NEWS

We are excited to announce that the Illinois Climate Education Hub has launched - check it out here: https://illinoisclimateeducation.org/ Please spread the word amongst your networks, especially with educators.

You can watch a recording of the launch event here.

The Climate Education hub was featured on CBS Chicago news on Sept. 2nd. Watch the coverage here: CBS news

Check out this article written by New Trier High School student, Mara Saltzman: https://newtriernews.org/news/2025/10/09/local-activists-launch-illinois-climate-education-hub/

And this article from Inside Climate News: https://insideclimatenews.org/news/20102025/illinois-climate-education/

Marie and Helen, the founders of CE4IL were recently interviewed on the Little Planet Podcast. You can listen to the episode here, where we talk about CE4IL's journey and current focus areas.

Thank you to Manolo and Eva for inviting us!

Subject to Climate recently appointed Katie Nahrwold as the state lead for the IL Climate Education hub. Katie is already working with the advisory and working committees to identify resources for the hub and is aiming to launch the hub for the start of the 25/26 school year. Watch this space!

The fundraising event held at on April 24th at Sketchbook Brewing raised over $5,000 toward creating an Illinois Climate Education Hub. Most importantly, the event reminded us of the joy and power of community coming together for a cause that matters.

Thank you to everyone who supported and enabled this event. Whether you bought a ticket, donated, partnered with us, or contributed auction items or baked goods. Your generosity fuels this movement.

At CE4IL, we're on a mission to empower ALL educators to teach about climate change, justice, and action. We are partnering with the non-profit Subject to Climate to create an Illinois Climate Education Hub. IL Climate Education Hub Info Document

The first meeting of the IL Climate Education Hub Advisory Committee was attended by over 20 climate leaders from across Illinois. In the meeting we discussed the hub set up and garnered feedback from the group. Next step is to start to collect and tag resources.

See our take action tab to see how you can get involved!

The end of year giving campaign for creating the Illinois Climate Education Hub, in conjunction with Subject to Climate, raised $7,325. Thank you to all our supporters. A special shout out to Lázaro Law Group, LLC and The Fogelson Family Foundation for their generous contributions.

We still need to raise further funding to make the hub a reality and are looking for donors and sponsors. Ways you can help:

• donate via this link.
• share the link with your friends, family and climate networks
• contact us if you have potential funding partners you can introduce us to.

To empower teachers and educators to teach about climate change, we are partnering with the non-profit Subject to Climate to create an Illinois Climate Education resource hub with teaching materials and resources.

Watch the webinar recording and find out how you can help:

• Recording
• Slides
• Sign up to help create an IL Climate Education Hub

As of August 12th, 2024, the Climate Education bill HB 4895 has officially been signed into law by Governor J.B. Pritzker. This landmark legislation mandates that starting in 2026, all public schools in Illinois will integrate climate education into their curricula.

The Youth Advisory Board was established to ensure that the opinions of youth, who will be most affected by climate change and legislation regarding Climate Education, are central to our efforts. This board includes students from various school districts across Illinois who are dedicated to advocating for comprehensive climate education.

Climate Education bill (HB 4895), filed by Rep Yang-Rohr in conjunction with Naperville High School students has passed both the House and the Senate and is on its way to the Governor's desk to be signed into law.

Check out Jack Ververis' article in The Daily Northwestern, which details Climate Education for Illinois founder Helen von den Steinen's personal journey to supporting statewide climate education and the broader movement for equitable, solutions-based climate curricula in Illinois K-12 schools.

Read the article here.

New York recently became the latest state to introduce a Climate Education bill—to gain insights on how to advance similar efforts, CE4IL engaged in a follow-up discussion with Harriet Shugarman, also known as ClimateMama, who has been instrumental in championing climate education in New York.

For more details on New York's Climate Education bill, you can check out the full article here!