Momentum Continues with the Opening of the CAELI 2024–25 Season

Authored by: Andra Yeghoian, CAELI Project Director

As the 2024–25 CAELI season gets underway, the CAELI leadership team looks forward to building on the momentum and successes of 2023–24 as well as bringing new ideas, members, and projects into the mix. 

In late June Ten Strands supported the second annual CAELI Leadership Retreat, which solidified our tradition of ending one CAELI season with time for deep reflection and opening up the next season with time for recalibrating and planning the year ahead. This year the retreat was facilitated by our two experienced co-chairs, Estrella Risinger and Juanita Chan, in partnership with Ten Strands. Attendees included a mix of returning and new co-leaders of CAELI Innovation Hubs and CAELI-Wide Initiatives. The retreat provided an important space to connect around our shared sense of purpose and to assess and further evolve CAELI’s collective action model. 

The retreat also set an important foundation for CAELI leaders to establish priorities for the year ahead. There was a lot to celebrate from the 2023–24 season including the success of some of the ongoing capacity building and networking opportunities that leaders have agreed to prioritize and continue into the 2024–25 season, including the following examples: 

• The District Innovation Hub will continue its webinar series and support meet-ups at conferences and through regional exchanges.
• The County Office of Education (COE) Innovation Hub will continue its Community of Practice and support a new cohort in the COE Leadership Fellowship.
• The Community-Based Partner (CBP) Innovation Hub will continue to expand its community of practice offerings.
• The CAELI Green Ribbon Initiative will continue supporting a Statewide Network for Applicants and Achievers to meet quarterly and continue to grow the Green Ribbon movement. 
• The CAELI Partner Portal working group had success expanding the number of offerings available on the portal and will continue to increase use of this critical resource. 

Many Innovation Hubs and CAELI-Wide Initiatives had success wrapping up projects in 2023–24 that will serve as a platform to launch ongoing offerings in 2024–25 as shown in the following examples: 

• The Professional Learning Initiative had success elevating stories of ELA teachers who have integrated environmental literacy and will continue to build on that success in 2024–25 with more stories to come!
• The CAELI Green Career Initiative launched its “Call to Action: Educating for a Green Economy” in late June, which has established a strong foundation for launching a variety of projects and efforts that will build on the momentum of this critical asset. 
• Through a partnership with the Lawrence Hall of Science, activators across CAELI led efforts to complete a yearlong landscape study of the implementation of environmental literacy in schools across California. The full report, “Peaks and Valleys: A landscape study of environmental literacy implementation in and out of California’s TK-12 Classrooms,” was released publicly in July. It will be used by multiple Innovation Hubs and CAELI-Wide Initiatives to take next steps in working with educators and community partners across the state to build capacity for integrating environmental and climate literacy into curriculum and instruction.
• CAELI’s Equity Initiative leaders worked hard throughout 2023–24 to finalize a CAELI Equity Guidebook, which they will now be utilizing to support innovation hubs and initiative leaders to continue centering and grounding their work in equity-informed strategies. 
• Leaders from across CAELI who are eager to leverage state and local policy to catalyze change worked successfully to keep each other informed about the many advocacy campaigns across the state and are prepared to keep the CAELI community well informed about these initiatives in this upcoming season. 

There is much to look forward to for the 2024–25 CAELI season! Our CAELI leadership team remains grateful for the ongoing commitment that CAELI members make to work collectively to advance environmental literacy for ALL of California’s TK–12 students.