Jack Leslie Youth Environmental Grant
Get up to $1,000 of funding for your youth environmental project!
The Jack Leslie Youth Environmental Grant honours the positive impact former Mayor Jack Leslie had on the city and the environment, and is awarded to youth in Calgary who continue his efforts. The City of Calgary, The Parks Foundation, and Youth Central collaborate annually to fund and administer the grant. Each year we are proud to award motivated and passionate youth in Calgary who ensure that Jack’s vision for a beautiful environment lives on.
Applications for 2025
Applications for the 2025 Jack Leslie Youth Environmental Grant open November 2024. Watch this space for more information coming soon!
Projects must include the following:
- Be located in Calgary
- Directly benefit the environment in Calgary
- Be planned and implemented by youth
Join the Mayor's Environment Expo mailing list to get information and alerts about the Grant.
The Jack Leslie Youth Environmental Grant is supported by the Jack Leslie family, The Parks Foundation, The City of Calgary and Youth Central.
Congratulations to the recipients of the 2024 Jack Leslie Youth Environmental Grants!
North Trail High School’s Living Wall
This innovative project includes the creation of a suspended garden on an accessible central wall of North Trail High School. The garden will host a diverse range of plants, each offering unique benefits to the school environment. The Environmental Club and the broader school community will collaborate to assemble and maintain this living wall over the years, fostering a space for appreciation and teamwork. This project will support the environment and bring people together in a sustainable and inviting space.
Western Canada High School’s Truth and Reconciliation Garden
This transformative project aims to repurpose an unused courtyard outside of the school into a place where students can connect with nature and gain a deeper appreciation for Indigenous cultures and lifestyles. The garden will feature plants that hold cultural significance to the Blackfoot Confederacy, aligned with the cardinal directions, plus informative plaques that will educate students about the importance of each plant. This project will positively influence both the school and the broader community. The garden embodies meaningful change by taking this significant step toward truth and reconciliation.
Aryan Sharma’s MicroGuard Microplastic Collector – Queen Elizabeth High School
Aryan’s project addresses a pressing environmental issue: the pervasive threat of microplastic pollution. With a commendable sense of urgency and innovation, he plans to build a cost-effective, DIY microplastic collector robot. His resourceful approach promises tangible results in combating microplastic contamination in Calgary's water bodies. Aryan shared a compelling call to action, emphasizing the project's relevance at the local level and highlighting the potential for community engagement.
Previous recipients
2023
2023 Award recipients
Career and Technology Centre, Urban Agriculture Learning Lab
Central Memorial High School students are addressing local food systems by creating an urban agriculture-learning lab in their school's Natural Sciences classroom. In this lab, students will grow a variety of plants in indoor and urban outdoor settings, including fruits, vegetables, and fungi. The student team will use their understanding of electronics and coding to develop controllers for the grow systems. They will collect and analyze data on the grow experiments, which will inform future growing methods. The goal of this project is to raise awareness about the impacts of traditional, industrial agriculture, and present urban agriculture as a sustainable solution. Students will gain a better understanding of and respect for the complex food systems required to produce food sustainably for a growing population.
Renert School, Pollinator Hotel
Renert School students are creating a place for native insect pollinators to propagate and hibernate during winter months within their nearby pond and greenspace. The student team aims to give back to their nearby park space by building a pollinator hotel to support native pollinator species, such as bees, butterflies and beetles. The goals of this project are to supplement local pollinator habitat, encourage student activation of the green space, and to raise awareness about native pollinators: the impacts that climate change and urbanization have had on their populations, and the vital role they play in our wetland ecosystems.
2022
2022 Award recipients
Briar Hill School Rain Garden
The student's project is to create a rain garden that will help protect the Bow River watershed. The garden would collect rainwater or snow melt from impermeable surfaces such as the school roof and allow it to infiltrate into the soil rather than ending up in our storm water system. Another goal of this project is to develop the environmental stewardship of the students; teaching them that we need to protect our source water and exposing them to alternative ways to lessen climate change. This project is connected to the grade 5/6 science units of Trees and Forest and Wetlands Ecosystems. In these units, students are expected to explore how human actions such as creating rain gardens can preserve and enhance wetland or tree habitats downstream. Additionally, the students will see first-hand the interconnectedness of all life and hopefully see the importance of protecting our water from pollution, drought, and waste.
