Our Climate Conversations Program (CCP) team has been hard at work to produce an Online Learning Platform, which will allow everyday Australians and facilitators alike to access our conversation training resources, from anywhere around the country.

When COVID-19 hit last year, Climate for Change, like many other organisations, was forced to adapt to a new way of having an impact. 

As our Climate Conversations moved online to Zoom, the CCP team saw an opportunity to go even further: to move our training and onboarding process for facilitators online.

In the past, what has stopped us from growing our Climate Conversations was never a lack of interest – we consistently have more people wanting to facilitate than we could support. Our limit has been our capacity to train new facilitators, particularly in places where we don’t have a physical presence. 

Moving this process online would mean reaching dozens more volunteers remotely, and all at once, to be able to generate Climate Conversations in any location. 

With Bank Australia’s generous support – a Community Customer Grant designed to support community organisations’ projects that do good for people and the planet – we were in business.

Enter our Online Learning Platform. 

From now on, anyone who wants to train as a Climate Conversations facilitator with us can begin as soon as they express interest. This means facilitators can join our community, and start making a difference, more quickly. 

Our recently completed Impact Report showed that nearly 8 in 10 people who attended a Climate Conversation were influenced to change at least one behaviour, for instance divesting or writing to an MP. More facilitators means having more of this kind of impact, all across Australia. 

But the platform is not just relevant to our volunteers – it is also available to the general public. 

Course 1, Talking about climate change, is designed for anyone who is interested in having better conversations about climate change – and who is willing to instigate the social change we need to tackle the issue. And, it’s free!

The course explains our theory of change and Climate Conversation structure, outlines some basic climate science, and does a deeper dive into the Climate Conversation Guide recently developed by Climate for Change and The Sunrise Project. 

Talking about climate change is a stand-alone resource that can be used to help you have conversations with people in your networks and bring them into the climate movement. 

If you want to go even further and start inspiring others to take meaningful climate action, you can take Course 2: Facilitating Climate Conversations. After completing, you will join our community of facilitators where you will learn how to motivate others to take effective climate action within your community.

For course information and access, visit www.climateforchange.org.au/facilitate