The Climate Parent Fellowship aims to support, connect, and amplify climate parent organizers as they grow their creative ideas, campaigns, projects, and contribute to the emerging climate-parent movement.
Our first group of Fellows were appointed in July 2021. Applications for our second cohort of Fellows closed on 15 March 2022.
Fellows receive training, mentorship, and a part-time stipend, which aims to make their climate organizing work more sustainable. The Fellowship also acts as a peer-to-peer learning network.
Fellows are people who are playing a significant role in the climate parent movement or they are bringing in a new idea or concept with strong potential to strengthen the climate parent movement.
Find out about our selection criteria here. We are currently reviewing the Fellowship applications and will be touch about interviews in mid/late May 2022.
The Fellowship is a joint project between Our Kids Climate and Parents For Future Global.
Meet the current Fellows
The Climate Parent Fellowship supports, amplifies, and connects parent-led, intergenerational, and family-centered climate organizing work.
Our first Fellowship cohort is composed of 12 women from 11 countries: Brazil, Canada, Ghana, India, New Zealand, Nigeria, Poland, South Africa, Vietnam, the UK, and the US.
The Fellowship is currently supporting these 12 talented climate leaders as they grow their creative ideas, campaigns, projects, and contribute to the growing climate-parent movement.
The group meets monthly for community building meetings and/or training sessions about storytelling, media training, fundraising, team building, volunteer management, etc.
Learn More about the Fellowship
No, the Fellowship closed for applications on Tuesday 15 March. We will announce our new group of Fellows in June 2022. The Fellowship will open for new applications in 2023.
No, we can only accept applications through our application portal.
Our application portal will NOT save answers if you lose power or connection mid-way through applying, so if you have concerns about your connection we recommend you prepare your answers to the application questions offline and copy them into the application form.
The Fellowship is now closed for applications. We will open for new applications in 2023.
You will receive a confirmation email to let you know that we have received your application. If you have any concerns about whether your application has been received please contact us at parentclimatefellowship@gmail.com
The Fellowship was open for applications from Monday 7 February – Tuesday 15 March at 11:59pm ET. We are currently reviewing applications and will be in touch about interviews by mid/late May. The Fellowship will begin on 1 July 2022.
The Climate-Parent Fellowship is intended to support people who are working on parent-led, intergenerational, and/or family-focused climate engagement and organizing. We strongly encourage people to apply if they are already doing work in this area or if they have an idea for a new project that would contribute to the emerging climate-parent community.
Our ideal candidate would be an inspiring organizer, activist, or leader who is already engaged in developing new ideas or leading organizational strategy, is highly collaborative, and does not have access to existing funding sources. We are interested in fellows engaging in a range of climate engagement and movement strategies: creative (storytelling, film, blog, podcast, book, social media, etc), school campaigns, legal strategies, sustainable behavior programs, grassroots/community organizing, corporate focussed strategies, and others.
This is a global Fellowship. Candidates from all countries are eligible to apply. We particularly welcome applicants from diverse backgrounds and expect that at least half of the Fellows appointed will be from the Global South. We’d also encourage applications from people with diverse backgrounds in the Global North.
This Fellowship is an opportunity for individuals; it is not open to group applications. Where there are several people from a single group or organization interested in the Fellowship we highly encourage groups to discuss, select and nominate one person per organization.
Where there are several people from a single group or organization interested in the Fellowship we highly encourage groups to discuss, select, and nominate one person per organization and for it to be made clear in the application form that this group discussion has taken place.
If more than one person from a single group applies it must be clear in the application how their work is differentiated and the role they are playing; if that is not clear, the selection team may revert to groups to help us identify the best candidate to progress.
The final number of Fellows will be determined in part by the applications we receive but we estimate that we will select 10-12 Fellows. At least half will be from the Global South.
Yes, currently the Fellowship (monthly calls and mentorship) are run in English and you need to have enough English to be able to participate in these calls. However, many Fellows and many of the team and trainers supporting the Fellowship will not be native English speakers, so we would encourage you to apply if you think your English may be sufficient.
The application process is also in English, but applications will be judged on the ideas and potential contribution to the community, not on the accuracy of spelling/grammar.
No. Applicants must be over 18 years old but in addition to parent-led climate organizations, we will consider all applicants working on intergenerational and family-friendly climate organizing. Although we expect a majority of Fellows selected will be parents or grandparents, we already have some non-parent Fellows.
No. Our first cohort was made up of 12 women but the Fellowship is open to both male and female candidates. The climate parent movement is currently predominately female-led and the first cohort is reflective of this.
Are not focused on climate-parent organizing, intergenerational, and family-focused climate organizing.
Are already working for a well-funded organization or have access to major funds and resources. If your group or organization has 2 (or 3) full time employees working on parent-led climate engagement this Fellowship is probably not for you.
Are not currently working in partnership or collaboration with others at the local, national, and/or international levels.
Can’t commit time to developing their group, organization, project, or idea throughout the year, and to participate in the global cohort activities.
Selected Fellows will be awarded a part-time stipend to help carry out their work for this 12 month Fellowship program. This amount will vary depending on the country based on a cost of living comparison. The stipend amount has previously ranged from $8,000 – $20,000 USD.
Please note: the Fellowship stipend is intended to fund part of the Fellow’s time and efforts during the one year period. It is not equivalent to a full-time salary. We expect it to cover 1-2 days of a Fellow’s time.
It is important to note that Fellows will be responsible for paying national taxation after they receive the funding and that for some Fellows receiving this stipend may affect, for example, benefits they are eligible for.
Fellows will have access to peer-to-peer learning, monthly training/discussion sessions, communications support, and a small amount of tailored 1:1 mentoring.
The Fellowship does not come with a job description – this is funding to support Fellows to do their own work. We expect Fellows to spend time further developing their existing idea/group/organization/project or working to launch their new project.
Fellows will also be expected to actively participate in monthly online training sessions, mentorship opportunities, and use the skills gained for the benefit of others in their community. They will also be expected to help build the Fellowship community by providing peer-to-peer support to other Fellows, and actively participating in discussions.
Fellows are expected to engage in assessment of the Fellowship by providing input and feedback (short report and surveys) about their experience of the program. They also will have their stories shared on Our Kids’ Climate and Parent For Future Global websites/ social media channels.
As well as a stipend to support their work, the Fellowship will help Fellows gain new skills (in fundraising, media, storytelling, and more). The Fellowship also aims to increase confidence and give Fellows a community of climate organizers across the world that they can draw on for inspiration and support. We expect this network to last long after the formal Fellowship has ended.
The deadline for applications was Tuesday 15 March 2022. We hope to open for new applications in early 2023.
If you have further questions about the Fellowship please email parentclimatefellowship@gmail.com.
Yes, applicants are required to provide contact details for two references from within the climate-parent or broader climate movement. We are looking for collaborative people and therefore it is highly likely that some people will be both applicants and also references.
We will not always contact references but will reach out to referees for some candidates to help us better understand the candidate and their work.
Applications will be judged on how closely the candidate meets the Fellowship criteria. We advise you to read it closely and ensure the answers in your application show how you meet this criteria.
Applications will be assessed by the Fellowship team and by a selection committee comprising of key members of Parents For Future Global and Our Kids’ Climate, and diverse external committee members with expertise on climate engagement in particular geographies.
In cases where selection committee members are already working closely with an applicant, the selection committee member(s) will recuse themselves from decision making.
Yes, we would encourage you to apply again. There was high demand for Fellowship spaces and the competition was fierce. We received many brilliant applications, including from people who would have been fantastic Fellows but who we were not able to offer a space to last year. The criteria for the Fellowship has changed this year, we suggest you look at it carefully. You may want to reference that you applied before when you fill in your new application, but we will not review your previous application again. Please assume that the team reviewing your new application has no previous knowledge of your work and ensure your new application refers to how you meet the new criteria as this is how your application will be judged.
We are seeking to raise more funding to increase the amount of training and mentorship available to make this an ongoing Fellowship programme. We would welcome any fundraising input.
We are looking for skilled and experienced mentors to offer support to the Fellows. If you have relevant experience and might be interested in supporting one or more of the Fellows as a mentor, we’d love to hear from you.
Please contact parentclimatefellowship@gmail.com if you can help. With the subject “Supporting Climate Parent Fellowship”.
We are grateful to our incredibly supportive funders who have offered direct support for this Fellowship project – Equation Campaign, UMI Fund and NorthLight Foundation. Without their support this Fellowship would not be possible and we have appreciated their feedback, encouragement and partnership on this project.