CEE-Change Application FAQ

Having a committed partner organization is key to a successful fellowship experience. Partner organizations provide the backbone support to you and your community action project. The level and type of support will depend on your unique situation, but a partner organization may be involved in the design, fundraising, implementation, and evaluation of your community action project. You may have multiple partner organizations with unique strengths that are responsible for different aspects of your community action project. Your employer may also be your partner organization. Support may be financial or in-kind (e.g. providing meeting space, planning time, or other resources). 

 You can review all 2023 Fellows and their Community Action Projects at https://naaee.org/programs/cee-change-fellowship. Once you are on this page, scroll down to view individual Fellows. You can read more about their work at the CEE Change, Together blog series.

At this time, we can only accept U.S.-based applicants for the 2025–2026 cohort.

Community Action Projects can cover a wide range of topics. Projects should combine civic engagement (CE) skills together with environmental education (EE) skills to address a need in their community. Projects should emphasize community engagement, sustainability, resilience, and using creative civic engagement and environmental education strategies. 

Every project must demonstrate a new or innovative solution to a local issue, including strategies for reaching new audiences, achieving greater impact in addressing community sustainability and resilience issues, or new strategies for developing effective partnerships. Applicants can present current and ongoing projects but must describe how they will use the fellowship to add a new twist or strategy that will make the project more innovative and effective.

Yes. Your State Affiliate can be your partner organization, and that is a great way to tap into an incredible network of environmental educators and leaders. Learn more about the NAAEE State Affiliate Network. You may also partner with universities, for-profit institutions, and international, national, regional, and local organizations.

There is one five-day face-to-face learning and networking event where your participation is mandatory and one virtual conference:

• The Leadership Institute, August 24–29, 2025, in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.
• NAAEE Annual Conference, November 3–6, 2025. The virtual format of the conference will ensure Fellows can adjust their conference participation to fit their individual schedules. 

In addition to these two events, plan on monthly one-hour webinars and periodic small-group planning work. The time commitment required to design your Community Action Project will depend on your project and your capacity to integrate it into your current work and volunteer responsibilities.

In our efforts to expand participation, we’re adding flexibility to the fellowship time commitment. All Fellows are required to participate in the 12-month fellowship, July 1, 2025 to June 31, 2026. Fellows will be given the option to extend for an additional 6 months, through December 31, 2026, if they want to opt-in to receive additional training and networking opportunities.

You can find sample newsletter and social media posts by viewing our promo toolkit.

All application materials are due April 23, 2025 at 11:59 PM ET. Applicants will be notified of their status in June 2025.

Have more questions? Send them to CEEChangeFellow@naaee.org

Sign up for the March 20 informational webinar.