Start:Empowerment
“Start:Empowerment is a youth-led nonprofit focused on climate education and environmental justice. Cofounders Alexia Leclercq (executive director, pictured left) and Kier Blake (director of operations, pictured right) graduated from NYU in 2020 and started the project while students there, creating a curriculum on the history of climate injustice with a particular focus on Indigenous, Black and low-income communities. The pair's 65 hours of curriculum has been downloaded by more than 600 teachers reaching 120,000 K-12 students. Start:Empowerment also has an initiative in 24 schools that establishes programming and gardens in Black and Indigenous communities to raise awareness about and tackle food insecurity. Total funding is $1 million.” FORBES Magazine
As cofounder and executive director I lead Start:Empowerment from an idea to
Leading a team of 8
Transforming the climate education space to center justice and equity
Writting 65 hours of climate justice curriculum that aligns with teaching standards and centers traditional ecological knowledge in partnership with teachers, youth, frontline organizers, and elders
Creating the largest youth & BIPOC led national climate justice education nonprofit
Building on my research at Harvard, where I examined how traditional ecological knowledge and justice-centered pedagogy improve learning outcomes for students of color and empower them to become climate leaders, to develop and implement a critical climate education framework that has since been adopted by leading organizations including EcoRise, Subject to Climate, Aspen Institute, World Wildlife Fund, and National Wildlife Federation
Reaching over 120,000 K-12 students with our curriculum and 6,000 K-12 students through our programming across 8 states
In 2021, launching the first climate organizing fellowship program designed by and for Gen Z youth of color, 75+ Black and Brown youth have been paid to work full-time for eight weeks, learning organizing skills and advancing environmental justice in their own communities
Successful organizing campaigns such as shutting down a proposed Enbridge Oil terminal alongside the Karankawa people, passing the Climate and Community Investment Act (CCIA) in New York, diverting 800lb of food waste and more
