering our four fashion questions.

Reflection & Celebration

We successfully introduced the concept of fast fashion to over one hundred people (twenty kids and over eighty community members). Our magazine is yet to be released, but we anticipate that it will be a success amongst youth, Eco Teams, fashion classes, and those who are interested in furthering their knowledge about fast fashion. We are extremely proud of our stewardship project because of its multiple elements, number of people reached in three months, and our personal development throughout the process.

We greatly appreciate Green Venture for providing us the opportunity to make an impact on the community, and Learning for a Sustainable Future, where we received a grant.

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