Keeling Curve

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Project Summary / Description:

Since October of 2018, Divest Ed has been the training and strategy hub for the campus fossil fuel divestment movement on Turtle Island. At the time, there was no organization providing college students campaigning for fossil fuels divestment. Divest Ed was created to fill the movement's need for training, resources, and coordination. At Divest Ed, we connect and coordinate campus campaigns and support students with training, mentorships, and learning-by-organizing. We provide students at campuses with coaching and training, material support such as fliers and banners, and amplification/connection across web, social media, and traditional media (ranging from campus papers to regional and national media), as well as provide additional support to these campuses in the form of coaching around direct action, campaign strategy, meeting facilitation, anti-oppression practices, and much more. Our movement seeks to divest university endowments from fossil fuel corporations and reinvest those funds into local, community-controlled economies. We are relational organizers that center collective liberation in all of our work. We view divestment as a tactic to dismantle the roots of the climate crisis: capitalism, colonialism, and white supremacy. Since our program‚ inception, we have organized the largest mobilizations in the divestment movement‚ history and trained thousands of students.

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Divest Ed is led by queer femmes. We are a democratic, worker-directed program that is 50% Black, 50% white, 100% femme, and 100% queer. We are a leading intersectional youth voice in the fossil finance and U.S. climate movements. Unlike many organizations in the space, we provide stipends to compensate student volunteers for their organizing labor. Low-income BIPOC students have long expressed a need to combat burnout and encourage more low-income BIPOC students to take on leadership roles within the national movement. We recognize that organizing is just one part of a student‚ life; in addition to classes, many are working, act as caregivers, and are trying to care for their mental and physical health. Oftentimes those with the most external pressures (jobs, caregiving, etc) are low-income students and students of color whose voices are so critically needed in the movement but far too often absent or marginalized. At Divest Ed, we prioritize BIPOC and frontline students for opportunities like stipends, fellowships, and leadership positions. Compensating students for their work has transformed the campus divestment movement already. Before Divest Ed, the movement was primarily class-privileged white students. Three years later, most leadership roles in the movement are occupied by BIPOC students. Grants like the Keeling Curve Prize allow us to continue this important work and continue making space for young, low-income, and BIPOC people.

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