Reimagining Fire Governance to Engage and Partner with Diverse Young People Nationwide

The FireGeneration Collaborative centers an under-prioritized, heavily-impacted, and vital community in the fire world: young generations. The collaborative is an emerging group of young prescribed burners, Indigenous fire practitioners, wildland firefighters, students, and residents, united for a generational transformation in fire resilience and consciousness. Joining this collaborative of diverse young minds are experienced partners in policy, fire ecology, management, social and environmental justice.

The FireGeneration Collaborative leveraged their participation in the Living with Fire Design Challenge’s 2022-2023 cohort to mobilize peers across the nation in reimagining and enacting a socially-equitable, ecologically-balanced, fire-resilient and regenerative society. In doing this, the Collaborative focused on access, solutions, and culture.

Through 2023, the Collaborative created sustainable spaces for diverse young people in fire governance, initiated research into the barriers that constrain young people’s capacity to participate and contribute to fire governance, and organized young people nation-wide through opportunities for education, art contests, sports events, and media engagement. Through these endeavors, the Collaborative centers Indigenous sovereignty, and marginalized and most-impacted communities. The Living with Fire Design Challenge award supported the Collaborative’s governance, research, organizing, and education focused teams to realize these possibilities and lay groundwork for a sustainable movement of young people committed to solutions.

Read more about the FireGeneration Collaborative’s Design Challenge project outcomes in this final report, here. Learn more about the Collaborative’s efforts, sustained impact, and future directions on their website, here.

Meet the team: