The Community Resilience Partnership announced six new positions to the Resilience Collaborative: three Tribal Resilience Coordinators, and three Resilience Finance Coordinators.
The Resilience Collaborative, which includes Regional Resilience Coordinators located at each of Maine’s ten regional councils, is a network of assistance providers who support municipalities and Tribal governments with services to plan, design, and implement climate resilience and natural-hazard risk-reduction projects. The two new types of coordinators fill gaps in the existing network by advancing key Tribal climate and resilience goals and providing communities enrolled in the Partnership with assistance in understanding and utilizing capital investment planning, municipal/tribal budgeting practices, project finance strategies, and other long-term approaches to implement climate resilience, emissions reduction, and clean energy projects.
The three Tribal Resilience Coordinators will serve all five of Maine’s Tribal governments in building sustainable energy and tribal resilience. The positions will be based at the Mi’kmaq Nation Environmental Department in Presque Isle, the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians Natural Resources Department in Houlton, and the Sipayik Resilience Committee’s office space in Calais and Machias.
The Tribal Resilience coordinators will work alongside the existing intertribal Wabanaki Sustainable Energy Coordinator and two sustainable energy coordinators recently hired by the Penobscot Nation and the Passamaquoddy Tribe. These new positions will also collaborate closely with the Wabanaki Sustainable Energy Team (WSET), a community-based participatory research initiative with the University of Maine.
The Resilience Finance Coordinator positions were awarded to University of Southern Maine’s Catherine Cutler Institute, as a partnership between its New England Environmental Finance Center (NEEFC) and the Portland-based Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI).
The three Finance Coordinators are:
- Andrea Berry, NEEFC Climate Funding Manager
- Chloe Shields, NEEFC Deputy Director
- Nikki Yanok, GMRI Climate Finance Specialist
Finance Coordinators will guide municipalities in aligning investments with local priorities through inclusive engagement, technical assistance, and implementation support, including through assisting with capital planning and budgeting for long-term investments in climate resilience, clean energy, energy efficiency, and natural-hazard risk reduction.
The Resilience Collaborative is funded through the NOAA Climate Resilience Regional Challenge grant awarded to Maine in 2024 to protect Maine’s communities, environment, and working waterfronts from extreme storms, inland flooding, and rising sea levels.
A full list of Resilience Collaborative members is available on the CRP webpage.