Working to help our region’s communities reduce emissions and prepare for the effects of climate change, Sunrise County Economic Council is now the home of a Community Resilience Partnership (CRP) Coordinator. SCEC’s Community Resilience Coordinator will support towns, tribal governments and unorganized territories in Waldo, Washington, and Hancock Counties with access to grants, training, and technical support.
The Community Resilience Partnership helps communities reduce carbon emissions, transition to clean energy, and become more resilient to climate change effects such as to extreme weather, flooding, rising sea levels, and public health impacts. Participation in the CRP is open to all municipalities, federally recognized tribes, and unorganized territories in Maine. To join the Partnership and become eligible to apply for grant funding, a community only needs to take four simple steps:
- Adopt a municipal resolution, or provide a letter from the Tribal Chief, which establishes either a citizen committee or a municipal/tribal government employee to coordinate activities.
- Complete two self-assessments to evaluate existing progress and identify potential next steps.
- Hold a public workshop to review the self-assessment results and prioritize projects for implementation.
- Submit the community’s enrollment materials from the first three steps through an online form.
Communities may complete these steps on their own or by working with a service provider. In Washington County that service provider is at SCEC (contact Jennifer Peters at scec@sunrisecounty.org). Other counties can contact service providers by following this link. Working with a service provider during the enrollment process is free and can bring expertise to identify opportunities and priorities.
After joining the Partnership, communities are eligible for multiple Community Action Grants of up to $50,000 each to support climate action. These grants enable communities to undertake priority projects that reduce energy use and costs, transition to clean energy, and make communities more resilient to climate change. The application deadline for the next round of Community Action Grants is September 20th, 2022. An informational webinar recording is available here (use passcode .M$V9uud if prompted).
Requests for Applications (RFA) are available on the State of Maine’s grants website. See RFA# 202206101 Service Provider Grant and RFA# 202207107 Community Action Grant.
Contact Community Resilience Coordinator, Tanya Rucosky at trucosky@sunrisecounty.org to learn more about the Community Resilience Partnership.