The Climate Initiative

Presented by Leia Lowery, Executive Director of The Climate Initiative

At the KCT Annual Meeting, The Climate Initiative team shared their progress over the past year with Leia Lowery becoming TCI's second Executive Director in January 2024. TCI, which was born out of KCT in 2020, has grown into a national role in the non-partisan climate education and youth empowerment space. TCI's flagship program, Learning Lab (modeled off the Gulf of Maine Field Studies class at Kennebunk High School) is now being taught by over 3,700 educators, educating and inspiring 375,000 youth across the country towards local climate action in their communities!

TCI's work in Kennebunkport in 2024 included the State Climate Action Grant project, in partnership with the Town of Kennebunkport, to engage Kennebunk High School students in facilitating intergenerational community conversations about climate change impacts in Kennebunkport and surrounding areas. This was especially important and timely after the January 2024 storms. Fourteen in-person community conversation events engaged over 200+ participants led by 32 youth facilitators from our community.

You can learn more and support TCI's mission of empowering youth for climate action, here.