The Climate Change and Your Child's Health session was designed to share information and insight from healthcare and climate professionals - and also to empower you, as a parent, to advocate for climate action on behalf of kids.
Here are three simple steps to take action
1. Email your Member of Parliament (MP)
Your voice is needed, and your story is important for elected officials to hear. Right now, the federal government is setting the course for Canada's economic recovery from COVID, so it's the perfect time to tell your MP that recovery needs to focus on a healthy, green, and just future for kids.
Not sure what to say? It's most effective to use your own words to express what concerns you and what you're asking your elected representatives to do. Sometimes that's hard to do, so feel free to use some of the suggestions below to get started.
Make it personal:
I'm writing to you today as your constituent, and as a parent. Thank you for your commitment to keeping Canadians healthy through the COVID pandemic.
Make it "sticky" by sharing what this means to you:
I'm writing because, based on what expert healthcare professionals are telling us, climate change is directly impacting our health and more significantly, the health of our children, and the effects are going to worsen without rapid and radical change.
Tell them what you want:
As a parent, I'm asking you to apply the same sense of urgency to the climate crisis as you have to the pandemic crisis.
Add some specifics:
CAPE's Healthy Recovery report sets out a clear path to a more healthy future that can happen hand-in-hand with economic recovery. Hitting our climate targets by 2050 will save 112,000 lives through reduction in air pollution alone, and create 1.2 million new, clean jobs at the same time. But 2050 is a long way off and we need an even more radical plan, even more quickly.
Make it "stickier" by asking for follow-up:
You are in a position to make the decisions that need to be made. I would appreciate your response, and an opportunity to meet with you about your plans to make the future a healthy one for our kids.
Copy [email protected] and [email protected]
2. Contact them on Twitter
Pick one message you heard at the session and combine it with an ask, for instance: Invest in clean energy so we can work at jobs that don't pollute. #HealthyPlanetHealthyKids
Invest in a green and just recovery that leaves no one behind #JustRecoveryForAll
Make decisions about the future for kids and with kids. It's their future. #TheKidsAreAllRight
Don't forget to include @JustinTrudeau and @cafreeland
3. Follow up
If you haven't received a response to your email in a week, follow up with a phone call. If you reach a live person, tell them your story and ask for a response from your MP.
When they call you back, don't be surprised! Be yourself and share honestly what is concerning you and what you want them to do. If you're stuck for words, ask questions: do they have a family? children or grandchildren? how do they feel about the future they are facing? what do they plan to do about it?
The goal is to engage your elected official in conversation and share your story.
Let us know how your advocacy work is going!
Tag us on FB @forourkidscanada or email hello [at] forourkids [dot] ca.