Press Release: 10/20/2025
Mayor Michelle Wu Highlights Success of Inaugural Cohort of Boston Climate Youth Corps
New citywide pilot led to 200+ youth being hired this summer to work in jobs focused on climate resilience, sustainability, and environmental justice at local green industry organizations
Mayor Michelle Wu highlighted the success of the inaugural cohort of Boston Climate Youth Corps, a new citywide pilot initiative launched this summer that integrates green-sector career pathways into Boston’s youth employment program, futureBOS, funded largely in the fiscal 2026 annual operating budget with support from state YouthWorks grant and leveraged the partnership of trusted youth employment partners to deepen young people’s exposure to climate careers. The Boston Climate Youth Corps builds on Mayor Wu’s work to make Boston a home for everyone and aligns with the City’s vision to advance climate action, equitable workforce development, and youth empowerment.
"Boston's leadership to tackle climate change requires investing not only in infrastructure, but in people. The Boston Climate Youth Corps will build our workforce and our neighborhoods, helping ensure that pathways to green careers are open and accessible,” said Mayor Michelle Wu. “As we make historic climate investments to address pressing community needs, this program empowers the next generation to lead the work of building a sustainable and resilient Boston. I want to thank the nonprofit partners, community leaders, and employers who mentored and guided young people this summer—their work is critical to building a stronger and more resilient city."
A joint endeavor of the Worker Empowerment Cabinet; the Environment, Energy, and Open Space Cabinet; the Office of Youth Employment and Opportunity; PowerCorps Boston; and local nonprofits, the Boston Climate Youth Corps provided meaningful, paid work experiences for youth focused on climate resilience, sustainability, and environmental justice. Residents between the ages of 14 to 24 years old participated in these paid opportunities. Throughout the summer, youth were placed with local employer partners and contributed to impactful projects in urban forestry, environmental education, tree canopy expansion, climate storytelling, coastal resilience, water conservation, urban farming, food justice, ecosystem restoration, and energy efficiency.
“As Chair of the Committee on Environment, Resilience, and Parks, I’m thrilled to see the success of the first Boston Climate Youth Corps cohort and the leadership of our local partners like Eastie Farms and Piers Park Sailing Center," said City Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata. "This initiative shows how climate action and workforce development go hand in hand, empowering young people to protect their communities while building the green and blue careers of the future. Investing in our youth is investing in a more resilient, equitable, and sustainable Boston.”
As a pilot program, the Boston Climate Youth Corps is a key component of the City’s sector-based youth employment strategy. The initiative allowed the City to test new models for integrating climate goals into youth jobs programming, track outcomes, highlight best practices, and assess opportunities for long-term expansion. While PowerCorpsBOS remains Boston’s flagship year-round green workforce development program for young adults ages 18–30, the Climate Youth Corps focuses on younger participants through summer youth employment and is built around trusted, community-based organizations. PowerCorpsBOS continues to serve as an anchor and next step for young people seeking long-term careers in the green sector.
"Boston's commitment to climate action goes hand-in-hand with cultivating a skilled, diverse green workforce," said Oliver Sellers-Garcia, Green New Deal Director and Environment Department Commissioner. "The Boston Climate Youth Corps is a vital investment in our young people, giving them the paid, hands-on experience needed to build climate resilience and drive environmental justice in our neighborhoods. Climate action is not just about the environment; it’s an economic win for Boston and for Boston’s workers."
Boston cannot have a climate-ready city without a climate-ready workforce. Over the next 25 years, Boston will need approximately 160,000 workers across 45 occupations to design, build, and operate a thriving green economy. To achieve this, the City is taking coordinated action to strengthen what is working, identify growth opportunities, and create partnerships to further drive progress. Various local green industry organizations are already shaping the city’s next generation of climate leaders through youth programming. Recognizing the importance of this work and building on the success of the City’s youth employment model, the Boston Climate Youth Corps works to unify these organizations.
“The Boston Climate Youth Corps is an important step in building a workforce that reflects Boston’s future—one that is climate-conscious, community-driven, and accessible to all,” said Trinh Nguyen, Chief of the Worker Empowerment Cabinet. “This initiative creates additional opportunities for young people to gain paid experience while contributing to solutions that strengthen their neighborhoods and our city. We are especially thankful to the Boston Climate Youth Corps employer organizations for educating and supporting youth this summer. Their leadership is essential to preparing emerging climate leaders and ensuring every community has a role in Boston’s green economy.”
Boston Climate Youth Corps partnered with five local organizations: Alternatives for Community and Environment, Cathleen Stone Island, Eastie Farm, Piers Park Sailing Center, and Speak for the Trees. This past summer, these organizations employed a total of 215 young Bostonians in hands-on green industry jobs that lead to quality, high-paying careers and address the negative impact of climate change. These organizations play a critical role in engaging youth through meaningful work-based learning, skill-building workshops, career exploration site visits, mentorship opportunities, and citywide recognition events.
