Communities are the foundation of society at the local, national, and global levels. Their well-being and socioeconomic prosperity depend on their ability to withstand and adapt to economic and environmental pressures and disruptive events.
Traditionally, efforts to build community resilience focus on investments in hard infrastructure and the systems that support it, including:
These investments matter. However, they frequently overlook a critical requirement: the human capacity to build, operate, maintain, and adapt these systems over time — and to participate in the civic decisions that shape them.
Climate educators have long understood that preparing young people for climate disruption requires agency, civic skills, and the capacity to act. The challenge has been structural: climate funders have typically viewed schools and youth programs as someone else’s domain, while education funders have treated climate as outside their priorities. The result is a gap — not in the quality of the work, but in the investment ecosystem that should be supporting it.
Too often, education is treated as optional rather than essential in resilience planning. We can no longer afford that mistake. When communities underinvest in education, they weaken the workforce, civic leadership, and adaptive capacity needed to maintain critical systems, respond to disruption, and recover stronger.
That is why organizations working at the intersection of climate and education have come together as the Coalition for Climate-Ready Communities. We share a belief that building community resilience requires human capacity across two interconnected dimensions — a workforce with the skills to build and maintain the systems communities depend on, and young people with the civic agency to investigate local challenges, engage decision-makers, and act.
By connecting members through shared resources, knowledge, and lessons learned, coalition reduces duplication, amplifies effective practice, and accelerates the expansion of proven approaches nationally. Together, we are building the shared infrastructure communities need to prepare for, respond to, and recover from climate disruption, and to ensure the next generation has the civic agency and workforce skills to lead that work. The coalition’s main aims are to:
These nine organizations have come together as founding members of the Coalition for Climate-Ready Communities — bringing decades of experience, proven models, and deep community relationships to a challenge no single organization can meet alone. We are building the shared infrastructure this moment requires, and we welcome partners who share this vision.
North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE)
Roots & Shoots, a program of the The Jane Goodall Institute
