Our future depends on deepening our connection to each other and to nature. Green Teams of Canada (GTC) invites community, particularly youth, to engage in hands-on environmental action projects to: Develop a sense of belonging to community and place, connect to nature, cultivate leadership skills, and learn about environmentally responsible actions.
About us
Community engagement effectively addresses social isolation, decline in mental and physical well-being, and climate change. GTC’s mission is to connect, build and empower diverse communities through hands-on activities that promote health, well-being and environmental stewardship. We run activities in green spaces removing invasive plants, planting native trees and shrubs, removing garbage and more. Our award-winning innovation:
- Attracts a large young demographic who spend little time outdoors and have no habitat restoration experience
- Is inclusive. Anyone can participate regardless of background, age, ability or skills
- Infuses young people into existing environmental groups and programs
- Has no borders and can run in any green space
How We're Different
First environmental charity in Canada founded on meetup.com
We started off with just a vision and spunk!
Infuse volunteers into existing stewardship programs and groups, adding capacity.
We believe in the power of working collaboratively with those who are like-minded. We aim to add to what already exists and build on it!
Organize activities during school hours to provide experiential education.
We engage youth and at-risk youth in outdoor learning. We have relationships with 60 schools in Metro Vancouver and Greater Victoria.
Provide environmentally friendlier and socially conscious products to our volunteers.
We recognize volunteers for their hard work and at the same time encourage responsible environmental consumerism.
Have no borders.
We run activities in municipal, regional and provincial parks. So far we have organized activities in 100s of green spaces in the Lower Mainland and Greater Victoria regions.
Focus on providing a high quality fun experience for our volunteers
We provide an energetically delivered instruction and safety talk, introduce participants to one another, and provide great snacks (e.g. often homemade baked cookies, granola bars, fruits, vegetables) and drinks (e.g. juices, sugarless soda). We occasionally play games (like who can dig up the heaviest Himalayan Blackberry root or pull the longest English Ivy vine). We provide clean good quality gloves and tools.
Make it very easy for volunteers to sign up and participate.
All one has to do to participate is go to either the Lower Mainland Green Team or Greater Victoria Green Team meetup pages and click on a red button on the top right that says “join us”, then input a handle, an email address and a password and then RSVP on upcoming activities.
Love to share the amazing work the volunteers do.
We post a write-up after every single activity online showing before and after photos and post 50-150 photos of volunteers in action! Want to check the blogs and photos? For the Lower Mainland Green Team click HERE. For the Greater Victoria Green Team click HERE.
Spread the word about our activities very effectively!
Over the last 12 years we have been covered in media outlets (television, radio, newspapers and magazines) over 200 times. To check out some of our coverage please click HERE.
We have won 6 awards for social innovation!
We’ve won national, regional and local awards for creating innovative and engaging community engagement programming.
BC Achievement Community Award – 2019
iATS Innovator Award, Local Hero – 2018
YWCA Environmental Sustainability Award – 2014
Recycling Council of BC Award – 2014
Earth Day Canada Hometown Heroes Award – 2013
Jane Goodall Institute Recognition – 2011
An award winning community engagement charity!
When people come together to increase biodiversity locally in a fun engaging way, they connect to nature and with others in a meaningful way. This leads to enhancing their health and overall well-being, raises their environmental awareness and empowers them to contribute to a healthy planet.
