Since 2022, the Collaboration Council has worked with community-based organizations, grassroots residents, and the Montgomery County Departments of Environmental Protection and Health and Human Services to develop the Climate Justice Co-Creation Initiative (CJCI).
CJCI is a prime example of the time, intentionality, and sustained effort to move up the Engagement to Ownership (E2O) Spectrum from consulting community to true community ownership. Over the last four years, CJCI has brought together County government, community members, and community-based partners including Everyday Canvassing, the Latin American Youth Center, the Faith Alliance for Community Equity and Sustainability, IMPACT Silver Spring, the Montgomery County Racial Equity Network, and CASA Inc. to build trust, shared vision, and accountability. This effort established a clear purpose focused on anti-racist, climate-ready engagement, with shared definitions, agreements, representative selection criteria, and plans for future initiatives.
In 2025, CJCI shifted from planning to action by launching initiatives that strengthened community and government capacity in order to advance collaborative governance.
Activities included: training 25 frontline residents from diverse communities as Climate Justice Fellows, providing 25 County staff with equitable community engagement training, and laying the foundation for collaborative governance processes that will bring trained government staff and climate fellows together in 2026 to co-develop climate justice solutions.
Climate Justice Fellows share initial findings and possible solutions in four research areas at a meeting in November 2025.
As 2025 came to a close, CJCI’s Climate Justice Fellows made plans to continue their Participatory Action Research (PAR) projects through June 2026, in order to arrive at well-researched, community-driven recommendations on how to address four critical environmental issues affecting low-income communities in Montgomery County: Air Quality, Drought, Flooding, and Extreme Heat. As the fellows continue their research and data collection efforts in each of these areas, they will be connected to government staff who have been trained in equitable community engagement to discuss and develop climate solutions together.
Community Engagement Learning Series for County Staff
From March to June 2025, CJCI offered a 6-part Learning Series for 25 staff from various Montgomery County departments to explore the foundations of Equitable Community Engagement through a climate justice lens. Members of the CJCI team worked with the County Executive’s Office of Racial Equity and Social Justice, consultant Julye Williams from The Project 2043 Institute, and others to design this in-depth training for County staff.
The goal of the training was to strengthen government’s capacity to participate in collaborative governance processes with grassroots community members. The training gave participants the opportunity to connect with peers from across the County and apply practical strategies to current challenges. Participants developed key components of an Equitable Community Engagement Plan that will serve as a foundation for building more inclusive, collaborative and responsive approaches to programs, initiatives and policies.