Over 40 years advocating for environmental education in Maine

Creating Change

We create systemic change in environmental education through five impact areas. Click on the plus (+) sign next to each impact area to learn about each area of MEEA’s work.

  • MEEA works with youth and early career professionals to create leadership opportunities that empower their drive for social and climate justice. This support includes tools, resources, and stipends for their time and expertise. Community building is essential to fostering youth leadership. Therefore, we connect youth to network peers, community partners, mentors, and coaches. We recognize our youth’s work through award nominations.

  • Educators are critical change agents. We aim to support their work through peer connections, convenings, professional development, and financial and non-financial resources. We elevate storytelling and celebrate educator successes to share these achievements with our state and national network.

  • Research and evaluation are crucial in highlighting the needs of our community. MEEA works to identify statewide trends, patterns, and needs and utilizes this information to support programmatic evaluation, assess progress toward systems change, and disseminate local case studies of innovation. We also seek to communicate best practices from the national level.

  • Multiscale change is essential to MEEA’s work. We build organizational infrastructures to cultivate values-aligned procedures, emergent strategies, transparency with failure and process, and authentic relationships. We share the lessons learned with our state and national networks through modeling, teaching, and ensuring accountability for others working towards these culture shifts.

  • MEEA strives to advance research-informed, transformational policy solutions that will have systemic impact across the sector, the state, and beyond. Our approach focuses on engaging with grassroots movements, collaborating with coalition partners, and building relationships with state and federal decision-makers.

Our Mission

The Maine Environmental Education Association builds environmental awareness, accountability, and action by centering equity and advancing systemic change.

Our Vision

MEEA envisions a Maine where interconnectedness with the natural world is the root of environmental and social responsibility of all individuals, institutions, and communities.

Our Impact Areas

Our Team

At MEEA, we prioritize a strong diversity of perspectives and lived experiences while ensuring we maintain early-career leadership throughout our staffing structure. We also operate using a shared leadership model, which is ever evolving as our staff grows, to make decisions together and practice the types of relationships we want to see in the world. We also welcome rotating fellows and residents to our staff throughout the year.

To reach a member of MEEA staff or a member of the board, please email info@meeassociation.org and let us know a bit about what you are needing supporting on or have questions about, and someone will be in touch with you.

Colllaborations and Partnerships

As one of the 56 Affiliate Organizations of the North American Association for Environmental Education, MEEA is part of the largest network of environmental educators in the world. Collectively, we empower educators, schools and communities to impact conservation, education, social justice, health and wellness, and youth development. Through this global network, we bring the most up-to-date innovations in the field to Maine to advance our sector. MEEA was awarded “Outstanding Affiliate of the Year” in 2015 by NAAEE.

MEEA is a member of the Nature Based Education Consortium and collaborates closely with individuals and organizations in this network to advance common priorities around outdoor equity, building support for local outdoor learning advocacy, and advancing climate education policy in Maine. MEEA staff are members of the Outdoor Equity Working Group and the Climate Education Advocacy Working Group. Learn about NBEC.

Maine Youth for Climate Justice (MYCJ) is a coalition of over 250 youth from all over Maine who fight for bold climate action, a just transition, and a livable future in Maine. MYCJ was founded by various high school and college groups, Maine Youth Action Network, and 350 Maine’s Youth Engagement team in February 2019. MYCJ is open to anyone under the age of 30 who is interested in engaging at the local or state level about climate justice issues. Learn about MYCJ.

MEEA is a member of the Maine Early Childhood Outdoors network and collaborates closely with this network to build educator resources, advance policy, and mobilize support to ensure quality outdoor learning opportunities for every Maine child from birth to 8 years old. Learn about MaineAEYC.

The Maine Climate Education Hub Advisory Committee is a consortium of individuals or organizations who developed the Maine Climate Education Hub-- an online website full of educational resources to support Maine educators in incorporating climate literacy into their curriculum. Learn more.

Teach ME Outside’s goal is to support and work in partnership with Maine communities to ensure that all Maine youth have access to powerful, hands-on environmental learning opportunities. A collaborative project between MEEA and the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance, we focus on reducing barriers and sharing creative community-designed solutions to increase schools’ and organizations’ ability to implement community-based environmental learning.

Maine Climate Action NOW! (MCAN) catalyzes transformative education and action in response to the climate and ecological emergency. MEEA is a Ally member of the coalition and participates in quarterly conference, decision making processes, and testifies for coalition-led state level policy.