Youth en Route receives $50,000 in funding from Alberta Ecotrust

We are thrilled to announce that Youth en Route’s High School programs will have funding this year by Alberta Ecotrust Foundation’s Climate Innovation Grant Program.

We’ve seen the impact we can have when students have basic tools to get to school on their own power. A secure lock, or a safe location to put their bike makes all the difference. We’ve seen biking to school increase by over 800% at both Forest Lawn High School and Lester Pearson High School.

It’s a start. We want to do more.

Funding work at 10 Calgary high schools

Our school-specific programs empower youth with skills, knowledge, encouragement and incentives to be able to choose active travel. We will collect data at each school to understand the barriers students face at each site and evaluate the measures to see if teens are changing their transportation choices.

With the support from our friends at the Greater Forest Lawn Seniors Club, we will deliver fleets of 40 good used bike to at least two schools. Students will get to experience the joy and convenience of riding in PE classes, many for the first time. Other schools will use these funds to create better bike storage, with many retro-fitting old tire-bender racks with our improved design.

Follow us along this year as we champion active travel to school and beyond! Check out our social media feeds on Twitter @youthenroute or Instagram @youthenroute for our updates.

Read Eco-trust’s funding announcement here:

YER is now a registered Charity

People often ask us how they can help us fulfill our mission. We now have an easy way! You can make a charitable donation through our page on Canada Helps.

We’ll use your donation to directly support our work at Southern Alberta High Schools.

You can find our Canada Helps donation page here:

More about Alberta Eco-Trust

Alberta Eco-Trusts  Climate Innovation Grant Program funds local climate mitigation projects in

Calgary and Edmonton, covering a diverse range of activities, from technology

demonstration to collective impact and policy advancement. They target emissions

reductions in three focus areas:

You can learn more about Alberta Eco-Trust grants here: