November 2024 Reflections
November 20, 2024
It is hard to believe that only two weeks have passed since Election Day. These have been packed weeks at ACTT, as we processed the results of the election, both in terms of how we felt and in terms of the implications of the results, engaged in strategic planning for 2025 (purposefully set to occur just after the elections so we could best plan accordingly), and prepared and sent out our annual appeal. We have also been writing grants for the towns of Tremont, Southwest Harbor, and Mount Desert for upcoming state grant cycles, plugging away on our current projects, and attending meetings with the state as they prepare to launch the updated Maine Won’t Wait (the state’s climate action plan) on Thursday, November 21.
Last week, I sat around our office table with staff and board members, writing notes on the annual appeal packets we mail to past donors (complete with a beautiful printed copy of our annual report). This process is simultaneously time-consuming and really quite lovely. Nearly every name on our list is someone we recognize; this person came to that event, this person was part of our launch, this person is a Climate Ambassador, this person is a long-time supporter and/or collaborator. As we write notes, I am reminded: there is truly an “ACTT Community”. This work is something we undertake collectively; it always has been and it always will be.
And never has that community been so important as it is now. As we reflected on the results of the election, as we collected information about potential implications, and as we developed our strategic plan for 2025, one theme was consistent throughout: community is where it is at right now. How we show up and what we build in our immediate communities is an essential pathway for change at this moment. Yes, we must raise our voices to ask our government to truly represent and serve the incredible diversity that makes this country, and, at the community level, we can do the work of really knowing and showing up for each other.
Furthermore, it is community that will sustain us as we face increasing climate impacts and other challenges in the coming years. And, while resistance to climate solutions will clearly increase within the federal government, effective models of success speak volumes. As states move to take up climate commitments, as they did last time our country withdrew from the Paris Climate Accord, they will look for models of how to implement climate solutions. Many of these models exist at the local level but are highly scalable and effective and often make compelling economic arguments for the benefits of climate solutions as well.
In fact, earlier this week, I attended a meeting with the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future (GOPIF) that was held exactly for this purpose of gathering the work, models, and insights from organizations to inform state progress on climate action. In preparation for the launch of the updated Maine Won’t Wait, GOPIF brought together a handful of organizations from throughout the state that will be key partners in implementing the updated plan. Organizations shared how their work intersects with the plan’s success. While there were many statewide policy-based organizations in attendance, a smaller handful of us are deeply immersed in on-the-ground implementation of solutions. It was so clear, in the meeting, that this on-the-ground, often locally-based work is critical to the state plan’s success.
So, yes, community work will be all the more important right now and we are profoundly grateful to have such a community gathered around the work at ACTT. Community will also play an essential role in ensuring that this work has the financial support needed to continue. As I wrote in our annual appeal letter, over the past several years, federal funding has enabled us to grow our capacity, bringing in new team members with new expertise. We have seen our work accelerate in impact as a result. To sustain this level of capacity, we will have to replace those federal dollars with philanthropic support. We are grateful to all those who will help us make this possible.
It has felt really good to move this work forward in the days since the election. Yes, there is a certain weight to these days. While the election results concern us in many ways, I feel a particularly heavy grief when I think about the implications for climate change and the ecological community of which we are a part. I remind myself that this grief is a healthy, appropriate response; it is directly connected to how much I love this planet and the intricate web of life that weaves together our most essential community here. And, I have still found no greater balm for that grief or expression of that love than the act of coming together to create solutions, systems, and networks of collaboration and action that honor that most essential of communities: the natural world.