Adapt CT, an outreach partnership of Connecticut Sea Grant and the Center for Land Use Education and Research (CLEAR), has been awarded a $2,978 grant to fund a student intern to work on a video about climate change in Connecticut. The video is intended primarily for municipal commission members.
The grant is one of 14 awarded to non-profit organizations for environmental projects and programs this month by the Middletown-based Rockfall Foundation. It will fund student salary and mileage costs for the project, set to begin in May and continue for one year.
Part of a new resilience training series created in partnership with PREP-RI, the video will provide current climate change information to help municipal board and commission members as they make decisions at the local level. Both coastal and inland towns as well as areas in and around the Connecticut River will be highlighted in the video to show climate change impacts on local natural resources and infrastructure, according to the Rockfall Foundation.
“We are thrilled that the Rockfall Foundation is supporting UConn and Connecticut Sea Grant in funding a summer intern to work on climate change-related outreach efforts,” said Juliana Barrett, coastal habitat specialist at Sea Grant and UConn extension educator. “This funding provides not only the development of critical outreach material for municipal commission members, but engagement of students in the climate change challenge.”
The internship opportunity will tie in with the Climate Corps, a UConn course taught by Barrett and Bruce Hyde at CLEAR. The course pairs a semester of classroom learning about local climate change impacts with a second semester working on adaptation-related projects in cities and towns.
Other Rockfall grants were awarded for environmental education, planning and preservation efforts by organizations and school in the lower Connecticut River Valley.
The Rockfall Foundation has awarded over $580,000 since establishing its grant program. It is celebrating its 85th anniversary in 2020 and is one of Connecticut’s oldest environmental organizations.