Leadership Stories

Ocean Robbins

Ocean Robbins
Ocean Robbins has gained international acclaim as a specialist in mobilizing youth on a large scale. At age 16, Robbins founded Youth for Environmental Sanity (YES!). YES! brings about social change by training the most promising young leaders from all areas of the world. YES! members have appeared in over 1,200 school assemblies and conference presentations, speaking to a total of 600,000 people. YES! has also hosted over 70 summer camps in seven countries, produced numerous youth-action guides, and led over 150 youth-training workshops. Robbins acts as the primary fundraiser and administrator for this nonprofit organization, which now has an annual budget of over $400,000. He has personally managed summer camps and workshops in Singapore, Costa Rica, Russia, Finland, Canada, the Netherlands, and across the United States.

Robbins has used a number of communication strategies to mobilize public will: he is co-author of Choices For Our Future: A Generation Rising for Life on Earth, and speaks widely, spreading his message to conferences, companies and organizations. His speaking engagements include presentations for the Windstar Foundation, Aveda Congress, Cell Tech Distributor's Celebration, Bioneers, Social Venture Network, Peacemaking: The Power of Nonviolence (with The Dalai Llama and other Nobel laureates), and the Ecological Farming Conference. Robbins has effectively used the media to support his message; he has been interviewed on more than 70 local and national radio and television programs and in 50 newspapers and magazines including feature stories in Time, The Washington Post, Audubon, and The New York Times Magazine. His acclaimed video presentation, Connect, was aired on MTV. He continues to speak publicly and organize YES! events throughout the world.

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