Meet Our Grants Committee!

At YCJF, our Grants Committee is at the heart of how we support next-generation leaders driving fair and green transitions worldwide. These passionate members guide our grant-making strategies, offer insights into capacity strengthening, and play a central role in our participatory grantmaking model, ensuring that young voices are at the center of decisions that shape their futures.

Our grants focus on supporting leaders who:

• Hold policy-makers accountable to ambitious socio-environmental goals at all levels.
• Push for equitable, environmentally-focused policies that gain political traction and drive systemic change.
• Cultivate a diverse, highly skilled generation of young grassroots organizers ready to lead rapid, equitable transitions, and transfer their skills to other spheres of influence.

Our Grants Committee members are the ones who help bring these goals to life. Get to know them:

Archana Soreng (she/her) - 🌐 India

Member, United Nations Secretary-General's Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change (2020–2023), Archana Soreng, from the Khadia Tribe of Odisha, India, works at the intersection of Indigenous youth leadership, climate philanthropy, and biodiversity conservation. Her work is rooted in the belief that young people and Indigenous communities must be central to climate decision-making. She was a member of the inaugural United Nations Secretary-General's Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change (2020–2023). 

In 2023, she addressed the United Nations General Assembly on the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, highlighting the vital role of Indigenous and youth leadership in advancing climate justice. She currently serves on the Climate Advisory Council of The Rockefeller Foundation and is a 2024 Skoll World Forum Fellow. Across Asia, Archana has strengthened youth leadership through regional and global coalitions of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities. She served on the Steering Committee of the Youth Climate Justice Fund (2023–2025) and now sits on its Grants Committee. Through her leadership, Archana builds bridges between grassroots movements and global institutions, ensuring climate solutions are grounded in justice, equity, and lived experience.

📹 Learn more about Archana:

Taylen Reddy (he/him) - 🌐 South Africa

Taylen Reddy is an environmental justice advocate, researcher, and advocate from South Africa. As Founder of Zero Waste Durban, he leads community-driven initiatives that challenge waste colonialism, promote circular systems, and reimagine urban sustainability through an African lens. His work bridges grassroots action with global advocacy, centering justice, accountability, and systemic change.

As Sub-Saharan Africa Convenor for Climate Youth Resilience (CYR), he focuses on cultivating mindfulness, emotional awareness, and grounded leadership among young people, recognizing that sustainable futures depend as much on inner capacity as on external action. By integrating contemplative practice with climate justice, Taylen helps reimagine advocacy as a space for reflection, healing, and regeneration, transforming systems from the inside out.

''I am honored to have the opportunity to contribute to the funding and resourcing of youth groups and movements, who are leading climate solutions and justice efforts, especially in the Global South where organizational resources are scarce, and the effects of climate change are catastrophic.''

📹 Learn more about Taylen:

Mitzi Jonelle Tan (she/her) - 🌐 Philippines 

Mitzi Jonelle Tan is a climate justice advocate based in Metro Manila, Philippines. She serves as convenor and international spokesperson for Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines (YACAP), the Philippines' chapter of Fridays For Future (FFF). She is also an organizer with FFF International and FFF MAPA (Most Affected Peoples and Areas), amplifying the voices of young leaders from the Global South and ensuring they have space in global climate conversations.

Mitzi is committed to change and building a world that prioritizes people and the planet over profit through collective action. She is also a champion of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, working to curb the global reliance on fossil fuels and advance climate justice worldwide.

📹 Learn more about Mitzi:

Dominique Palmer (she/her) - 🌐 United Kingdom

Dominique Palmer is a climate justice advocate, writer, and speaker. She is a coordinator for Climate Live, a youth-led organization harnessing the power of music for climate action, and is actively involved in campaigns such as #StopRosebank. Dominique focuses on engaging communities and demanding accountability from world leaders. 

She participated in the September 2019 climate protests in the United Kingdom, which brought 300,000 people to the streets, and has since shared her work on global stages, including COP26, COP27, the New York Times Hub, and the Forum at the O2. Dominique was also named in Forbes 2020 Top U.K. Environmentalists and honored as a young leader at the Green Carpet Fashion Awards. She continues to inspire and mobilize communities worldwide in the fight for climate justice.

📹 Learn more about Dominique:

Camila Paz Romero (she/her) - 🌐 Chile

Camila Paz is an Indigenous anthropologist and advocate from Chile, based in the Wallmapu territory in the south of the country. She currently contributes to the Keepers of the Earth program at Cultural Survival and supports coordination at the International Indigenous Youth Forum on Climate Change (IIYFCC).

Camila is dedicated to advancing Indigenous participation in public policy, advocacy, and access to climate finance, ensuring that Indigenous perspectives are recognized in global and local efforts to address environmental and social challenges. Through her work, she strives to amplify Indigenous voices and make them an integral part of decision-making processes that shape the future of people and the planet.

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Together, the Grants Committee brings a breadth of perspectives and lived experience that helps shape how YCJF approaches its work. Their role supports thoughtful decision-making and helps ensure that grantmaking remains responsive to the realities and ambitions of young leaders around the world.