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Mission: The Community Ecology Institute (CEI) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with a mission to enhance community health and well-being by fostering diverse connections between people and the natural world.
Vision: Human and Natural Communities Thriving Together
Our Board: Members of our Board of Directors are committed individuals who have a passion for our mission and vision and the expertise needed to work toward its achievement. We are proud to have the energy, time, and dedication from each of them
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Our Work: In 2013 the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Gina McCarthy, declared that the two most pressing environmental issues are climate change & the growing divide between people & nature. The former is increasingly obvious; the latter is so significant because people who are personally connected to nature make more knowledgeable & conscientious decisions regarding the environment. CEI is unique in focusing concurrently on both of these critical areas of work with a focus on community-level change. At CEI we:
- have an emphasis on civic ecology practices—community-based, environmental stewardship actions taken to enhance green infrastructure, biodiversity, ecosystem services, & human well-being—to achieve socio-ecological goals.
- are curating a suite of evidence-based resources for communities (e.g., counties, cities, towns) and community-based organizations (e.g., school systems, civic groups, etc.) to effectively engage the people they represent in environmentally beneficial actions.
- locally demonstrate our recommended practices & create replicable, customizable resources communities can utilize to achieve their own benefits.
- Our Columbia Families in Nature program has served over 500 distinct & diverse families over the course of 160 free nature-based events offered since 2014.
- are in the process of developing complementary advisory services to help communities design comprehensive approaches to creating socio-ecologically healthy communities with an emphasis on climate change mitigation and adaptation projects
Our Partners: CEI is committed to working in collaborative partnership with other organizations. We have a strong record of both supporting and receiving support from a variety of organizations and are deeply grateful for these partnerships.