Letter from the Executive Director

Today marks day four of the COP-26 global climate change conferences in Glasgow. It is becoming more and more clear that if the US is truly serious about meeting our 2030 and 2050 Paris climate goals, we need to fill an immense education gap. Over the next five to twenty years we will need millions of people to take action with the knowledge, skills, and mindsets to equitably confront the climate crisis in all sectors of the economy and throughout our communities.

Communitopia is relentless in our efforts to ensure our region continues to break ground in this pursuit. Our strategy begins with youth and includes quality educational programming for them and their greatest influencers. We believe that if knowledge is power, then knowledge transferred into action is transformation. Our programming provides stakeholders ongoing immersive opportunities to be the change. Our ultimate goal = transformative climate change education that is normalized and formalized in schools region-wide. We invite you to read about area students, teachers, and district-level change-makers who are on this journey now and invite you to follow their lead!

While reading others' stories is inspiring, nothing beats first hand participation. We welcome you to get involved and bring our programming into your community. You could start with fully-facilitated, award-winning workshops on climate change brought directly to classrooms, localized, interdisciplinary training and professional development for educators, or facilitation of climate action planning for emission reduction with district administrators and school boards.

While the challenges along the road to equitable climate solutions are many, education and training can be a huge accelerant to achieving greenhouse gas reductions and adequate climate resiliency.