Salish Sea Emerging Stewards

Photo by Alex Harris /
Raincoast Conservation Foundation.

Education opportunities with Raincoast

Through engaging virtual, classroom, field, and boat-based learning, we connect students to British Columbia’s coastal environment and conservation initiatives.

The education program blends Indigenous Knowledge and Western science using hands-on, interactive, and experiential learning in watersheds, forests, estuaries, and oceans to help youth understand their coast. Raincoast’s 68’ research sailing vessel, Achiever, serves as a floating classroom for our boat-based learning throughout the Salish Sea.

Students visit and learn about culturally significant sites including ancient middens, burial grounds, and clam gardens. Youth also visit wildlife hotspots such as sea lion haul-outs, bird sanctuaries, salmon streams, and Southern Resident killer whale critical habitat to learn about key research and conservation efforts.

Three students on a boat looking at a map.
Riley Seward and Kaleah Claxton learning how to chart distances aboard Achiever. Photo by Alex Harris / Raincoast Conservation Foundation.

Resources for teachers

Raincoast’s education program has developed a broad range of educational materials for teachers of grades 9-12  to use in the classroom based on education objectives of BC’s curriculum, or for anyone with an interest in coastal and marine environments.

Online learning

Raincoast has hosted a live and interactive online learning program, Coastal Insights, for the last two years that brings science, stories, culture, and conservation through virtual lessons and interviews with some of the coast’s leading experts and inspiring young leaders. 

Land Healing Stewards Initative

Raincoast scientists learning with a camper on making grizzly bear paw cast
Raincoast scientists learning with a camper on making grizzly bear paw cast. Koeye camp, photo by Mike Morash of One Island Media.

Our approach to education

Our approach is community engaged, collaborative, and inclusive. In collaboration with an extensive network of community partners that lend their expertise, our multi-faceted programs engage students through place-based learning, mentorship, and leadership training. 

All of our programs use the “Two-eyed seeing” guiding principle, or the braiding of strengths from Indigenous and Western Knowledge systems to approach learning about environmental conservation and stewardship.

The programs align with the BC curriculum and are geared towards High School students (grade 9-12) in the subjects of science, social studies, geography, and Indigenous studies in BC.  

Reducing barriers

All of our online learning programs are 100% free for educators to access anywhere, anytime. To reduce barriers to experiential and place-based learning, full sponsorship for our boat-based learning program is available to local Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth from underserved communities throughout Greater Vancouver and Vancouver Island.

Experiential learning at sea

The Salish Sea Emerging Stewards Program offers hands-on learning where participants link learning concepts directly to the places and experiences of the program as they immerse in local forests, intertidal, and oceans to understand their local environment and its conservation challenges. 

Participants engage all their senses as they explore the rich biodiversity of the coast and visit sites of ecological and cultural significance throughout the Gulf Islands. The boat-based learning provides opportunities for transformative and inspiring visits to British Columbia’s diverse habitats such as oceans, forests, and beaches, access to traditional territory, and encounters with iconic wildlife such as eagles, sea lions, porpoises, and killer whales.

Support our programming

You can join us and support the Salish Sea Emerging Stewards program.

A group walks through a forest.

Introducing the Land Healing Stewards Initiative

As Raincoast’s on-the-ground work, community engagement, and collaborations are key to our research and conservation successes, the Forest Conservation Program and the Salish Sea Emerging Stewards youth education program have partnered to deliver a new and innovative multi-year project. Titled the Land Healing Stewards Initiative, it will support our programs’ shared goals; engaging local communities…
A swarm of youth sit on the bow of Achiever on a sunny day, with Pascale leading SSES curriculum.

Sailing, stewardship, and sound

Raincoast’s youth program, Salish Sea Emerging Stewards, aims to educate, inspire, and empower the next generation of conservation leaders.
A group of youth walking along a hill.

Reflecting on our eighth year of Salish Sea Emerging Stewards programming  

Our goal is to inspire and train the next generation of conservation stewards through land-based, at-sea, and online programming.
Group of youth sitting on the front of sailboat, Achiever.

Exploring the Salish Sea with youth aboard Achiever 

With the Red Fox Healthy Living Society, we spent five days aboard our research vessel, Achiever, exploring the Salish Sea.
Youth on a zodiac wearing life jackets and smiling.

Place-based, youth centred learning

Our Salish Sea Emerging Stewards Program had a busy year with youth trips and new partnerships.
Achiever sits near the shoreline with a forested backdrop.

All about Raincoast’s Salish Sea Emerging Stewards program

Our education program has been busy engaging youth from across the Salish Sea.
Bales of colorful fishing nets stacked on top of each other in a row.

Learning about marine plastics, recycling, and sustainability at an innovative facility

Our Tsawwassen First Nation Summer Stewardship program toured Ocean Legacy Foundation’s facility.

Sponsors & supporters