Rocky Mountain States Region |
EE Capacity Building Efforts Fan Out Through Regional Initiatives
By Abby Ruskey, Coordinator, NEEAP; Michelle Kirk, Project Coordinator, Utah Society for EE; Gary Smith, CREEC Network State-wide Manager
The Environmental Education Advocate - Fall 1998
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.
Two new regional initiatives that are providing comprehensive capacity building services are featured below: 1) The Rocky Mountain States Regional Project and 2) California Regional EE Coordinators (CREEC) Network. Read on to find out more about these two efforts and see if you can answer this trivia question: "Which of these, the Rocky Mountain States Region or the state of California, has more students?" (See end of article for answer.)
Rocky Mountain States Region |
Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming have all become part of the Rocky Mountain States Regional Project. The project funded this fall through a cooperative agreement between the U.S. EPA and the Bureau of Land Management is being administered by the Utah Society for Environmental Education (USEE). The state partners spearheading this project are all NAAEE state Affiliate organizations.
The two-year project, administered by the USEE staff, has five main components: 1) Sharing and mentoring between states, matched according to their various strengths and interests/needs; 2) Multi-state workshops designed to provide training and create localized networks of environmental educators; 3) Funding provided for two years to each of the eight states to support annual state conferences; 4) A regional conference held in the year 2000 to provide people from the Rocky Mountain States Region and other areas an opportunity to convene and discuss EE as it relates to the Rocky Mountain Region; and 5) A regional newsletter, published quarterly and distributed to the mailing lists of the eight state EE organizations.
Finally, to make this a truly sustainable regional effort, the Rocky Mountain region will work together to develop funding sources for future workshops, conferences and state networking opportunities. The Rocky Mountain State Regional Project takes the regional approach beyond single events to a truly comprehensive approach to state capacity building within a region.
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The California Regional Environmental Education Coordinator (CREEC) Network is a statewide network which began operation in 1997. Its mission is two-fold: 1) to develop an expansive, empowered network of environmental education (EE) providers and practitioners to act as a conduit for providing EE resources to K-12 educators, and 2) to identify and promote only high quality EE materials, projects, and programs.
The network is managed and funded primarily by the Office of Environmental Education (OEE) within the California Dept. of Education. Eleven regional hubs also assist with funding, and function through the activities of part-time coordinators working in collaboration with a regional advisory committee, a fiscal agent, and managers from the OEE.
The network’s fall conference was held on Catalina Island this Sept. 21-23. Coordinators met to share their successes and challenges in creating organizations and promoting EE in each region. The conference agenda focused on three areas: 1) refining coordinator hub activities through thoughtful development of strategic and work plans by each coordinator, 2) recognizing indicators of high quality EE, including the use of systems thinking, and 3) introducing the need for further organizational development and the steps that will need to be taken for each hub to become sustainable. Session presenters included Jerry Lieberman, State Environmental Education Roundtable (SEER) Program Director, and Lori Mann, EE Consultant. NEEAP Coordinator, Abby Ruskey, also attended and provided an update of capacity building initiatives nationally.
Photo: Jeff Hohensee |
| Bill Andrews from the California Department of Education, and statewide director of the CREEC Network, talks to network coordinators during the recent conference on Catalina Island, Los Angeles County. |
Jeff Hohensee, TreePeople Director of Education, CREEC Network's Los Angeles Hub Project Director and a California NEEAP delegate, stated the "CREEC Network is designed to help EE providers (and coordinators) develop a shared vision of environmental literacy that allows their efforts to build upon each other."
The Catalina Island conference was the network’s third and its objective was to develop the capacity of the network at every level. CREEC's overarching goal and ongoing task is to create regional hubs that are stable, self-funding, and sustainable.
"We are making significant progress in creating a common vision and developing a sense of family and collegiality," states Gary Smith, CREEC Network State-wide Manager.
Regional EE and YouRegional initiatives are a logical step in the nationally growing network of EE capacity building efforts. Whether at the level of providing a conference or a more comprehensive set of capacity building services, as in the case of the two examples presented, regional initiatives result in increased accessibility to resources, networks and quality EE programs. These programs are able to reach and follow-up with greater numbers of state and local practitioners than are national programs, increasing diversity in the field of EE. Where do you fit in? If you are in any of the states or regions discussed in this article, find out how you can get involved. If not, your state or region may be ready to pursue a regional approach and you can help lead this process. Feel free to contact the NEEAP office for contact information and ideas.
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