In attendance: Maryalice Crofton, Kirsten Brewer, Stacie Haines, Rep Morgan Rielly, Ivan Fernandez
New members who will be joining:
Olivia Griset – Maine Ed Association, involved with environmental changemakers (still considering)
Kevin Howell – Carmel town manager.
Cole Cochran - Maine Youth for Climate Justice
Mohamed Khalid – from COA (Safiya’s brother)
Additional:
Kate – schedule changed, can’t do Wednesday
Ania Wright – putting feelers out to people in her community (let her know that Cole is in)
Energy Education & Outreach Scoping Meeting
Scoping meeting on Tuesday June 28 10 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. (with a 30 minute lunch break). Follow-up on July 12, 10:00 a.m. -11:30 a.m.
Currently approximately 26 registrants. Still time for registrants. Working on more representation from Western/Northern Maine. Kirsten is also available for 1-1 meetings if folks cannot attend on June 28.
Outreach to:
Matt Damon – Penobscot Home Performance (Stacie)
Bo Jespersen – The Breathable Home (Stacie)
Labor contact: John Portela (Kirsten)
Pam Croux Curry may help get people from inside tech schools (Kirsten)
Task force members will take notes and move conversation along in specific break out groups. Kirsten will arrange good mix of people in break out rooms. Two break-out room sessions:
1. Questions about energy efficiency education/implementation, what are the strengths and gaps?
2. What could Climate Corps do? This is what I envision and what it would look like in action.
Following the June 28 scoping meeting, there will be a shorter session July 12, 10-11:30 for another opportunity for people to provide feedback.
Preparing for LD 1974 grantmaking: Grantmakers in Environmental community: Maine Community Foundation. Energy Efficiency Grant program. Follow-up with Kirsten offline (Stacie)
Follow-up on prioritizing Climate Education/Green Schools and Energy Efficiency Education & Outreach with pilot project.
Some specs in LD 1974 (see page 2) for new programs:
- Direct Service Projects
- Community collaboration, evidence-based service, collaboration with indigenous communities, address equity, justice, and accessibility;
- Address 1 of 8 climate impact areas:
- Prioritize assistance to disproportionately affected communities and ensure service members reflect diversity of communities;
- Standards include set service terms, appropriate benefits for full-time members, provide pathways to future education or employment;
- Meet any other standards that the commission sets.
The bill language reflects the January 2022 report on the Climate Corps. For your reference, note, page 8 that describes “high-quality service corps” to determine the standards; page 11 with 8 climate-related areas.
Discussion points:
The funds for climate ed granted this last legislative session will be used for teacher’s professional development training.
The Climate Corps could work in tandem with that. The primary teachers would receive the professional development and there is potential for a service member to be a ‘climate teachers aid’ in the classroom and help with connecting students to the community.
In addition to the $200,000 for the pilot project there is an additional $100,000 that is available through AmeriCorps. However, there is an administrative burden associated with that. The upside is that service members would be eligible for the (approx.) $7000 educational award. AmeriCorps also limits service members to post-high school and there were questions about immigrant eligibility (there are limitations to who is eligible through AmeriCorps).
The taskforce would like to have flexibility with age and visa status. And, would like service members to be eligible for the educational award. The taskforce is in agreement that the program should be designed so that the $100K from AmeriCorps could be used for people eligible for that and the state funds used without the constraints of the AmeriCorps program.
Brief updates: Working on recruiting a coastal zone Planning Grant applicant. Will be attending GOPIF Climate Action Conference on Friday June 17.
Next meeting: July 20, 1 PM