ACCELERATOR RETREAT SCHEDULE

OCTOBER 11-13, 2023 | CLEVELAND, OHIO

 
 
 

Day One - Direction Setting

Wednesday, October 11th | 3:00 pm - 8:00 pm | Loyola Room

3:00pm - 4:00pm — Arrival & Check-in 

4:30pm - 5:30pm —Welcome + Framing 

5:30pm - 6:30pm — Dinner

Day Two - Driving Impact

Thursday, October 12th | 8:00 am - 8:00 pm | Loyola Room

8:00am - 8:30am — Breakfast

8:30am - 9:00am — Welcome & Orientation

9:00am - 10:30am — High Impact Practices Workshops - Choose two 90-min sessions

  1. Urban Forestry Tools: hands-on practice (hands-on practice with new urban forestry canopy tools) — PlanITGeo

  2. Urban Heat Management: building the case — Dr. Vivek Shandas, CAPA Strategies

  3. Urban Biomass Utilization: circular economies in practice — Cambium Carbon

  4. Centering Equity in Urban Forestry: effective strategies — Daniel Lawson and Gentris Jointe, PowerCorpsPHL & Tanner Yess, Groundwork Ohio River Valley

  5. Urban Forestry Policy: cutting-edge approaches — Alana Tucker, Arbor Day Foundation

10:30am - 12:00pm — Workshops repeat so that participants can attend 2 of the above.

12:15pm - 1:30pm — Lunch

1:30pm - 2:30pm — Updates and detailed overview of funding processes through the USFS and other organizations. 

2:30pm - 4:00pm — Guidance and discussion of best practices to prepare for pursuit of additional funding. 

4:00pm - 4:15pm — Break

4:15pm - 4:45pm — Recap and synthesis of key themes

5:00pm - 8:00pm — OFFSITE Tour and Dinner at the Rid-All Green Partnership 

This is an exciting opportunity to visit one of the nation’s premier Black-led urban agriculture and urban forestry initiatives. Our private tour will view their EPA-certified composting operation, groundbreaking biochar production facility, urban forestry nursery, and community education and services facilities.  

Day Three - Action Strategies

Friday, October 13th |  8:00 am - 1:00 pm | Loyola Room

7:00am - 8:00am — Breakfast

8:00am - 10:00am — Action Strategy Sessions

Participants will form workgroups of 3-5 communities and will be invited to make a short (5-8 min) presentation of their overall urban forestry strategy, followed by a rapid round of feedback from their workgroup. Each community will have a chance to both give and receive feedback intended to help them advance and refine their individual community strategies. Workgroups will choose one strategy from their presentations to present to all attendees.

10:00am - 11:00am — Whole group presentations of the 4-5 leading community strategies

11:00am - 12:00pm — Closing: themes, memes, and next steps in building our movement

12:15pm - 1:00pm — Lunch

 

A Huge Thanks to Our Accelerator Partners & Retreat Sponsors

The Urban Nature-Based Climate Solutions Accelerator is made possible by the following accelerator funders, retreat sponsors, and partner organizations. Thank you to the J.M. Kaplan Fund, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the Volgenau Climate Initiative for your strategic investments in advancing the national urban forestry movement. Our retreat sponsors Cambium Carbon, Davey Tree, PlanIT Geo, and Rid-All Green Partnership have helped to make this retreat accessible to all who wanted to attend. And, of course, our ongoing appreciation goes out to CRS’s Accelerator partners: Urban Sustainability Directors Network, Trust for Public Land, and City of Boulder, CO.