YUCCA (Youth United for Climate Crisis Action)

YUCCA (Youth United for Climate Crisis Action) is led by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous People of Color) youth ages 14-25 from across the state. We operate and organize on occupied Tiwa and Tewa land (Albuquerque and Santa Fe), occupied Mescalero Apache land (Carlsbad area and the Permian Basin), as well as the rest of the state.

While our campaigns are decided on by our Youth Steering Committee, and day-to-day tasks are generally led by paid YUCCA's youth staff and Earth Care support staff, our work is rooted in the belief that it will take us all - young, elderly, BIPOC, Indigenous folks and allies, organizations and community members, to make real change.

YUCCA History

YUCCA is the youth-led arm of Earth Care, an intergenerational environmental & economic justice community-based organization, which is based on the south side of Santa Fe.

We call Earth Care our mother org. Earth Care recruits and trains young people and parent leaders to use their voices to advocate for their communities and the issues they care about and join our movements for social and environmental justice.

Every year Earth Care hosts a summer leadership training program, focused on political education and social action. This program (called El Puente) teaches youth ages 16-24 about climate, environmental and social justice, and gives us skills for how to organize in our communities.

In 2019, graduates from El Puente and alumni from other Earth Care leadership programs were brought together in response to the Global Call for the youth-led climate strike by Earth Care mentors. YUCCA emerged as the youth-led climate justice arm of Earth Care. YUCCA’s first action was the global climate strike in September of 2019. YUCCA youth organized huge direct actions in Albuquerque and Santa Fe - over 5,000 New Mexicans participated. The Climate Strike was not designed as a one-off action, but rather the launch of YUCCA’s Climate Emergency Campaign. YUCCA’s campaign drew some inspiration from the Sunrise Movement and the Fridays for the Future campaigns but has always been focused on youth-led climate and EJ work rooted in New Mexico with a local, state focus.

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Read the Letter Here

YUCCA wrote a letter to Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham following the climate strike in 2019.

Current Work & Active Campaigns

In 2024, we began our work by continuing our opposition to the New Mexico Gas Company's proposed new LNG facility, d isrupting the Governor's State of the State Address to call for courageous leadersho on climate and a ceasefire in Gaza, and convening the annual Climate Justice and Energy Democracy Convergence.

YUCCA was born from a long legacy of environmental justice organizing in New Mexico including work by generations of young people coming up through Earth Care's programs our youth leaders' efforts to organize in solidarity with Standing Rock, oppose further investments in coal in the state of New Mexico, build public pressure for action on climate change, advance community solar initiatives, and so much more.

As we look to the new year, YUCCA will continue to engage in solution-building climate justice work in many different ways, including direct action and protest, policy and electoral work, and community organizing. These tactics are all necessary to the success of our movement, and are critical to our organization's goals of forcing the state to take accountability for pollution and fighting for a just transition away from fossil fuels.