About Us
Our Story
Aisha O’Neil founded Good Trouble with the help of other leaders of the Durango High School Green Team in early 2024. They hoped this network could harness the power of individual high school sustainability clubs, driving these powerful groups towards collective action and so creating a greater impact on Colorado’s media and legislation. By the end of that school year – just three months later – Good Trouble contained 10 member schools, had 5 partner organizations, and had facilitated the passage of a statewide climate literacy bill. With this initial momentum, Good Trouble is confident that we can create an organization that allows us to decide our future!
Our Founder
Hi! I’m Aisha O'Neil, the founder and director of Good Trouble. I began the Durango High School Green Team at fifteen largely as a response to my own sense of hopelessness in the face of countless global environmental tragedies. Yet as Green Team transformed into a vibrant community filled with passionate young change makers, I recognized that I now led the club with not fear but hope. That is why I founded Good Trouble in my senior year of high school– I truly believe that youth can make an outsized impact on the climate legislation of our state.
Meet The Team
Join the Team
Policy Director Position
Due Dec 5th
Position for Policy Director (In-state):
• With Good Trouble based in Colorado, the in-state policy director will be hands-on and focused on a lot of the direct field work with our state government
Tasks will include:
â—¦ tracking bills of interest (voted by EC and/or schools in network)
â—¦ cold-emailing - partner orgs, local legislators, etc.
â—¦ organizing public comment sessions with partner schools
â–ª figuring out dates, organizing communication to students (makiang sure they know where to be for in-person testimony, or organizing all the submitted written comments)
â–ª physical attendance to many public comment sessions
Tasks may include:
â—¦ supporting public comment training sessions
â—¦ leading process of sponsoring Good Trouble’s own bill
â—¦ brainstorming ideas for growing the role of policy director
Overall: This role will involve smaller, manageable tasks, but consistency of communication, and following bills/conversations over long periods of time. Ideally, the in-state policy director will be able to be present in public comment sessions to help lead students.
(preference that the applicant is an upperclassman in high school, is based in Colorado, has basic civic knowledge, and has communication/public speaking skills)
Good Trouble Executive Committee
If you are an upperclassman in high school or a college student, join our executive committee!
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Good Trouble’s Executive Committee governs all of our work towards a more sustainable state. This includes managing our internal communication, community outreach, event planning, and much more. We usually only accept applications to the committee at the end of the school year, but if you are interested in joining, please complete the application below and we’ll reach out to you with more information on how you can get involved now.
Good Trouble Interns
If you are a high school or middle school student, we invite you to intern with Good Trouble!
Interns will aid Good Trouble's Executive Committee in running the Good Trouble Climate Network. They may assist in everything from planning events to creating social media posts to giving testimony to the legislature. They will be able to choose what they would like to work on and may adopt a specialty. After 2 months of the internship, they can choose a mentor to work under in an area they are interested in. This application is due September 7.
Timeline: the internship will last from September 10 through January 15.
Commitment: interns must be willing to work about an hour each week.