We work with young people from small-scale fishing villages to enhance social-ecological wellbeing, cultivate resilience-thinking, and strengthen a natural-cultural heritage approach to community-based conservation practice and policy for healthy oceans and people. Play. Storytelling. Compassion. Science.
Ocean conservation is a social, racial, and climate justice issue. We leverage surfing as a powerful relationship-building tool with ourselves, our peers, and our surroundings. Surfing cultivates both inner and outer strength and engages local youth from small-scale fishing villages as stewards for their aquatic environments, cultural heritage and wellbeing. We facilitate participatory audiovisual workshops for youth to use their voices to celebrate their community’s strengths, identify changes, daylight struggles, and co-create potential solutions. We also facilitate mindfulness trainings as an approach to nonviolent communication. Through partnerships, we work to implement solutions together for healthy, happy coastal communities and small-scale fisheries.
OUR TOOLS
The playful mediums we use to address social and ecological challenges impacting small-scale fishing villages along the coastlines and aquatic ecosystems. We provide the tools and a safe-space for local kids and their communities to share their perspectives with the world. We work relentlessly for local voices - those dependent on healthy seas and sustainable fisheries - to be represented in global discussions that determine our ocean’s future - their future and our collective fate on this planet.
Participatory media workshops focus on cultural heritage, environmental
education and social justice.
Surf sessions and swim lessons to build relationships, cultivate trust and foster ocean literacy.
Yoga, meditation and awareness-based practices to enable youth with alternatives to aggression and violent conflicts.
When a small-scale fishing community coordinates and co-designs a project utilizing high impact public communication campaigns, water sports, and nonviolent contemplative practices to address social injustices and environmental discrimination head on - that's a toolbox. We collaborate with young people and their fishing villages to identify, articulate, and address challenges that jeopardize their sustainable futures and all our fates on planet Earth.
SUPPORT
Support us by making a one-time donation to fund our future workshops and help us reach more vulnerable coastal communities. Beyond the Surface International is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and your donation is tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law.
