NOAA-funded project will build resilience in faith communities across the East Coast

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NOAA-funded project will build resilience in faith communities across the East Coast

Washington, D.C. - Creation Justice Ministries is pleased to announce new funding from the NOAA Environmental Literacy Program to support a new project focused on building resilience in faith communities: “Participatory Education in Faith Communities for Climate Resilience.” Through this project, we will create networks of faith communities that are educated on the realities of climate change and able to serve as hubs of social and physical resilience for their communities. The project will be undertaken in partnership with Interfaith Power & Light (DC.MD.NoVA) in Maryland, North Carolina Interfaith Power & Light, and Virginia Interfaith Power & Light.
"At Creation Justice Ministries, we believe that faith communities have a unique role to play in addressing the climate crisis," says Avery Davis Lamb, co-Executive Director of Creation Justice Ministries. "We are excited to partner with community partners, non-profits, agencies, and policymakers to build networks of faith communities that are educated on the realities of climate change and able to serve as hubs of social and physical resilience for their communities. This project will help our faith communities serve as places of refuge in the midst of the climate crisis, better weathering the physical, social, and spiritual storms of the climate crisis."
"The communities living on Maryland's Eastern Shore are among the first to be facing the threats and harms of our damaged climate," says Joelle Novey of Interfaith Power & Light (DC.MD.NoVA). "We also know that Black church communities like those in Salisbury bring tremendous spiritual resources and wisdom to this moment. We're delighted to have the opportunity to learn together through this project as all of us prepare to navigate a stormy future."
"The goal of this project is to create a network of North Carolina faith communities that are educated on the realities of climate change and able to serve as hubs of social and physical resilience for their communities – helping them better weather the physical, social, and psychological storms of the climate crisis," says Susannah Tuttle, Director of NC Interfaith Power & Light. "In particular, community-based workshops will build on North Carolina’s Coastal Resiliency Plan by bringing together faith leaders, academics, and government officials to address resilience in the Counties of Beaufort and Pamlico in North Carolina."
"We are honored to partner with the people of Mathews County, community, and faith leaders," says Rev. Dr. Faith Harris, Executive Director of Virginia Interfaith Power & Light. "to support the work of developing a community-based and led resilience plan. Sea level rise seriously threatens the way of life Mathews residents have grown to love. This project will empower community members to plan for and protect that way of life for the future."
"We are excited to partner with Creation Justice Ministries and Interfaith Power & Light on this project to empower faith communities with the knowledge and skills they need to become more resilient against the impacts of climate change,” says Louisa Koch, Director of NOAA Education at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “By bringing together the community-based work of faith organizations and local universities with resilience expertise from federal and state agencies, we can build stronger, more prepared communities. This project exemplifies NOAA's commitment to science, service, and stewardship, and we look forward to the positive outcomes it will produce."
We are grateful to the NOAA Environmental Literacy Program for their support of this important project, and look forward to working with our partners to build resilience in faith communities across the country starting in May 2023.
About Creation Justice Ministries: Creation Justice Ministries (formerly the National Council of Churches Eco-Justice Program) represents the creation care and environmental justice policies of major Christian denominations throughout the United States. We work in cooperation with 38 national faith bodies including Protestant denominations and Orthodox communions as well as regional faith groups, and congregants to protect and restore God's Creation. Our mission is to educate, equip and mobilize Christian individuals, congregations, denominations, and communions to protect, restore and rightly share God's creation.
Contact:
Avery Davis Lamb, Co-Executive Director
Creation Justice Ministries
avery@creationjustice.org
(785) 217-6784