Trainings & Events

This free, three-part, virtual equity workshop series provides a comprehensive framework of racial equity, diversity, and inclusion (REDI). Attendance at all three sessions is required. Sessions run 10:00 am – 12:00 pm on: March 28, April 25, and May 23. Content will be geared to help Sustainability Teams integrate equity considerations into their Sustainable CT initiatives. Who should attend? Sustainability Team members (elected officials, municipal staff, commissioners, volunteers) in registered Sustainable CT communities. Attendance is capped at 35. This will be a live training and will not be recorded. Please only sign up if you intend to participate for the duration of each session.

Attendees will participate in three different workshops:

Managing Unconscious Bias (March 28): This workshop is designed to increase awareness of bias and to explore how conscious and unconscious bias impacts communication and decision-making when we interact with individuals and groups that are different from us. Participants will also explore the effects of bias in everyday situations and determine alternative behaviors that stop bias in its tracks.

Race, Racism, and White Supremacy (April 25): This workshop explores the origins of race, white supremacy, and racism. We begin to discuss and how white supremacy and racism continue to manifest in our cities and towns.

How to Change Someone's Mind (May 23): In this workshop participants will learn about beliefs and behaviors of folks and how to navigate racist comments and the complexities of people’s beliefs.

Workshop leaders offer a variety of tools and teaching methods including graphic facilitation, visual imagery, theoretical models, small group dialogue and interaction, to create a dynamic space that supports all types of learners.
 

Unlike traditional grant programs, Sustainable CT offers a quick, simple application process (starting with a conversation) with no deadlines, no lengthy review period, and minimal reporting requirements. Sustainable CT helps you create your project description on their crowdfunding platform, provides a crowdfunding coach, spreads the word about your project to bring in support from outside of your networks, and will match up to $7,500 in one-to-one matching dollars from the Social Change Amplifier Match Fund. Please contact [email protected] to schedule a call to discuss your project idea at any time.
 

How can you most effectively communicate with your community members, local elected officials, and municipal staff about sustainability? Eric Fine from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (YPCCC) will join us to discuss YPCCC’s research on climate change public opinion and messaging.

Join Sustainable CT for virtual, informal, discussions on the third Friday of each month. We share program updates and resources, explore your questions, and strengthen the network of Sustainable CT champions. These sessions are open to all.
 

Sustainable CT is pleased to partner with Eversource Energy, United Illuminating, and the University of Connecticut's SmartBuildings CT program to provide energy benchmarking and tracking support to registered Sustainable CT communities within the utility company service territories. Learn more about the SmartBuildings CT program and how it might help your municipality with actions 7.1 Benchmark and Track Energy Use, 7.2 Reduce Energy Use Across All Municipal Buildings, and/or 7.4 Increase Use of Renewable Energy in Municipal Buildings. Amy Thompson from SmartBuildingsCT will also share about how your town can access free professional engineering support to verify buildings with qualifying energy scores for Energy Star Certification for credit towards action 7.3 Achieve High Energy Performance for Individual Buildings, as well as how to access free energy audits for action 7.8 Complete Energy Audits for Municipal Buildings.

This webinar is eligible for Certified Connecticut Municipal Official (CCMO) professional development credit from the CT Conference of Municipalities.
 

Unlike traditional grant programs, Sustainable CT offers a quick, simple application process (starting with a conversation) with no deadlines, no lengthy review period, and minimal reporting requirements. Sustainable CT helps you create your project description on their crowdfunding platform, provides a crowdfunding coach, spreads the word about your project to bring in support from outside of your networks, and will match up to $7,500 in one-to-one matching dollars from the Social Change Amplifier Match Fund. Please contact [email protected] to schedule a call to discuss your project idea at any time.
 

Join Sustainable CT for virtual, informal, discussions on the third Friday of each month. We share program updates and resources, explore your questions, and strengthen the network of Sustainable CT champions. These sessions are open to all.
 

Sustainable CT is excited to announce a series of six regional Community Leadership and Action Conferences starting on Saturday, May 20^th from 10am-3pm at the Free Center in Middletown, CT (52 N. Main St Middletown, CT 06457). Our goal is to bring the Community Match Fund closer to leaders and neighborhoods, while providing a platform for turning ideas into initiatives through funding, support and action. We’ll progress to Hartford, New Haven, Bridgeport, New London and Waterbury through the rest of the year. While we encourage you to attend the conference in your region, and to connect with leaders near you, if you can’t attend your local conference, all are welcome to attend any event around the state.

Through daily conversations and funding over 200 projects, Sustainable CT is launching this effort based on the recognition that many community leaders lack a venue for collaborative learning, developing connections, and soliciting support from other leaders. We also recognize that our 1:1 match crowdfunding model is new and confusing to many, and can cause some leaders with great ideas to shy away from launching a fundraising campaign. We want to expand awareness of the Community Match Fund, and eliminate any doubts about the capability for every leader to be successful reaching their fundraising goal.

Each session will follow a similar format:

Connecticut is fortunate to be full of innovative community leaders and organizations ready to take on the challenges faced by residents. The Community Match Fund exist to help good people do great things. If that sounds like something your interested in, or know someone who is a leader in your neighborhood, bring yourself and bring them.
 

