The Community Ecology Institute

Cei offers seven core experiential education programs:-a Community of families in nature (cfin): The mission is to provide frequent, fun, and friendly nature-based experiential education that can be enjoyed by The entire family - children of all ages and their caregivers. -roots & wings learning Community: The mission is to offer supplemental experiential education for home-schooled children that nurtures a deep connection to self, Community and The environment through programming that emphasizes creativity, social and emotional learning, and hands-on, nature-based exploration.-green seeds internship: The mission is to provide experiential education and work experience for high-school, college, and graduate students across a range of social and ecological themes.-nourishing gardens: The mission is to transform lawns into gardens that nourish our families, The Community, and The environment. The goals of The program are two-fold: (1) installing food and pollinator gardens in yards, Community spaces, and with community-based organizations and businesses, and (2) providing a green-infrastructure jobs training program. The program brings The benefits, learning, and experience of freetown farm directly to The front doors of our neighbors.- ecostewards volunteers: The mission is to connect with Community members in a way that welcomes them into cei's stewardship of freetown farm and The green farmacy garden, provides them with direct ways to support our work on these properties, and provides direct experiential education through volunteerism.- sustainable skills workshops: The mission is to offer a strategic selection of workshops that welcome a wide range of Community members into cei's work and provide experiential education on skills that support both sustainability and individual and Community health.- agroecology in action: The mission is to steward cei's two properties, freetown farm and The green farmacy garden, in ways that connect their agricultural opportunities with their ecological opportunities all while making both properties spaces in which our other core programs can thrive and be a home for experiential education.

In december 2022, cei became The new owner and steward of The green farmacy garden, a unique teaching garden based on The work of world-renowned ethnobotanist dr. james a. duke, who curated more than 300 plant species traditionally used and/or researched for their medicinal properties. The 6.08-acre property is in fulton, Maryland, approximately 5 miles southwest of cei's freetown farm location and will be used to further our educational programming. In 2023 we had our first year of stewardship of this property and began learning about The opportunities and challenges associated with our long-term stewardship of this property.

Freetown farm: in 2019, cei purchased a 6.4-acre organic farm in our hometown of columbia, Maryland. We have created a Community center on this unique property where people can learn through hands on experiences about how they can have happier, healthier, more connected, and sustainable lives. We are actively farming this property and collaboratively grow tons of produce for our Community each year with an emphasis on education and provision of food to those who are facing food insecurity. In 2022 we purchased a second 6-acre property, The green farmacy garden in fulton, which is a unique medicinal botanical garden. From both properties and across our seven core programs, in 2023 alone we provided experiential education to over 3,500 diverse Community members that equated to over 52,000 hours of learning.