At Force of Nature, Chief Executive Officer Kat Hamilton is helping young people transform climate anxiety into collective agency. The youth-led organization, founded in 2019 by Clover Hogan, supports 16- to 35-year-olds who feel overwhelmed or powerless in the face of the climate crisis. Its workshops, research, and online community equip participants to understand eco anxiety, develop emotional resilience, and channel distress into meaningful local action.

Hamilton finds that young people need both belonging and agency to sustain engagement. Force of Nature emphasizes self-awareness, collaboration, and the link between emotional wellbeing and long-term activism. Hamilton also sees youth-led leadership as crucial, noting that young people bring perspectives older generations can no longer access. “We see young people as a marginalized group,” they say, “where they’re not given access to positions of power or trusted in ways that back the narrative that young people are the future.”

The organization’s strategy includes:

• Running research-backed workshops on climate emotions and systems change.
• Supporting an online community of over 1,500 young people and thousands of alumni through Climate Cafés that foster open, local dialogue.
• Paying youth contributors for their time and input to challenge extractive volunteer models.
• Practicing flat, collaborative governance where decision-making power is shared across the team.

The impact is visible in how participants describe finding clarity, confidence, and connection. The Climate Café model alone has been replicated in more than 35 countries, creating ripple effects far beyond the organization’s small staff.

Challenges remain around funding, focus, and the balance between breadth and depth. “The sweet spot that we filled is meeting young people in the overwhelm,” Hamilton says. “We realized our focus shouldn't be to try to do everything.”

Hannah Hooper, head of programs at Force of Nature, supports young people navigating the intersection of climate change and mental health. The organization works with those who feel anxious or overwhelmed by the climate crisis but want to take action. Its programs help participants understand that these emotions are a rational response to the crisis and guide them in channeling their concern into meaningful community action.

Delivered primarily online, Force of Nature’s programs reach young people around the world, connecting them across regions and helping them find belonging even when local support is lacking. The organization emphasizes agency and community-building over clinical intervention, creating spaces where young people can share openly, feel validated, and take small steps that build confidence and purpose.

Force of Nature’s work includes:

• Running Becoming a Force of Nature, a three-part flagship program that helps young people reflect on their values, strengths, and ways to take climate action, while offering facilitator training and paid opportunities for graduates.
• Hosting Climate Cafés, where youth gather locally or online to discuss their feelings about the climate crisis and explore ways to respond constructively; cafés have been held in over 50 countries.
• Partnering with climate psychologists and research institutions such as Imperial College London to deepen understanding of how to support youth mental health.
• Conducting annual focus groups to ensure language, content, and facilitation remain inclusive and relevant—especially for those in frontline communities.

Program participants often describe entering the space feeling disconnected and leaving with a stronger sense of solidarity and community. Hooper notes that small, consistent actions and peer connection can have a big impact on how young people view themselves and their capacity for change.

Challenges remain in sustaining strategic partnerships and securing funding that supports both local adaptation and global reach. Hooper hopes to see greater collaboration among nonprofits, researchers, schools, and policymakers—and more autonomy for young people to adapt programs to their own regions—so that solutions to climate distress can grow from the most affected communities.

Jake Causley works as a trained facilitator for Force of Nature, holding vulnerable space for discussing climate emotions — the feelings young people experience in response to the climate crisis. His work takes the form of interactive online workshops and three-part training programs, typically serving groups of 15 to 30 people under 35. The aim is to help participants better understand their emotions and how those feelings can be used for good, while fostering a sense of community among people who share similar concerns.

The emotions that show up most often in Causley's sessions are overwhelm, fear, anxiety, and a sense of injustice. The feeling of being too small to make a difference comes up frequently, interwoven with frustration that people in positions of power — those running big companies or making policy decisions — are not doing their part. Causley's approach is designed to move participants from that place of helplessness toward agency. His facilitation includes:

• Using anonymous interactive tools like Mentimeter and chat functions to allow participants to share emotions without judgment, seeing their responses reflected in word clouds and polls alongside others' contributions.
• Structuring two-hour workshops with check-in and check-out questions, breakout rooms for small group conversations, and reflection activities that explore participants' climate catalyst moments and what drives their concern.
• Leading participants through visualization exercises to help them imagine what a better future looks like and what meaningful action means to them personally, rather than defaulting to force-fed solutions that may not align with their values.
• Declaring safe spaces at the start of sessions, explaining what is acceptable and what is not, and giving participants permission to turn cameras off or step away if the conversation becomes too much.
• Drawing on training in active listening to relay back what participants have said and ask open-ended questions, making space for people to elaborate on their feelings with no right or wrong answers.

Causley's work has taken him beyond Force of Nature's programming. He has run workshops for educators, business leaders, and communities in England, and spent four and a half weeks in Madagascar exploring how climate emotions land in a context where talking about feelings is culturally uncommon. There, he found that terms like biodiversity loss were foreign, and participants were surprised by information about temperature increases and species decline — information not widely known or discussed.

The insights Causley brings back from his facilitation work consistently reinforce the need for these spaces. Participants value the opportunity to simply be, to say what they need to say, and to connect with like-minded people across the world. What excites him most is the validation that comes after every session, and the realization that even though he has run many workshops, for most participants it is their first time in a space like this. The challenge he sees is helping young people understand that meaningful action looks different for everyone, and that empowerment — not just education — is what allows people to feel able to make a difference.