The Relearning Place Program (RPP) is a collaborative initiative consisting of a diverse group of intergenerational individuals, which promotes the cross-pollination of ideas from new and old ways of thinking and learning related to land, place and people. The Relearning Place Program is a movement-building initiative that emerged from within the Momentum Conservation. It eventually expanded to consist of a relationship between Momentum Conservation and the Maine Environmental Education Association. In its current iteration, the steering committee includes individuals from the conservation sector, environmental education, educators, and changemakers. The way we do our work is focused on slow intentional relationship building.

In 2022, RPP hosted its first in-person event, bringing together fifty individuals from across New England to work together on big questions like: “how do we have healthy relationships to place and one another?” or “what does a shared liberated future look like?” Time together has spurred the program to bring in additional voices to continue to develop the program for the future.

 

(pictured from right to left, top to bottom: Red Fong (they/them), Lokotah Sanborn (he/they), Daphne James (she/her), Emily Greene (she/her), Olivia Griset (she/her), Jessica Burton (she/her), Amara Ifeji (she/her), Estephanie Martinez-Alfonzo (she/they), Stefan Jackson (he/they) – not pictured Deb Bicknell.) 

The Relearning Place Program works toward and envisions a future where:

  • We live in a system that contributes the well-being of all communities
  • We continually ask critical questions of ourselves and the system we live in
  • Black, Indigenous, and other people of color who are systematically denied healthy lives under colonialism and oppression are self-determining
  • All communities have reciprocal relationships with the environment and land that are grounded in interconnectedness and interdependence
  • Deep values, appreciation, and understandings of land are central to our cultural, communal, and personal values
  • Indigenous values, ways of thinking, and connections to land are centered in decision-making

Red Fong, former Summer Associate in 2019, is now Momentum Conservation’s Relearning Place program manager. Red has played a major role in the development of the Relearning Place program. Graduating from Colby College in 2020 with a degree in Environmental Humanities, Red has a passion for equity in the environmental and conservation movements. Lover of quiet walks in the woods and long bike rides, Red is familiar with the outdoors in many settings. Red shares their time with the Maine Environmental Education Association as its Director of Operations.

For more information about the Relearning Place Program, please contact red@meeassociation.org