What if one of the most powerful shifts we could make right now isn’t what we do as individuals—but how we act together? As we prepare for the Advancing Environmental Education Conference and lean into our theme, Tending the Garden: Growing our CommunitEE, we’re reflecting on what it means to build a culture of collective care in a community. How can fostering deep, lasting relationships—with land, with systems, and especially with each other—help us build something greater than we ever could alone? In a time when so many changes feel outside our control, we’re thinking about the shifts we can make: the small, intentional choices that grow stronger communities, more relational learning, and a field rooted in care. This is the second in a three-part series exploring how environmental and outdoor learning can evolve to meet this moment—and how we can navigate our changing world.

For decades, environmental education has done important work in helping individuals understand their impact on the natural world—and how they can change it. We’ve taught generations of students how to turn off the lights, pick up trash, and care for wildlife. These lessons matter. They help learners see themselves as capable of making a difference.

The Guidelines for Excellence in Environmental Education have long emphasized personal and civic responsibility as core components of environmental education and they are explicit about the importance of both individual and collective action.  We have been wondering, what types of collective work are most needed TODAY? What do different types of collective work look like?

Turns out, when I started digging around, there are a lot of different ways to think about  collective efforts.  I asked ChatGPT to compare individual action, collective action, collective care, and community care.

Where does your practice fall along the spectrum?  What do you center in your programs?  What could you be more intentional about?

Moving toward Collective Action, Collective Care, and Community Care

The challenges we face today—from climate change to social inequity—require shared responses, built on a foundation of relationship, trust, and collaboration.

What’s needed just as urgently as scientific understanding are community skills:

• How to organize and take action together
• How to listen, adapt, and build trust across differences
• How to co-create solutions with others, not just for them
• How to care for each other while caring for the places that we live, work, and learn

How is environmental and outdoor learning already supporting these ideas?  How could we center these ideas even more intentionally?

What Could We See More of?

If we centered—collective action, collective care, and community care—our work might begin to shift in transformative ways:

• Lessons could culminate in group-led projects addressing real local challenges
• Youth programs might build organizing, leadership, and care-based collaboration skills alongside ecological literacy
• Educator training would emphasize relational practice, coalition-building, and restorative approaches
• Conferences and gatherings would prioritize connection and collaboration, not just content delivery
• Organizations would work across silos and sectors, co-creating systems of support—not just programs

This shift doesn’t replace individual action—it places it in the collective and communal context, where it can scale.

There are examples of this work all across the field.  We would love to hear from you.  How are you already incorporating community care, collective action, and collective care in your environmental and outdoor learning practice?  What practices could we grow and expand?

Tending the CommunitEE

In a time when environmental and outdoor learning—and the values that guide it—can feel deprioritized, misunderstood, or even under attack, it’s easy to feel alone. But we’re not. As a network of environmental and outdoor educators, we have the power to support one another, stand together, and build something stronger. Advocacy feels less risky—and far more joyful—when it’s rooted in relationships. Collective action can give us courage, community care sustains us, and collective care ensures no one carries the weight alone.

As we prepare for the Advancing Environmental Education Conference this September and explore our theme, Tending the Garden: Growing our CommunitEE, we’re asking important questions about our network:

How can our network be a space that cultivates both skill building and meaningful human connection? How can YOU build stronger relationships while we are together at the conference?

• We are building a Resource and Expertise Exchange.  This is a bit of an experiment, but this tool is designed to help connect  individuals and organizations who can offer support with those who need support to keep our network strong. Add what you can share and what you might need here.  What other ways can our network model collective care?
• How can our network foster the kind of community care that sustains educators, organizations, and the communities they serve?  We are hosting CommunitEE Town Halls on the 1st Tuesday of every month at 2pm to brainstorm and strategize together.
• How can we organize, support, and advocate more boldly as a united field?  Join us for our PreConference Summit on September 17th to help craft our Advocacy priorities for the next several years.

Because just like a thriving garden, movements grow when nurtured by many hands- when care is shared, and the harvest is for all.  We can't wait to see you at the conference!

Katie Navin is the Executive Director at the Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education.  She has been active in the field of environmental education for over 20 years.  Katie has served as an educator and developed curriculum at organizations ranging from museums to residential outdoor facilities in seven different states.  She joined CAEE in May of 2008 and is active in the environmental and outdoor learning community both in the state and nationally.

Thank YOU to Deb Matlock of Wild Rhythms for her thought partnership!