Click on the map below for a quick overview of the member islands in the alliance. More detail and more photos are in the island showcase below.

Our mission

The Great Lakes Islands Alliance encourages relationship building, fosters information exchange, and leverages resources to address shared challenges and embrace opportunities to benefit islands.

We'd like to thank our 2021 sponsors who contributed to our plans and goals for an Island Summit and other activities this year.

HEALTHY, SUSTAINABLE ISLAND COMMUNITIES.

Links for information and registration for the Fall, 2021 Islands Summit will be available early in 2021. The summit will either be on South Bass Island or it will be a virtual event.

The Great Lakes contain the largest, most diverse collection of freshwater islands in the world. Of the 32,000 islands, nearly twenty continue to host communities of people, typically a mix of year-round and seasonal residents and visitors.

While present-day island communities are uniquely distinct from one another in character, traditions, and geography, they share a number of complex, inter-related challenges, including: access to public services and quality education; supporting a diversified economy; managing natural, cultural, and historical resources across public and private boundaries; and changing demographics (size, age, seasonality, ownership, economic status, etc.).

These challenges are hurdles, not immovable barriers. In fact, some island communities have already independently developed their own “island solutions to island challenges.” Island communities are finding they often have more in common with one another than to their adjacent mainland. There is great value in islanders learning from other islanders about best practices that work, as well as those that don’t.

Island Updates