Greetings Community! 

I sincerely hope you enjoyed summer, spent time with loved ones, away in nature, by the water, and relishing all the solstice season's activities and excitement! Now, as we usher in fall and prepare for all the yummy fall flavors (pumpkin spice if that’s your thing), fall equinox, spooky season, election 2024, and for the holidays to roll in, we are also intentionally realigning ourselves as an organization. We are strengthening our strategic vision and enhancing how we work together to ensure we continue onward in ways that fortify and support community-driven solutions toward manifesting our abundance and liberation.

As you know, I spent the glorious month of June on the first leg of my “sabbatical era” and appreciated the gift of repose to immerse in my joy. The highlight was experiencing the U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials with my oldest daughter, who is training for 2028. Beginning October 1, I will complete my “sabbatical era” and be out in October and November to continue making space for rest and reflection, enabling me to continue the practice of living in my love and joy more deeply. This time has been invaluable, and I can’t wait to see you all again in December when I return a much better and well-restored Corrine! Just like in June, the lovely Jaime Love, our Director of Programs, will step in as Interim CEO to ensure things continue moving smoothly in my absence. Please reach out to her with any questions, to receive any support you would usually get from me, or just to say hi! 

My sabbatical aside, Climate Innovation had quite an eventful summer full of various virtual and in-person events, application launches for the 2025 NACRP Facilitator Certification program and 2025 YCLC cohort, and we launched the brand-new YCLC Fund to continue uplifting models of climate resilience, resistance and regenerative practices rooted in creativity to advance transformative change. Read below for additional details and program updates and to hear more about our Community Climate Shift and The Kresge Foundation’s Climate Change, Health & Equity Initiative partnerships. And remember, this is our last quarterly newsletter for 2024, but stay tuned for the publication of our 2023-2024 impact report later this year. For now, get into all the updates below.

I look forward to connecting with you again when our newsletter resumes in 2025!

In solidarity,
Corrine 

During our 2024 Young Black Climate Leaders Dream Lab on July 30 - August 1 in Charleston, South Carolina, we celebrated in the sunshine with a sea of Black folx to honor our community, our collective ancestors, and centered Black liberation. We gathered with over 50 of our beloved YBCL community members to welcome the incoming 2025 YBCL cohort and be in solidarity with YBCL alumni, mentors, advisory board members, and staff. Listening to the input from our YBCL community and CI staff, South Carolina was chosen as the location for this Dream Lab based on its rich and long history as a place for resistance, reclamation, and self-determination for Africans, African Americans, and Black people. 

Don't miss your chance to apply for the 2025 Young Climate Leaders of Color (YCLC) Cohort! The application due date is today by 5:00 p.m. pacific time! 

YCLC is a year-long program designed to empower young leaders of color in climate justice work. Selected participants will receive $5,000 to support their climate justice projects, along with mentorship, project guidance, and the opportunity to connect with a national network of peers.

To apply, you must:

-Identify as Black, Indigenous, or a Person of Color (BIPOC).
-Be based in the U.S. or its territories.
-Be 18-28 years old.

Launched in March 2024, the Community-Driven Planning Fund is dedicated to supporting planners, organizers, facilitators, and organizations in the NACRP network. These grants are intended to seed projects and resource members/member organizations accountable to frontline communities to advance a community-driven planning process. Click here to learn more about the fund!

Round one awarded four grants —please join us in congratulating and celebrating Deep Space Mind 215 for Pentridge Children’s Garden, Foundation for Intentional Community for Sankofa Village, Festival Beach Food Forest and Baldwin House Community Collective! Read more about their projects here.

Are you an organizer, planner, or facilitator of community-driven planning processes looking to develop and hone your facilitative leadership skills? Apply to join the 2025 cohort in the NACRP Facilitator Certification Program! 

Who Should Apply
The Facilitator Certification Program is intended to support those playing a facilitative leadership role in community-driven planning (of any type and scale) and working in-partnership with organizations rooted in communities disproportionately burdened by climate and racial injustice. This program is intended to support participants with facilitation skill development, peer support and project mentorship, and applied practice of community-driven planning.

We ask applicants to consider the time commitment of 2.5 hour monthly online learning sessions March-November, 2025 and an in-person 2.5 day gathering April 16-18, 2025 in Atlanta, GA.

Members of the Community Climate Shift (CCS) initiative gathered in San Francisco, CA  at the third annual Community Climate Shift Partner Convening from May 21-23, 2024 to continue strengthening relationships, strategize, align, and collaborate on equitable decarbonization and energy justice initiatives across the country. Click here to see a high-level video recap of our time together!

In January, CCS kicked off its work on the Supporting Equitable Building Performance (SEBP) project after being awarded a $5 million dollar grant from the Department of Energy to work on equitable decarbonization in nine locations across the country. SEBP aims to model community-led energy efficiency policy making in these nine locations, leveraging federal funds with the philanthropic resources in the CCS fund to facilitate direct collaboration between community-based anchor organizations and local governments

Next week, from September 17-20, the Climate Innovation team will support hosting the annual grantee convening for The Kresge Foundation’s Climate Change, Health and Equity (CCHE) Initiative. This year’s convening, Elders, Yelders & Young Leaders: Intergenerational Care & Movement Building for Climate and Health, will be hosted in Detroit, MI and centers around themes of intergenerational leadership, self/community care, and network connections. The convening will bring together 150 grantees and partners from across the country to reconnect with one another to share more about the powerful work taking place across the initiative at the intersection of climate change, health, and equity. In addition to excellent panels and workshops, attendees will also have opportunities to get rooted in place with local artist performances and attending various site visits hosted by community partners in Detroit.

This will be the final in-person gathering for the current cohort of grantees for this iteration of the CCHE initiative. We will spend time celebrating the five years of amazing work as a CCHE community. Additionally, this year marks the centennial year celebration of the Kresge Foundation as we bring the cohort to Michigan for this gathering. As part of the celebration, Kresge will co-host this event with the annual CREWS Convening. These concurrent events will offer plenty of opportunities for grantees of both of these amazing programs to share space with one another. With featured speakers Dr. Jalonne White-Newsome of the White House CEQ, Nalleli Cobo - Goldman Environmental Prize Winner, and Elizabeth Yeampierre of UPROSE for Environmental Justice, the CCHE Convening is sure to be a powerful moment for the movement.