Vietnam's Community Schools for Regeneration

About Green Youth Collective & REED Regenerative

1. What is Green Youth Collective (GYC)?

GYC is a community-based environmental organization working at the grassroots level to advance regenerative sustainability through zero waste systems, agro-ecosystem restoration, education, and regenerative tourism.

2. How is GYC different from conventional NGOs or project-based initiatives?

GYC works long-term, place-based, and focuses on upstream, systemic change.
We build living solution ecosystems, not short-term projects, and prioritize community ownership, adaptability, and regeneration. We also try to be financially independent, as operated like a social business.

3. What is the relationship between GYC and REED?

Green Youth Collective (GYC) is the origin and grassroots foundation of the work.
REED (RE.generate Ecological Development) is a practice-based platform that emerged from GYC’s long-term field experience to work more deeply with tourism destinations, businesses, and multi-stakeholder systems.

In short:
GYC grows from the ground up; REED connects that work to wider systems.

4. Where do GYC & REED work?

Our work is rooted in Hoi An and the Go Noi area (Da Nang, Central Vietnam), but the challenges we address—waste and plastic pollution, degraded ecosystems, fragile livelihoods, and transition skills—are shared globally.

Strategies & Approaches

5. What does “regenerative sustainability” mean in practice?

It means going beyond “doing less harm” to redesign systems so they actively restore ecosystems, strengthen communities, and increase long-term capacity to adapt and care for life.

6. Why do GYC & REED focus on upstream solutions?

Because most environmental problems are symptoms of how systems are designed.
Upstream work—prevention, redesign, and governance—creates lasting change, while downstream fixes often treat the same problems repeatedly.

7. What is GYC’s intermediary role?

GYC acts as a bridge between:

• policy and grassroots reality,
• technical solutions and daily practice,
• tourism systems and local ecosystems.

This role ensures ideas become workable, locally owned solutions.

Education & Learning

8. What is “Education for Resilience and Regeneration”?

It is education focused on building real-life capability—helping people learn how to live, adapt, and regenerate under changing conditions, rather than only transferring knowledge.

9. What kind of skills do people learn through GYC?

People develop transition skills, including:

• growing natural food and restoring soil,
• repairing, reusing, and repurposing materials,
• working with uncertainty and complexity,
• collaborating across differences,
• understanding natural and social systems.

10. Is GYC’s education only for young people?

No. Learning at GYC is lifelong and intergenerational, involving youth, adults, farmers, women’s groups, informal workers, professionals, and visitors.

11. Are GYC’s Community Schools formal schools?

No. They are place-based learning ecosystems, where learning happens through real work, shared responsibility, and community-led practice.

Projects & Practice

12. What are GYC’s main areas of work?

Our work connects three core areas:

• Zero Waste & Resource Management
• Closed-loop Farming & Agro-ecosystem Restoration
• Community Schools for Regeneration & Regenerative Tourism

13. How does regenerative tourism work at GYC?

We work with tourism businesses and travellers to redesign tourism as a contributor to local regeneration —through zero waste operations, learning experiences, and community engagement.

14. How is GYC’s work aligned with effective climate action?

GYC focuses on high-impact, often overlooked climate actions that address emissions at their source while strengthening ecosystems and community resilience.

Our work contributes to climate action by:

• Reducing methane emissions through upstream organic waste management and composting, preventing food waste from decomposing in landfills.
• Cutting lifecycle emissions of plastics by prioritizing reduction, reuse, and system redesign—rather than relying on recycling alone.
• Restoring land and soil health, which enhances carbon sequestration, water retention, and resilience to climate extremes.
• Rebuilding local circular systems that reduce dependence on long-distance transport, synthetic inputs, and extractive supply chains.

By connecting zero waste and land restoration into one integrated system, GYC’s approach aligns climate mitigation with adaptation, biodiversity recovery, and community wellbeing—ensuring climate action is practical, equitable, and lasting.

How to get involved

15. How do I start?

You can reach out with a brief introduction about who you are, what you can do, what you expect, and how long you hope to engage. Email our Director directly: hanh@greenyouthcollective.org, and, reed.regenerative@gmail.com. Or WhatsApp number: +84 978 134 277.

16. Can you differentiate the paid and unpaid participation?

GYC operates as a self-funded social enterprise. Most participation pathways are paid, because the operation of projects and the support for participants require staff time, materials, infrastructure, and ongoing resources.

At the same time, GYC is also a social impact organization. We intentionally reserve unpaid or supported participation for:

• disadvantaged youth,
• grassroots community members,
• outreach and capacity-building programs where GYC invests its own resources to support learning, traditional knowledge sharing, and local leadership.

Participation can take many forms and durations, depending on both your availability and ongoing projects—ranging from half-day or full-day engagement, to weeks, months, or longer-term pathways such as internships or gap-year experiences.

All participation is discussed transparently, including terms, rights, responsibilities, and expectations, to ensure mutual clarity and alignment.

In some cases, where there is strong mutual fit and long-term commitment, participation may also evolve into a paid staff role, with salary.