Connecting the Dots: Creating a Community Network for Energy and Climate Resilience

Article by Sonja Heyck-Merlin

From the St. John River in Aroostook County to Ogunquit Beach in York County, Mainers are facing the impacts of climate change: town piers destroyed by coastal storms, roads washed out from heavy rain, and cooling centers sprouting up in communities large and small. 

In response, towns, cities, nonprofits, community groups, and individuals are increasing their efforts to build more resilient communities and reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that are contributing to this extreme weather. 

In Dover-Foxcroft, five residents have formed a climate action advisory committee. A vulnerability assessment undertaken by Phippsburg helps inform decisions about rising sea levels. In Portland, a nonprofit bicycle coalition supports climate-related legislation that advocates for making communities more bikeable. 

When Sharon Klein, a UMaine associate professor in the School of Economics and faculty fellow at the Mitchell Center, talks about these community-driven efforts, she is apt to use a dot metaphor. The dots are seemingly disparate groups, but Klein and her team at UMaine, have been working to connect them.

Although the network didn’t have an official name until 2024 — the Maine community-led Energy & Climate Action Network (MAINECAN) — for the past decade this network has been steadily building relationships across Maine.

“We’re basically focused on this big question of how statewide networks of communities that are taking action on energy and climate resilience can support each other in this process of achieving their own goals,” Klein said. 

Early on, the Mitchell Center recognized the value of this network and provided administrative, financial, and advisory support. In 2023, Klein secured a four-year $1.1 million U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Science to Achieve Results (STAR) grant to support research related to MAINECAN. This funding helped the network grow to more than 100 members before it was abruptly canceled on May 10, 2025. Despite this setback, efforts to grow MAINECAN continue.

It all started in 2015 when Klein got involved with WindowDressers, a nonprofit that brings people together to build wood and plastic window inserts designed to keep homes warmer, lower heating costs, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. To her, the effort was comparable to a community barn raising. The project also had the benefit of getting Klein’s students out of the classroom and into the community. 

As Klein joined the board of directors in 2018, and WindowDressers grew to serve Vermont, she saw how easy it was for Vermont communities to share knowledge through the Vermont Energy and Climate Action Network (VECAN). She knew Maine communities needed a network like VECAN.

Connecting With State Government

MAINECAN grew more salient and visible with the election of Governor Janet Mills, whose administration published Maine’s climate action plan (Maine Won’t Wait) in 2020. The goals of the plan included reducing greenhouse gas emissions and strengthening Maine’s resilience to the impacts of climate change.

The Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future (GOPIF) then launched the Community Resilience Partnership (CRP) in 2022. The program provides financial support to municipalities and Tribes seeking to meet the climate plan’s goals.  

Klein jumped at the opportunity to learn what role the CRP might play in the growing VECAN-like network. In an effort to learn by doing, she applied for a CRP Service Provider Grant to help the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point and Indian Township, as well as the towns of Millinocket and Eastport, enroll in the CRP. 

It was important to Klein to ensure the Wabanaki Tribes and other rural communities would be able to access the benefits of the CRP because these communities often experience the worst climate impacts and do not always have the resources or capacity to engage in climate planning.  

After helping these four communities enroll in the CRP, Klein assisted them in submitting their first CRP Community Action Grant Proposals. For example, Millinocket’s first grant enabled them to install heat pumps in nearly all the town’s municipal buildings. Klein also supported their application for a second grant, focused on replacing municipal building windows with energy efficient alternatives. 

“I attribute a significant portion of our success in the Community Resilience Partnership to the invaluable guidance and support provided by Sharon and her team. Their expertise and mentorship have been instrumental in helping us navigate the program and achieve our resiliency goals,” said Amber Wheaton, Millinocket’s community initiatives director. 

These collaborations positioned Klein and her colleague Caroline Noblet to lead a GOPIF-funded effort to engage 2,800 people from rural communities and other groups who are especially vulnerable to climate change. Their research was included in Maine’s 2024 climate action plan update. 

“One of the biggest takeaways from our research is that climate strategies really need to intersect with people’s basic needs — heating, cooling, and transportation,” said Noblet, an associate professor in the School of Economics, Mitchell Center Fellow, and MAINECAN advisor.

While MAINECAN and CRP goals often intersect, the CRP’s role is limited to providing financial support to town and Tribal governments for energy and climate resiliency projects. MAINECAN, on the other hand, provides more flexibility. For example, the network directly supports community groups such as citizen committees and local nonprofits that aren’t officially tied to a town or Tribal government. MAINECAN is also focused on peer-to-peer learning. 

