My Clothes My World (MCMW) is the only youth education program that teaches students between the ages of 8-17 about the negative social and environmental impacts of the apparel and textiles industry, while empowering them with the tools and solutions to become conscious citizens and ultimately, responsible consumers.
At Fashion Takes Action, we know that changing habits once we are adults is very difficult, especially when it comes to clothing. Because of this, we have taken a long-term approach to behaviour change, as we believe that if we can reach youth before they are out in the world buying “stuff”, that they will make more responsible decisions when they are older.
We also know, from 10 years of delivering our programming in Canada, that there is a strong ripple effect. Students go home and share what they learn with their families. Parents and older siblings have reached out to share stories of how as an entire family, they have had meaningful discussions which have led them to change the way they think about clothing.
We believe that because the fashion industry is connected with so many other sectors from farming and agriculture to manufacturing, chemicals, plastics, waste and transportation – it is a great entry point for young people to learn about the broader climate issues. Our program is unique in that they learn all of this through the lens of fashion, which is fun and relatable. They wake up every day and get dressed, but they don’t all drive cars, pay the energy bills or renovate their homes.
Pre COVID we delivered our workshops in person, offering half or full day programming (grades 4-8) and four 75 minute workshops for high school. Due to the pandemic, we digitized our program as we were no longer able to visit the classrooms in person. As a result, we now have 5 digital workshops for individual classrooms:
We also offer an elementary school-wide version of the 7R’s workshop, called the 7R’s Fashion Challenge which engages the entire community around reuse activities and events.
Currently, our workshops and lesson plans are accessible to teachers by paying a modest fee. They are available in both English and French. As there is no core funding at the moment for this program, we must charge teachers to access the program which helps to cover administrative costs, software licenses and program updates.
Our goal for expansion is as follows:
If you are interested in joining us in our effort to make this program global and free of charge to teachers and students, please complete this application form and we will be in touch with you soon!
Thank you!
Any information you provide will be kept confidential.
