This section is a draft excerpt from the upcoming 2025 Maine Community Resilience Workbook.

To build and sustain strong community energy team participation, it is ideal for two broad pathways to work together and support each other. On the first pathway, staff and/or elected officials within municipal and tribal governments initiate energy projects and incorporate energy goals into ongoing operations, including local ordinances, infrastructure projects, and resident assistance programs. These government employees/public servants might include town managers, council/select board members, directors and coordinators of Community Initiatives, Housing, Natural Resources, Economic & Community Development, and Public Works Departments, and others. 

On the second pathway, residents organize a volunteer energy committee or a nonprofit citizen group. Sierra Club Maine offers a guide to how to start a citizen action team, and the Vermont Energy and Climate Action Network (VECAN) has developed guides and case studies on how to start a volunteer energy committee. These committees may or may not become official arms of the local or tribal government. Regardless, it is helpful to maintain consistent and clear communication between both pathways on an ongoing basis. 

Regional and statewide networks are coordinating and supporting teams on both of these pathways—municipal/tribal staff and energy-focused teams—in addition to enlisting many other community-based organizations that want to incorporate climate and energy action into their missions. 

• The Wabanaki Sustainable Energy Team and Community Sustainable Energy Team (WSET/CSET), facilitated by Dr. Sharon Klein and a team at the Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions, are cohorts of local representatives that meet monthly to discuss how to advance their community’s energy goals. [The Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point, Penobscot Nation, Mi’kmaq Nation, Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, and Millinocket are some of the participants in these peer-to-peer learning networks geared toward supporting underserved communities.]
• Local Leads the Way, a network of climate action groups convened by the organization A Climate to Thrive, meets monthly to share resources and lessons learned, with an emphasis on supporting citizen-led and grassroots teams. 
• The Maine community-led Energy and Climate Action Network (MAINECAN) focuses on connecting and supporting communities along both pathways (local/tribal government and citizen-led) that want to develop community energy and resilience projects, alongside nonprofit service providers and a team at the Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions. This Maine-based initiative builds on the community support experience of VECAN, Clean Energy NH, and other local energy action networks across the United States, from the Renewable Energy Alaska Project (REAP) to the Mass Climate Action Network (MCAN).
• As discussed elsewhere in this Workbook, the Maine Community Resilience Partnership (CRP) provides funding for local and tribal governments to implement community resilience projects, which can include energy-related projects and support for developing citizen energy committees. 

Joining multiple networks on this list at the same time provides multiple, complementary benefits. For example, the CRP provides access to funding and Regional Coordinator support to help develop projects over time. MAINECAN and Local Leads the Way provide peer-to-peer learning opportunities and resources, so community teams are not feeling like they are working in isolation or “recreating the wheel.”