Donate to the Climate + Energy Project Annual Giving Campaign!
Authored by: Sarah Dehart Faltico, Program Coordinator
As this year hurries toward its close, I feel a pull to turn inward like the animals that scurry to store up before a winter’s rest. I also reflect on how my actions have rippled out into the world.
As individuals, we are part of a whole, which is part of an even greater whole, like fractals in nature demonstrating similar patterns at any scale and becoming increasingly complex and powerful with size. Similarly, CEP’s work builds power at different scales – individual, organizational, community, state – to create a healthy and resilient Kansas.
Building power starts with individuals like you.
CEP builds individual power with Kansas Environmental Leadership, which develops and supports a network of environmental leaders in Kansas by providing leadership training and networking opportunities to current and aspiring environmental leaders. Thanks to a multi-year partnership with the Kansas Leadership Center, CEP has supported almost 200 Kansans to engage in high-quality leadership development that begins with developing personal leadership skills and moves along a path toward practicing leadership within systems and then facilitating leadership in others.
Empowered individuals transform their communities.
Last June, CEP launched the Kansas Climate CORE (Community Organizing for Resilience and Equity) to increase voter awareness and engagement with
the links between energy, climate resilience, and health. Through training, relational organizing, voter education, and community engagement, CEP helps Kansans like you take action on climate and energy issues in your community.
Deep collaboration centers people, builds power, and sustains change.
Climate + Energy Project also values deep collaboration with organizational partners working in climate resilience, environmental justice, and other adjacent fields within Kansas and the region. In October 2020, Kansas became an official member of the RE-AMP network, which will provide a greater platform for collaboration and professional development on climate and energy issues for Kansas organizations. Reducing climate risks positively impacts our state’s Water, Energy, Air, Land, Transportation, and Health (WEALTH). CEP began coordinating the Kansas WEALTH State Table in August, and participating organizations will work together toward a common goal: to set inclusive, coordinated, and intentional strategies that build power across service areas, sectors, and geographic space and drive climate action in Kansas.
At the core of these scales is the idea that building and sustaining power means centering people and their lived experiences. Working with any system can be messy, and we find ourselves
working at the intersection of many different systems. A personal key learning is the more our work centers on the human condition, the harder it becomes and the more important it is.
CEP’s work anchors in clean energy while embracing the broader climate resilience community. This broader community then interacts with increasingly larger systems of people, organizations, communities, and societies that can all be scaled back down to the individual. The power starts with YOU.
Your efforts ripple out. Your voice empowers others. Your participation shapes the future.
Please donate today to continue building power for the long game.