Summer 2025 Boston Climate Youth Corps Employer Partners
Alternatives for Community and Environment
REEP is a youth-led, adult-supported environmental justice program that builds the power of Black and brown youth to make a difference in their community by way of advocacy and community engagement. 20 young people participated in this program.
Cathleen Stone Island
Cathleen Stone Island Outward Bound School's mission is to build stronger, more equitable school communities by partnering with public schools to deliver free experiential learning programs to students that will boost academic success and foster personal growth. 41 young people participated in this program.
Eastie Farm
Eastie Farm Climate Corps is an earn-to-learn environmental stewardship program for high school teens in East Boston. They prepare youth for a climate-changed future, expose youth to green careers, empower youth to contribute to food security and community resilience, benefit the climate in an environmental/climate justice community by creating green spaces, increasing tree canopy, and localizing food consumption, and train, inspire, and empower youth with the skills they need to gain a green job. 12 young people participated in this program
Piers Park Sailing Center
Piers Park Sailing Center offers inclusive, hands-on programming year-round, serving over 2,100 youth and 400 adults annually from diverse backgrounds. The center emphasizes affordability and mentorship, with staff mostly trained in-house and continually improving based on industry standards. 125 young people participated in this program.
Speak for the Trees
Speak for the Trees works together with Boston community members to plant, preserve, care, and advocate for trees and to expand the tree canopy in order to rebuild resilient neighborhoods and safeguard the health of all residents, repairing historic injustices that persist today as environmental inequities in urban communities. 17 young people participated in this program.
“I am proud to live and work in a Green New Deal city,” said Alex DeFronzo
Executive Director, Piers Park Sailing Center. “Seeing Boston invest in climate career pathways should make all Boston residents feel proud. The young adults who complete this program are going into the workforce ready for good-paying jobs that will protect our neighborhoods from rising sea levels, intensifying rainstorms, and extreme heat. They will design, build, and operate the transit projects that connect us, the housing that we live in, and even grow some of the food that we eat. They'll help organize us for a just and sustainable future, and I am grateful to be a part of the work. It is a vision for a hopeful future and a positive future for families in Boston.”
“We at Speak for the Trees are proud to be a partner of the Boston Youth Climate Corps,” said Joshua Reed, Education Manager, Speak for the Trees. “This initiative provides a wonderful opportunity for youth to further explore green careers, develop valuable skills, and contribute to a more equitable, sustainable, and cleaner environment in the City of Boston. We are looking forward to working as a collective with partners familiar and new to our organization and our Teen Urban Tree Corps youth to support youth in becoming climate leaders for Boston.”
“Cathleen Stone Island Outward Bound School (CSIOBS) is excited to participate in the inaugural year of the Boston Climate Youth Corps,” said Sylvia Watts McKinney, CEO and President of Cathleen Stone Island Outward Bound. “Our unique approach is supported by research indicating that students in underserved communities miss out on approximately 6,000 hours of outdoor learning by age 12. We offer paid internships that allow participants to explore and practice environmental stewardship, climate action, and natural resource management, while also developing their outdoor skills. We are proud to partner with the City of Boston to support youth in exploring and gaining employment within Boston’s vibrant environmental ecosystem.”
“Empowering future leaders to preserve the beautiful biodiversity of our world using the nature-inspired methods of indigenous folks is central to Eastie Farm’s approach to climate action,” said Kannan Thiruvengadam, Executive Director, Eastie Farms. “From controlling erosion and flooding on our coasts and community spaces with healthy and resilient vegetation, to providing families with fresh local produce, we put our passion into impactful work every day. In this work, we appreciate having the city’s partnership and support, and are grateful for the visionary and caring leadership from the city.”
The Boston Climate Youth Corps is an early but critical step in advancing the City’s broader sector-based youth employment strategy. This pilot marks important progress towards collectively preparing Boston’s young people for the green jobs of the future. As we gather outcomes and success stories, these lessons will guide us in refining the model and identifying opportunities to grow. Looking ahead, the Boston Climate Youth Corps will expand its reach and deepen alignment with the City’s Climate Action Plan. Future versions will broaden partnerships with employers and nonprofits, build stronger bridges from summer exposure to career pathways, and connect as an on-ramp to year-round opportunities like PowerCorpsBOS, Boston’s anchor green workforce program. By doing so, the Boston Climate Youth Corps can ensure that young people move from paid summer experiences into more structured training, pre-apprenticeships, and jobs in the green economy. Over time, the Boston Climate Youth Corps can help cultivate a climate-ready workforce that reflects the resilience of Boston’s neighborhoods.