By Kayla Bradley
As rates of adolescent mental health issues have steadily grown over the last few decades, a lesser-known mental health challenge has silently brewed a storm of uncertainty. Climate anxiety, or chronic fear or distress about climate change and its impacts, has become an increasing issue for youth, including here in Malden.
A recent Cambridge Health Alliance assessment found that 45% of youth in the region report high or very high mental health distress. Among the stressors identified was climate change. As the climate crisis continues to be exacerbated by human activity, the world faces severe flooding, intensified storms and extreme heat. The latter can have particular impact here in Malden, where some neighborhoods have been identified for extreme heat risk. Without adequate agency to address these threats, many youth across Malden feel uncertain of the planet’s future.
Some cope with that anxiety by simply tuning out. “I find that my peers have this level of unawareness and disconnection with the climate movement,” said Kidus Tsige, a junior at Malden High School. “People think that the climate [crisis] is so far away and that’s not gonna affect them.”
Now there’s an opportunity to change that. Malden is one of 300 cities across five continents selected for the Bloomberg Philanthropies Youth Climate Action Fund, a grant program for climate solutions led by youth aged 15 to 24. The fund will provide the city $50,000 to turn young people’s ideas into actual projects.
Applications close Sept. 30, and awardees will be notified by November. This past summer, the city reached out to potential awardees through local youth groups, environmental organizations, service clubs and Malden High School, as well as through social media.
Malden’s Climate Action & Sustainability Commission (CASC), led by the city’s Sustainability & Grants Manager Rebekah McPheeters, learned of the award in April.
“Given that the project will engage Malden’s youth in concrete climate work, the opportunity fits in well with the City’s Climate Action Plan goals and its existing youth engagement work,” McPheeters said. “We are proud to be one of 300 cities across five continents to take part in the program this round.”
Since its founding in 2024, Bloomberg Philanthropies have worked with more than 300,000 young people across five continents on a wide variety of initiatives. Projects funded in previous years include community gardens, water quality monitoring, educational campaigns and many other creative climate solutions. Of the over 300 global cities participating this year, Boston and Somerville are the only other two cities awarded in Massachusetts.
To distribute the grant money, the city is hosting an “innovation competition,” awarding winners with funding and city staffers to begin planning their implementation. The program promotes civic engagement, activism, and agency by bringing young people into climate solutions.
Tsige sees the competition as a chance for youth to shape their own futures.
“I think that youth provide a really unique perspective when it comes to solutions in the climate movement,” he said. “We represent a big demographic in cities like Malden … And so it’s really important that if we’re going to be the next generation, we should be taking this opportunity to start building our future, building the environment we want to live in.”
The CASC anticipates new, innovative solutions by involving younger perspectives. “All of the young people that [CASC] spoke with had a sophisticated understanding of the climate crises we face today, and, like myself, have considerable ‘climate anxiety’ as a result,” McPheeters said. The CASC hopes the competition will help young Maldonians experiencing climate anxiety by providing them an opportunity for direct action. “[Malden youth] also have some great, practical, actionable ideas for combating climate change, which is exactly why we want to run this program. The Youth Climate Action Fund will allow us to both empower and fund our youth so they can actualize these ideas.”
Tsige wants his peers to see themselves as leaders now, not later.
“I kind of hate this idea that youth are the leaders of tomorrow because I feel like youth are the leaders of today,” Tsige said. “And so if they understand that soon enough they’re going to be the ones in leadership, soon enough they’re going to be the ones in power, it’s going to make them a lot more motivated to start now.”
The competition is now accepting submissions through Sept. 30. For more information, visit the City of Malden’s Climate Action & Sustainability Commission page.
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