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Youth Climate Action Community Outreach Framework: A Theoretical Study
Dean Richardson, Gabriela Haruta, Shaillina Rai, Lauren Scriven, Elizabeth Ma
To cite: Richardson, D., Haruta, G., & Rai, S. (2025). Youth Climate Action Community Outreach Framework: A Theoretical Study. International Journal of Youth-Led Research, 5(1).
http://doi.org/10.56299/opq345
Received August 31, 2025
Accepted October 1, 2025
Highlights
This is a youth-led theoretical study. Youth researchers took all initiatives and made all decisions throughout the research process.
This study addresses the persistent gap in climate action research: a lack of youth voices.
With a strong emphasis on youth leadership and community context, this study offers a practical guide for young people seeking to take meaningful climate action and create positive change in their communities.
ABSTRACT
Objectives This study aims to develop a theoretical framework that empowers youth to lead community-based climate action and demonstrates how structured guidance and supportive principles can enable sustainable, context-specific impact.
Methods Through conceptual development and operationalization processes, the study formulates the YCACO Framework and examines its applicability using mental-model thought experiments grounded in five country case studies.
Discussion The optimized YCACO Framework provides a structured, community-centered model for youth-led climate action that can be readily applied in real community contexts. The study provides both methodological and practical contributions, offering a promising approach to addressing longstanding gaps in youth climate action research. Although it is constrained by limited youth representation in existing literature and the inherent limitations of thought-experiment methods, the findings nonetheless demonstrate the framework’s potential to strengthen and guide youth-led climate action.
Keywords Climate action, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), community outreach, youth leadership, youth empowerment
INTRODUCTION
© Author(s) 2025. Re-use permitted under CC By-NC.
No commercial re-use.
See rights and permissions. Published by IJYLR.
Youth Research Vox,
Los Angeles, CA, U.S.
Correspondence to
Dean Richardson
dzrichardson08@yahoo.com
Climate change represents one of the most pressing challenges of the twenty-first century, with its escalating impacts placing the safety and well-being of future generations at increasing risk (Chalupka et al., 2023). Youth voices are particularly critical in this debate. For example, 78% of young adults in Australia (ages 18–20) report climate change as a serious concern, compared with only 50% of adults over 60 (Baldwin et al., 2023). Despite their passion, aspiring youth activists often encounter numerous barriers that limit their ability to lead effective climate action. Youth-led initiatives frequently struggle to generate lasting impact, especially in communities where climate change effects are most pronounced (Gutterman, 2024; Oakland, 2007). Research further shows that many young people express low hope, limited self-efficacy, and a sense of unpreparedness to address the crisis (Baldwin et al., 2022).
Current youth climate efforts are fragmented, and young activists face both external obstacles, such as restricted access to decision-makers and inadequate institutional support, and internal challenges, including uncertainty, low confidence, and a lack of clear entry pathways. Without practical tools to guide them, many youth feel overwhelmed and unsure of how to act, which reinforces doubt and prevents them from realizing their full potential to drive meaningful change in their communities (Johnson, 2022). A structured framework can help address these challenges by providing direction, building confidence, and equipping young people with actionable steps, ultimately empowering them to lead effective climate action (Hoven, 2013).