How youth advocate Adil Mukhi makes a difference + Events calendar going LIVE
Today's youth are not just the leaders of tomorrow....
…they are the leaders of today.
This week, we’re sitting down with Adil Mukhi, a Grade 11 student and youth climate advocate, to talk about what it takes to create change as a young person. Adil’s journey shows us that meaningful action starts small — and that leadership and education can happen anywhere. As part of our expanded programming for 2026, TOCW is co-hosting a youth flagship event with Leading Change.
Plus the TOCW 2026 calendar is taking shape, and we want your event to be part of it. The events calendar will go live on March 2, with a submission deadline of May 15. Submit your event now to help shape a city-wide week of climate action, June 1–7, 2026.
Submitting events is now even easier
New streamlined process means your event will automatically have a Luma event created in the TOCW calendar as soon as it’s approved.
Events don’t need to be finalized to be submitted, but we recommend getting it on the calendar so other hosts can plan around it — and for more brand awareness.
Our updated Host Resource Hub walks you through everything — what TOCW is, how to submit your event, and the tools to make it a success.
“We want to contribute”: Q&A with youth climate advocate Adil Mukhi
This week we talked with Adil Mukhi, a Grade 11 student at a northwest Toronto high school, about his work as a youth advocate, public speaker, and changemaker.
Q: What inspired you to become a youth advocate?
A: For me, it started pretty small. Rather than starting a school recycling system, which often exists as the bare minimum, in my school’s Eco Club we realized that so many markers were going to landfills. You can’t put markers in a normal recycling box; it’s not like they’ll get recycled there. So we partnered with TerraCycle, an organization that recycles hard-to-recycle trash, and we were able to save a lot of waste. Those little things do add up, like if every school had a system to recycle markers, we would save so many markers and stop them from going to landfills.
Over time, I saw that it’s genuinely powerful when young people are entrusted with responsibility. Youth advocacy isn’t having the answers, it’s trying to make that difference, caring enough to show up and make things a tad bit better.
Q: How else have you gotten involved in youth advocacy?
A: That feeling of being able to make a change is what kept me going and later on, I started exploring more creative aspects of advocacy, using art and written works to advocate. Mississauga had a story slam competition, and I had written a short story about the climate, a dystopian future where trees don’t exist — the regular dystopian sort of idea with my own twist to it. There were people listening to the story who were actually interested and I won first place. [Watch the video.]
The hope is that even through smaller acts of using creative expression, or just raising my voice and speaking up for something, someone else will start their own recycling program or get involved in their school community, or in events like Toronto Climate Week.
Q: In your opinion, what would motivate more students to get involved?
A: The good thing is, we do have clubs and students are able to lead through those clubs. But even then, a lot of activity is restricted by what the school allows. Cleanups can only be organized on school property, or they can only be done at specific times. We need a set amount of supervisors, and that’s really hard to get because the teachers are already super-busy. So a lot of the programs and supports don’t really exist for students who go outside of the system to create change.
Education isn’t just schools, to me at least — it’s everything we do in our lives. From the moment we’re born until the very end, we’re learning something. So education doesn’t have to happen in schools. We could organize an outside community event, host a cleanup or a conversation, like at TOCW. All of that should be a part of education and the government and the education system should be encouraging that. It would be great if schools could give small student grants, like $50–100, to organize activities like cleanups. That would cover advertising, running the event itself, and a social activity like a pizza party afterwards to help participants build up that community.
Q: What’s giving you optimism for 2026?
A: I’m seeing people realize there are communities and they’re joining them. When I was in Grade 9, I didn’t know about any of these communities. Now I’m a part of three or four, including a running club and the Eco Club. These are spaces where I feel like I belong and can contribute.
Climate conversations are happening, and they’re connected to issues that are happening in our cities and to the idea that climate change isn’t just an environmental issue. It’s a human issue and it’s going to affect all of us, if it hasn’t already. This sense of urgency is giving people more of a nudge to participate. Building connections and friendships through events like Toronto Climate Week, and other smaller communities as well, is what’s giving me optimism.
Q: What are you most looking forward to at Toronto Climate Week 2026?
A: I’m excited for more youth-based events and youth-led conversations. It would be great if schools could organize field trips to TOCW — I know that so many people from my school alone would go to an event like this.
I’m also looking forward to deeper collaborations with youth. There are so many areas where youth can lead, like organizing cleanup events, recycling programs, and creative competitions. Again, this is part of education. Whoever runs a program learns leadership skills, volunteer management, how to communicate better. These are soft skills that have value but aren’t always taught in the classroom.
Show your passion for green!
TOCW relies on volunteers who want to help establish Toronto — and Canada — as global climate hubs. Every contribution counts, from professional skills to simply a desire to get involved.
We’re currently looking for support across several areas, including Contracts, Community Outreach, Data Analyst, Personal Assistant, and Accountant/ Bookkeeper.
You can learn more about all open roles and apply here.
Dates to keep in mind
Event calendar goes live — March 2, 2026; submit your event here
Next General Information Webinar — March 11, 2026; register on Luma
Deadline for sponsorships and partnerships — March 31, 2026; submit your interest here
Deadline to have events public on Luma with details finalized — May 15, 2026
With gratitude,
The TOCW Team
Grateful to be part of this conversation. Youth voices matter, and I’m excited to keep building spaces where we don’t just talk about change, we practice it. See you at Toronto Climate Week 2026.
This is so inspiring Adil! Love seeing young leaders actually taking action.