The Infinity Garden
The John G. Diefenbaker (JGD) high school environmental club, (the Green Chiefs), together with Sir John A Macdonald (SJAM) Junior High, are working with on a collective project called the Infinity Garden. Initial construction of the garden is complete and the second phase, involving planting of up to 12 trees, various bushes, and plants important to First Nations culture, as well as adding some seating stones to the garden space, is just starting.
The goal of this garden is to provide a space where we can teach youth in our community about the importance of conservation while simultaneously providing a historical link through Indigenous teachings. Traditional acknowledgement of the land enables us to gain a better understanding of the past, in addition to showing both recognition and respect for Indigenous Peoples. The garden will be a living acknowledgment of the land, providing a space for meaningful engagement in First Nations teachings and culture, providing a venue for community activities such as concerts, meetings with local elders, drum ceremonies, and more.
2021
2021 Award recipients
Mount Royal School Naturalization Project
Many of the students who attend the inner city Mount Royal Junior High School live in multifamily complexes and want to create more natural areas around their school.
With a high English Language Learning population, students will also benefit from horticultural, hands-on learning as it provides practical knowledge and an access point for immigrant families into the community.
By building an edible garden and naturalization area, students will receive the supplies and knowledge needed to harvest food that will foster a personal relationship with the food they eat.
This will also facilitate their appreciation and stewardship for the land. Receiving this grant creates a foundation for exploring permaculture design and establishing outdoor learning environments. A local community expert is collaborating with the group mentoring to incorporate native flora into the green spaces.
Legacy Tree Project at Robert Thirsk
The Legacy Project will reduce carbon emissions by planting trees. For each graduating student at Robert Thirsk High School, a tree is planted in their honor to reduce 0.6% of their car emissions created annually, once the tree is fully grown.
After successfully planting 540 trees to honour the 2020 graduates there are plans to expand the project. The ultimate goal is to find a piece of land to plant the trees of future graduating classes on to create a forest space for students to visit outside of Calgary.
This will increase the tree survival rate and give students a place in nature to connect with. Until the land is finalized, the trees will be given to students to plant on private property.
Trees will also be given to citizens in nearby communities to spread awareness about climate change. Finally, the project will be further integrated into the community by having the high school students work with an elementary school as they create a garden on school grounds. A bench will be placed in the courtyard to remind students of the intentions of this project.
Fireweed Plant Restoration Project
This project aims to restore native plants in Calgary, starting with Fireweed, which is attractive to pollinators like bees and butterflies.
Initially, Fireweed seeds will be ordered and started by youth volunteers. Seedlings will be planted around a lake in the Taralake community in the spring. Once approval has been granted from the city, this will expand to more areas.
The ultimate goal is to increase the plant population in Calgary which will reduce carbon levels, restore native species, and give residents a free source of Fireweed that can be used for tea.
2020
2020 Award recipients
The Crescent Heights Baptist Church Youth for ‘Fresh Food Gardens’
There is a wide demographic of people who live within the community who are in need. By building a garden bed on the south side of the church building, the youth will plan a garden and plant fresh vegetables and fruits for those in the community who are in need of fresh food.
The William Aberhart High School Eco Club (WAHS) for ‘School Composting’
In September, The William Aberhart High School Eco Club (WAHS) will install a composting program throughout their school. Students will assist with collecting the compost, and bringing to the janitorial staff who will empty them into their already-existing compost site. The goal is to succeed where other composting programs have failed with buy in at the student level.
2019
2019 Award recipients
Earth Guardians YYC environmental group for the 'Flower of Waste' project
Their goal is to create a beautiful and large wild rose structure made out of garbage, recycling, pipes and wires. They are hoping to showcase their project at elementary schools, create a game show and trashion show. They will clean up garbage out of parks schoolyards, and road ways for supplies.
St. Mary's High School
St. Mary's High School Environmental Action Team (E.A.T) for the "Mary's compost and recycling" project. Their goal is to have replaced all individual trash bins with a combination of trash, recycling and compost options providing options and choice for St. Mary Students.