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Youth Action Central

Youth Action Central helps educators and students turn big ideas into hands-on action — litter cleanups, recycling projects, and greening the school grounds people actually spend their day in.

What it gives you

Free, and built for a lesson plan

Free

Toolkits

Downloadable, no account needed

3

Project types

Litter, recycling, beautification

700

Local affiliates

To partner with nearby

Source: Keep America Beautiful — Youth Action Central, launched November 2025 (kab.org)

Three ways in

A Great American Cleanup volunteer kit laid out on a grey sofa: a lime hi-vis vest with a silver reflective stripe and the Keep America Beautiful tree logo, a blue Keep America Beautiful drawstring bag, a black and yellow long-handled litter grabber, a bundle of bright green liner bags, grey work gloves, and a small orange digital hanging scale.

Start with a toolkit

Downloadable guides that take a class from an idea to a finished project, with the planning already done.

A young volunteer crouching at a creek bank during a Creek to Bay cleanup, reaching into the grass to pick up a piece of litter.

Find what is happening locally

A resource map of opportunities near your school, so a project has somewhere real to land rather than staying a classroom exercise.

A planted verge of native wildflowers in full bloom beside a footpath, with bees working the flower heads.

Green the school grounds

The nearest available patch of land to most students is the one they already walk across every day. Planting it is the shortest route from lesson to visible change.

The future is something we build

Not something we wait for. Start with one project, on one patch of ground, with one class.

About seventeen high-school students in grey Keep America Beautiful shirts kneel and stand around two full black trash bags on a sunlit lawn
Flat text graphic: KEEP AMERICA BEAUTIFUL in black capitals above a pale grey angled banner carrying the words YOUTH ACTION CENTRAL in a rough-textured blue condensed typeface.

Learn it. Lead it. Change it.

Youth Action Central: Become a Youth Changemaker Youth Action Central is your launchpad to turn ideas into action. Step-by-step toolkits help you grow your leadership skills while tackling real challenges—like ending litter, boosting recycling, and creating a cleaner, more vibrant community. Youth Action Central: Become a Youth Changemaker Changemakers Wanted! Start Today!

End Litter

Litter harms our communities and environment. Lead the way to cleaner, healthier places.

Improve Recycling

Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to power a laptop for three hours—you have the power to lead change!

Beautify Communities

Green spaces improve physical and mental health. Step up and make an impact!

Flat black-and-white graphic of a megaphone with lightning-bolt sound lines pointing into a hand-drawn speech bubble that reads QUIZ TIME ! in bold slanted capitals.

Discover What Kind of Changemaker You Are!

Find Local Opportunities and Resources Near You!

Screenshot of a road map of the United States scattered with green, red, orange and blue teardrop pins, mostly across the south and east coast, with Chicago, Dallas, Houston and Miami labelled.

Sponsors and Partners

Horizontal navy logo with a stylised lion head at left followed by the wordmark "Mutual of Omaha"

Education Advisors

Special Thank You to our Education Advisors!

  • Jan Richardson

  • Jody Feldman

  • Juan Mora y Araujo

Share Your Story

Do you have a story about work being done in your community? If so, we would love to hear from you.