Participation in the Community Resilience Partnership is open to all municipalities, federally recognized tribes, plantations, townships, and unorganized territories in Maine. The benefits of joining the Partnership include access to funding opportunities, help with project development and grant writing, training on important topics, and peer-to-peer learning events.
A community may complete the steps to enroll on its own or by working with a Service Provider for additional assistance.
How to Enroll in the Partnership
To join the Partnership, a community must complete the following steps:
- Complete two self-assessments to assess existing progress and identify potential next steps:
- Community Resilience Self-Evaluation (Doc) – Assess how the community is addressing resilience in existing planning and operations.
- List of Community Actions – Indicate which actions the community has already completed or are in progress and future priorities.
- Hold at least one public workshop to review the self-assessment results and prioritize projects for implementation. Document the meeting agenda(s), participants, minutes, and priority action list, and a description of the steps taken to ensure robust community engagement and participation of many community voices.
- Adopt a municipal resolution, or provide a letter from the Tribal Chief, that establishes or designates either a citizen committee or a municipal or tribal government employee to coordinate activities to reduce energy use and costs, transition to clean energy and make the community more resilient to climate change. Plantations, townships, and unorganized territories may alternately provide a letter containing the information above from a Board of Assessors, county UT coordinator, County Commissioner, or county council. Download sample language for the resolution (Doc).
Once the above 3 steps are complete, submit the community’s enrollment materials through this online form. Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis, and there are no deadlines. Communities must be enrolled, or have submitted enrollment materials, at the time they apply for a Partnership grant or technical assistance opportunity.
Enrollment Support
Communities that would like help enrolling in the Partnership and with applying for a grant opportunity are encouraged to partner with a Service Provider organization and apply for a Service Provider Grant.
Working with a Service Provider during the enrollment process can bring expertise to help identify new opportunities and priorities, especially for communities who are just beginning their climate action and clean energy work.
How to Reenroll
To maintain active status in the program, a community must complete the following steps every two years:
- Update the Community Resilience Self-Evaluation (Doc)
- Where has your community made progress? What areas are priorities to address next? What factors over the past two years have influenced your revisions?
- Indicate any changes compared to the original self-evaluation, if possible.
- Update the List of Community Actions
- Revisit the list of actions and note any changes in priorities due to new strategies, goals, funding sources, or completed projects. Hosting a community workshop to gather resident input on future priorities can be helpful but is not required.
- Indicate any changes compared to the original list of actions, if possible.
Submit your reenrollment materials using the online reenrollment form.
Communities will be notified when their reenrollment deadline is approaching.
If any of these reporting and progress requirements are not met, the community will be listed as inactive and ineligible for further grants. To regain active status, the community must submit an updated Community Resilience Self-Evaluation and List of Community Actions before the next applicable grant deadline.
