The Environmental Education Advocate - Summer 1996
The following information is provided to you as a service of the National Environmental Education Advancement Project (NEEAP). We encourage you to use it and please credit the National Environmental Education Advancement Project where appropriate.
The joint NEEAP and NAAEE leadership and organizational development training was designed to share information and strategies and to develop skills for effectively institutionalizing environmental education (EE) at the state and local level. The key to the success of the Clinic was consistently structured sessions and activities that optimized exchanges and networking among participants.
The entire Leadership Clinic program stemmed from direct input from the participants which was gathered and synthesized in the months prior to the event. "We asked state EE leaders what it was they most needed out of a national leadership training, and they provided us with the agenda," stated Abby Ruskey, Coordinator of the National EE Advancement Project.
"The Leadership Clinic consisted of a combination of sessions that were timely in terms of the types of EE initiatives state EE organizations are pursuing and the organizational barriers and opportunities they are facing," Ruskey continued. For the first two days participants discussed approaches for incorporating EE into state and local curriculum and into teacher training programs. For the last two days EE leaders developed their skills and formulated action plans for building their coalitions, fundraising, promotion, and building sustainable organizations. EE leaders were also given processing and planning time to determine how they would share what they gained from the Clinic with others back home.
Although educators and training consultants who are expert in each of the areas addressed led the sessions, participants learned the most from each other's stories.
The extent to which the Leadership Clinic was effective will become evident as initiatives move forward in each state. But the following comments show that the objectives developed for the Clinic were indeed met.
"I really believe it is this kind of activity and collaboration that will strengthen the individual state and province capacities for EE," John Strickler, Executive Director, Kansas Association for Conservation and Environmental Education.
"All of us have been raving about the Leadership Clinic, and we ve hit the ground running with EE 2000 after returning to New Mexico," David Bones, the Environmental Education Association of New Mexico.
"I am bringing back a wealth of information to strengthen our state organization and our EE networking on a regional and national basis," Karen Schedler of the Arizona Association for Learning in and about the Environment.
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