College of the Atlantic
EN-10: Community Partnerships

The Fund for Maine Islands is a partnership between College of the Atlantic and The Island Institute, with anchor grant support from The Partridge Foundation and stewardship from The Woodcock Foundation. With both organizations bringing a broad understanding of the social, economic, and cultural dynamics that support island and rural coastal communities, the Fund for Maine Islands partnership aims to address four critical areas: food and agriculture, energy, education, and impacts of climate change. From 2014 through the present, the Fund has overseen several major projects; Each has addressed issues of social equity and wellbeing, economic prosperity, and ecological health in varying measure: •The Collaborative for Island Energy Research and Action, which brought together COA faculty, Institute staff, COA students, and year-round coastal island residents for an intensive energy leadership program designed to build local capacity for transforming Maine’s energy future. Goals include energy leadership capacity building and stewardship on Maine islands that will lead to additional and ongoing energy cost and use savings, and the exploration of additional means for reducing carbon footprints on islands through renewable energy sources. •The Sustainable Coastal Communities, Educators and Schools (SUCCESS) initiative, which strengthens K-12 student engagement and learning through project-based, experiential education in partnership with island and remote coastal schools and nonprofit organizations. Goals include enrichment of pre-K-12 student learning; a high-quality professional development infrastructure to increase understanding of experiential and place-based education, and high-quality pre-K-12 sustainability curricula weaving learning about self, other, and systems—agriculture/food, energy, and climate change mitigation—into proficiency-based school curricula. •Mapping Ocean Stories—Past, Present, Future, a COA course that explores and documents the links between working waterfront communities and the marine environment in an era of climate change. The course is meant to have a tangible benefit of strengthening island and coastal community voices in the making of decisions affecting nearby ocean waters. Students in the course work use the most advanced mapping techniques and established oral history approaches to capture community observations about shifts in the marine environment and how to adapt to future changes.

COA Partridge Foundation 5-Year Comprehensive Report