*APPLICATIONS CLOSE DECEMBER 29, 2020

An Inter-Cultural Water Learning Experience Exploring Culture, Storytelling and Pathways to Resilient Water Futures

Virtual Training 2021

Waterlution is pleased to offer this virtual edition of our Water Innovation Lab program to combine the development of young leaders in Mexico and Canada. WIL Mex-Can 2021 will blend traditional storytelling and applied leadership skills training with opportunities for regional and national collaborations around water. Participants will explore the world of water, first through culture and traditions, then through understanding water challenges and opportunities, so we can look at ways to collaborate, together.

Friday January 29
Saturday January 30
Sunday January 31

Important Dates

Applications open
November 19, 2020

Applications deadline
December 29, 2020

Accepted applicants notified on
Friday January 8, 2021

Program delivered
January 29-31, 2021

In November 2019, Waterlution delivered the first WIL Mexico in the state of Nuevo León. Building on that success and in light of the global reality around Covid-19, Waterlution has adapted WIL Mexico, and is now offering it for the first time for both Mexico and Canada, in two languages and over three virtual sessions. The first session will include water storytelling from Indigenous cultural artists and educators, in the second we will learn about current water challenges and understanding the water sector in the two countries with a focus on water governance and watershed monitoring, and finally we will create a space to enable youth to be part of solving water issues.The Mexican-Canadian team for WIL Mexico-Canada 2020-2021 looks forward to facilitating increased collaboration between youth and young leaders of both countries

Three Days Online

Day 1: Storytelling and Cultural Connections to Water and Communities

To open up WIL Mex-Can 2021, guests will share their knowledge and cultural teachings on water. Will we learn from Indigenous artists, storytellers and waterkeepers from Mexico & Canada while also building community between participants.

Day 2: Watershed Management, Water Challenges (in Mexico and Canada), Understanding Monitoring and Data

Building from Day 1, interactive training will focus on the current water situation in both countries. Together we will explore water governance,  mechanisms for monitoring water systems and what we do with data to make sustainable choices. This session will invite Water management experts and leaders in Mexico and Canada to share approaches, highlighting both challenges and successful models, encouraging participants to think of creative and innovative solutions.

Day 3: Collaborating on Water Innovations in local communities

This final session is all about collaborating together. Waterlution team facilitate an open space session, during which participants will share new ideas for solving local water challenges and move into group discussions to deepen these ideas as well as ways to collaborate on innovative on water solutions going forward.

Welcome and remarks from Ambassador to Canada in Mexico,
Mr. Graeme C. Clark

What Are Water Innovation Labs?

Waterlution’s global Water Innovation Labs are front-running, immersive leadership development experiences designed to accelerate collaborative innovation, fast-track global knowledge sharing and devise new innovations that improve water security and support emerging leaders (18-35 yrs) to implement SDG targets connected to water in their organisations and projects. With leadership training at its core, WIL Global experiences equip the next generation of young water researchers, policy-makers, and waterpreneurs with mindsets and skillsets for beyond 2021: collaboration, creativity, global-engagement, complex problem solving, and impact-oriented thinking. Our groundbreaking, cross-sector, cross-disciplinary approach has become a proven new model for global engagement, co-innovation leadership, and a catalyst for co-created change. Now more than ever, the skills we train on during WIL are timely for an ever adapting world, one that has increased stress on water resources, and a great need to creatively look for solutions that address the cultural, economic, social and environmental aspects intertwined with water management across the globe.

Who will participate in WIL Mex-Can 2021?

50

Young Water Leaders
from Mexico and Canada

10+

Resource Guests

4

Waterlution Facilitators
from Mexico and Canada

Ready to join WIL Mexico-Canada 2021?

  • Are you 18-35 years old?

  • Are you a community leader, graduate student or young professional interested in solving water challenges and increasing your leadership skills?

  • Are you able to make a meaningful contribution around the themes of water culture and tradition, or water innovation in Mexico or Canada?  

  • Are you able to commit to the online learning program – between January 29 and 31st, 2021 (8 hours total over 3 days)?

  • Are you envisioning a career related to the water sector that can be enhanced through an intercultural network of water innovators, water story keepers and community leaders?

Who is eligible to apply?

  • Mexicans and Canadians between the ages of 18-35 

  • Waterlution continues to learn from and with Indigenous Peoples, and include traditional stories and teachings as a part of WIL programs. Within this approach, WIL Mexico-Canada 2021 has a minimum of 10 places reserved for Indigenous Youth Scholarships.

  • Mexican and Canadian WIL Alumni- for those who participated in a previous Water Innovation Lab.

If this sounds like you, then WIL Mexico-Canada is for you!

Why Attend A WIL?

“Participating in a Water Innovation Lab by Waterlution is a life changing experience. You will meet amazing people, learn incredible new knowledge, and leave feeling profoundly inspired and ready to go deeper with your water work. If you get a chance to participate in WIL, definitely do it!!”
– Emily Taylor, Researcher – Water Management, Alberta Innovates, Canada,

“WIL really fosters an opportunity for youth to spend time on changing the way we do business. It’s unique space for ideas and innovation to flourish and we don’t protect that kind of sacred space nearly enough.”
– Elizabeth Hendriks, VP, Freshwater Conservation, WWF-Canada

“The experience that WIL offers you will change the way you come to solve water problems, as it forces you to think outside the box and challenges you to run at the same speed in which the current world runs.”
– Luis Alberto Bojórquez Rodríguez, Program Director, Conselva, Costas y Comunidades, A.C.

Contact
WIL Mexico - Canada 2021

Mexico

Melissa Gonzalez Soto
Email: melissa.gonzalez@waterlution.org

Karla Daniela (Dany) Veloz Borjo
Email: daniela.veloz@waterlution.org

Canada

Helena Vallée-Dallaire
Youth program coordinator, Waterlution

Email: helena@waterlution.org