Rhode Island’s governmental agencies, non-profit organizations and businesses have begun the work of providing opportunities for environmentally literate citizens to be developed, engaged, and employed in Rhode Island. However, many of these efforts are not connected in ways that could leverage the further development of environmentally literate citizens. Therefore, in the Rhode Island fall of 2010, RIEEA developed a proposed Executive Order to establish a Children in Nature Coalition to provide the forum and means to establish the communication needed to create collaboration to enhance the efforts of state agencies and the work of businesses and nonprofits.  For example, Rhode Island’s Department of Education’s Environmental Literacy Plan, the Department of Environmental Management’s Great Outdoor Pursuit, The S.T.E.M. Center at Rhode Island College, the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation’s Green Economy Initiative, and HEALTH’s Healthy Weight Initiative all represent efforts that, through communication and collaboration, could be greatly
enhanced to further reach the goal of environmentally literate citizens.