It has also become evident that having an entity such as MAINECAN, which is separate from either the state or federal government, can help keep community energy and climate resiliency initiatives relevant throughout changes in political priorities.

Connecting With Tribal Communities

Over the past seven years, Klein has developed relationships with citizens and government staff in the Wabanaki Nations, leading to more recent efforts to survey and interview Tribal members about their opinions and preferences on energy options and climate adaptation. 

In 2021, Klein hired student Jasmine Lamb, a member of the Passamaquoddy Tribe, to facilitate a gathering to build window inserts for Penobscot Nation Tribal members at an event hosted by the Mitchell Center. Lamb’s involvement led to the Passamaquoddy Tribe enrolling in the CRP.

The experience also inspired Lamb, in 2022, to found the Sipayik Resilience Committee (SRC), whose mission is to advance energy sovereignty and climate resilience for members of the Passamaquoddy Tribe. SRC is now a MAINECAN member. 

This work set the stage for the EPA STAR grant proposal which was a collaborative effort between Klein, Lamb, the Penobscot Nation, and the Passamaquoddy Tribe. The grant supported the formation of a new Wabanaki Sustainable Energy Team (WSET), a group of representatives from each Tribal government in Maine. The group meets monthly to brainstorm research ideas and offer support for each Tribe’s energy and climate resilience goals. 

A Wabanaki sustainable energy coordinator was also hired through the  EPA STAR grant in 2024. The coordinator, Kelsey Flores, supports the Wabanaki governments in Maine and their citizens in their sustainable energy goals. Flores is a member of the WSET and MAINECAN.  

Together, the WSET, Klein, Lamb, and Flores have secured five successful intertribal grants. In addition, Lamb secured the Sunrise County Economic Council as a fiscal sponsor and raised $400,000 for the SRC.

Connecting Even More Dots

While many towns and Tribes are members of MAINECAN, there is a diversity of other members diligently working to build more resilient communities.

This includes community groups. A group of volunteers called FreeportCAN is focused on solutions to prepare their community for possible climate disasters. Back in Dover-Foxcroft, the climate action advisory committee works to set up a cooling/heating center to help people cope with extreme temperatures. The Bar Harbor-based nonprofit, A Climate to Thrive, supports Bar Harbor and other nearby communities in developing community-owned solar. 

Nonprofits, businesses, and state agencies that provide resources and direct support to community-led initiatives are encouraged to join MAINECAN. Examples include ClimateWork Maine, the Maine People’s Alliance, Coastal Enterprises, Inc., GrowSmart Maine, the Appalachian Mountain Club, and the Sierra Club Maine. A list of many MAINECAN members can be found on their website. One of the ways the network attempts to facilitate collaboration and learning among members is by making it easier for them to find each other.

Meeting Mainers Where They Are

MAINECAN also hosts an annual session at the Maine Sustainability & Water Conference to bring people together and learn from one another. At the 2025 conference in March, MAINECAN members spoke about the importance of community-led initiatives and the need to engage directly with communities about energy issues and climate resiliency. Members highlighted examples of community-led heat pump and home weatherization initiatives, as well as climate resilience measures such as community vulnerability assessments and community gardens. 

Attendees were eager to build connections and engage with one another as they learned to prepare for and cope with climate-related impacts such as flooding, heat waves, storm surges, wildfires, and other extreme weather events.

These relationships and knowledge sharing are especially important for towns that are eager to make energy upgrades and prepare their communities for the impacts of extreme weather but lack the time and resources to research funding opportunities and complete applications. Towns have also shared that they benefit from learning about how other towns planned for and implemented projects. 

Despite the recent termination of the EPA STAR grant, the progress made during the grant’s first two years shows how strong MAINECAN has already become. The termination has stalled critical research, but the network will survive.

Members plan to forge ahead on community-led resilience projects and support each other’s efforts, filling gaps where possible. With reduced capacity and a smaller team, Klein will continue supporting the network by maintaining the website, seeking new funding, listening, and creating space for members to continue to build the grassroots community connections that are at the core of MAINECAN. 

“By connecting these dots, we hope to co-develop a strong web of shared resources and learning that spreads to all parts of the state, supporting all community goals related to sustainable energy and climate resilience, whether they initiate through grassroots or top-down processes,” Klein said.