Youth-Led Solutions for Equitable Wildfire Resilience

In Colorado, Earth Force partners with the Hazard Education Awareness, Resilience Task (HEART) Force to deliver a Fellowship program supporting rural educators as they guide youth-led projects focused on community resilience. One Fellowship educator, Krystal Brown—recipient of the EPA Presidential Award for Innovation in Environmental Education—used this model with her students in Gunnison, Colorado to address wildfire risk in their community.

Students began by sharing personal and family experiences with wildfire threats, surfacing a shared concern about how vulnerable Gunnison is to evacuation and fire-related emergencies. As they conducted community research, students discovered a systemic issue: while wildfires were widely recognized as a serious danger, many residents lacked clear guidance on evacuation readiness and home protection. This gap was especially pronounced for Spanish- and Cora-speaking community members, including many students and families at their school.

When students reviewed the Gunnison County Wildfire Information website, they found that most evacuation and preparedness resources were not available in these languages. Rather than stopping at awareness, students identified this as an equity and systems challenge—one that limited who could access life-saving information.

To address the issue, students partnered with the Gunnison City Council, Red Cross, Gunnison Fire Protection District, and Gunnison County Emergency Managers. Together, they identified essential wildfire preparedness and evacuation information and worked to make these resources more accessible to multilingual residents. Students then shared this information at a Community Wildfire Expo organized by Gunnison High School students, creating a cross-age, community-wide effort to improve wildfire readiness.

Community and Systems Impact

This project moved beyond individual behavior change to address how public safety information is communicated—and who it reaches. By identifying language access gaps and collaborating directly with civic institutions, students helped improve the systems that communities rely on during emergencies.

The Gunnison project demonstrates how Environmental Applied Civics can prepare students to think critically about equity, infrastructure, and governance while contributing tangible benefits to their community. Through sustained partnerships and youth-adult collaboration, students became trusted contributors to local resilience efforts—showing how schools can play a vital role in strengthening community preparedness for climate-driven hazards like wildfires.