The Connecticut Institute for Resilience and Climate Adaptation (CIRCA) developed the Climate Change Vulnerability Index (CCVI) to represent a community’s vulnerabilities to two of the most pressing climate change-driven threats in Connecticut – flooding and extreme heat events. The CCVI aggregates three categories (exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity) to calculate relative vulnerabilities across Connecticut. This webinar will focus on the extreme heat CCVI mapping tool and describe potential uses of the tool for local and regional planning,  selection of climate adaptation and resilience projects that address extreme heat, and how zoning regulations provide a change to land use policy for heat adaptation.

This webinar is eligible for Certified Connecticut Municipal Official (CCMO) professional development credit from the CT Conference of Municipalities.
 

Join Sustainable CT for virtual, informal, discussions on the third Friday of each month. We share program updates and resources, explore your questions, and strengthen the network of Sustainable CT champions. These sessions are open to all.
 

Unlike traditional grant programs, Sustainable CT offers a quick, simple application process (starting with a conversation) with no deadlines, no lengthy review period, and minimal reporting requirements. Sustainable CT helps you create your project description on their crowdfunding platform, provides a crowdfunding coach, spreads the word about your project to bring in support from outside of your networks, and will match up to $7,500 in one-to-one matching dollars from the Social Change Amplifier Match Fund. Please contact [email protected] to schedule a call to discuss your project idea at any time.
 

Unlike traditional grant programs, Sustainable CT offers a quick, simple application process (starting with a conversation) with no deadlines, no lengthy review period, and minimal reporting requirements. Sustainable CT helps you create your project description on their crowdfunding platform, provides a crowdfunding coach, spreads the word about your project to bring in support from outside of your networks, and will match up to $7,500 in one-to-one matching dollars from the Social Change Amplifier Match Fund. Please contact [email protected] to schedule a call to discuss your project idea at any time.
 

Join Sustainable CT for virtual, informal, discussions on the third Friday of each month. We share program updates and resources, explore your questions, and strengthen the network of Sustainable CT champions. These sessions are open to all.
 

Unlike traditional grant programs, Sustainable CT offers a quick, simple application process (starting with a conversation) with no deadlines, no lengthy review period, and minimal reporting requirements. Sustainable CT helps you create your project description on their crowdfunding platform, provides a crowdfunding coach, spreads the word about your project to bring in support from outside of your networks, and will match up to $7,500 in one-to-one matching dollars from the Social Change Amplifier Match Fund. Please contact [email protected] to schedule a call to discuss your project idea at any time.
 

Join Sustainable CT for virtual, informal, discussions on the third Friday of each month. We share program updates and resources, explore your questions, and strengthen the network of Sustainable CT champions. These sessions are open to all.
 

Join Sustainable CT for virtual, informal, discussions on the third Friday of each month. We share program updates and resources, explore your questions, and strengthen the network of Sustainable CT champions. These sessions are open to all.
 

Unlike traditional grant programs, Sustainable CT offers a quick, simple application process (starting with a conversation) with no deadlines, no lengthy review period, and minimal reporting requirements. Sustainable CT helps you create your project description on their crowdfunding platform, provides a crowdfunding coach, spreads the word about your project to bring in support from outside of your networks, and will match up to $7,500 in one-to-one matching dollars from the Social Change Amplifier Match Fund. Please contact [email protected] to schedule a call to discuss your project idea at any time.
 

Unlike traditional grant programs, Sustainable CT offers a quick, simple application process (starting with a conversation) with no deadlines, no lengthy review period, and minimal reporting requirements. Sustainable CT helps you create your project description on their crowdfunding platform, provides a crowdfunding coach, spreads the word about your project to bring in support from outside of your networks, and will match up to $7,500 in one-to-one matching dollars from the Social Change Amplifier Match Fund. Please contact [email protected] to schedule a call to discuss your project idea at any time.
 

Join Sustainable CT for virtual, informal, discussions on the third Friday of each month. We share program updates and resources, explore your questions, and strengthen the network of Sustainable CT champions. These sessions are open to all.
 

Unlike traditional grant programs, Sustainable CT offers a quick, simple application process (starting with a conversation) with no deadlines, no lengthy review period, and minimal reporting requirements. Sustainable CT helps you create your project description on their crowdfunding platform, provides a crowdfunding coach, spreads the word about your project to bring in support from outside of your networks, and will match up to $7,500 in one-to-one matching dollars from the Social Change Amplifier Match Fund. Please contact [email protected] to schedule a call to discuss your project idea at any time.
 

Join Sustainable CT for virtual, informal, discussions on the third Friday of each month. We share program updates and resources, explore your questions, and strengthen the network of Sustainable CT champions. These sessions are open to all.
 

Join Sustainable CT for virtual, informal, discussions on the third Friday of each month. We share program updates and resources, explore your questions, and strengthen the network of Sustainable CT champions. These sessions are open to all.
 

Unlike traditional grant programs, Sustainable CT offers a quick, simple application process (starting with a conversation) with no deadlines, no lengthy review period, and minimal reporting requirements. Sustainable CT helps you create your project description on their crowdfunding platform, provides a crowdfunding coach, spreads the word about your project to bring in support from outside of your networks, and will match up to $7,500 in one-to-one matching dollars from the Social Change Amplifier Match Fund. Please contact [email protected] to schedule a call to discuss your project idea at any time.