Accelerating Climate Capacity, Engagement, and Leadership Summit (ACCELS) Convened by CLEAN

ACCELS was created in 2022 to provide an opportunity for CLEAN Network members and others involved in climate and energy education to gather, share and learn, and, most importantly, explore collaborations for the next year. ACCELS provides space to come together to develop a learning and action network that can advance future programming with a shared awareness of what others are doing, explore opportunities to collaborate, and orient our collective efforts towards systemic change.You can read more about the event from our report on last year's Summit here.

We've shifted the design of the 2023 ACCEL Summit to feature working groups who meet regularly between the kick off event (hosted on November 16th) and a culminating event in Spring 2024. We put out a call for proposals to members of the CLEAN community to propose topics and ideas they would like to lead working groups on. We received submissions focusing on DEI and climate action, development of a Flexible Concept Inventory for high school students, climate change and mental health, and rural climate education practices. We also gave space for discussion of other topics of interest not represented in these working groups and created two extra groups focused on energy education and career development. In this launch event, we invited members of our community to join these working groups with the goal of providing opportunities for networking and collaboration, and to push forward on topics that our community has identified as priority areas.

If you weren't able to attend the November 16th, but are still interested in participating in a working group, please contact gina.fiorile@colorado.edu.

You can view a recording of the ACCEL Summit on CLEAN's Youtube channel here.

ACCEL Summit Matrix

A major outcome of the ACCEL Summit is increased networking and connections through the ACCELS Matrix. The Matrix is a living document designed to showcase the diversity of work that is occurring across the climate and energy education landscape. Individuals are invited to self-identify priority topic areas in their work, and to view on the Matrix who may be doing similar work. This provides the opportunity to connect and engage with leaders across the Network users may not yet be aware of.

You can access the ACCELS Matrix here.