Community Climate Change Education By the Community Climate Change Fellows Edited by Marna Hauk & Elizabeth Pickett Illustrated by Susan Chung A MOSAIC of approaches As an environmental educator and program director for over fifteen years, I have seen the devastating effects of climate change at coastal sites first hand. Climate change and climate The stories, approaches, dedication and passion represented in resilience education is the next and most important topic for the work of these wonderful leaders is awe-inspiring and proof environmental education. Our society is in dire need of that building community resiliency is possible and necessary to education on climate change issues. Teaching people about address the challenges presented by climate change. their integral connection to the world, including their role in climate change and resilient response, is the key to the earth’s continued survival. Use this important book to galvanize – Pepe Marcos-Iga, Ph.D., COO of Western National environmental education empowering community action to Parks Association, and Board Chair, North American reduce vulnerability and increase climate resilience. Association of Environmental Education – Parker McMullen-Bushman, Education In my work in West Oakland, California, I found that Indigenous Director, Chincoteague Bay Field Station, Virginia, and people, especially our elders, as well as women, children, and Task Force Chair - National Association for low-income communities are at risk for double exposure (Boillat Interpretation's Diversity and Inclusion Taskforce & Berkes, 2013) stemming from issues connected to systemic oppression and global warming. Community Climate Change Education: A Mosaic of Approaches is an inspiring example of visionary educators, organizations, policy makers, and concerned global citizens coming together to ensure proactive community engagement to avert the climate crisis. This book This stunning collection offers readers an incredibly demonstrates the amazing potential rooted in our local urban comprehensive and detailed picture of climate activism in agriculture, community organizing, the preservation of diverse educational and community contexts. What makes it so indigenous biocultural knowledge, and the conservation of valuable is how the vignettes and reports from the field work collective agency. This book holds in its pages a rare gem, the together to suggest what can and should be done wherever one promise of hope. works and lives. However big you're thinking about climate change, this will help you think bigger. – Mandisa Amber Wood, M.A., M.F.A., Director of Rancho Paloma Negra; and Sustainability Researcher, – David Greenwood, Canada Research Chair in Napa College, Faculty member, artist, educator, artist, Environmental Education, Co-author of Place-Based healer, and community food justice advocate Education in the Global Age: Local Diversity Community Climate Change Education: A Mosaic of Approaches Editors Marna Hauk Elizabeth Pickett Illustrator Susan Chung Foreword Marrianne E Krasny Prelude Judy Braus Authors Susan Chung, Jason Davis, Michelle Eckman, Anne Umali Ferguson, Trevor Hance, Marna Hauk, Tara Hostnik, Jennifer Hubbard-Sánchez, Nicole R. Jackson, Roy Jantzen, Stew Jenkins, Veronica Kyle, Nadine Lefort, Sam Little, Rocio Lozano-Knowlton, Laura Mack, Luis Morales, Jacob Park, Elizabeth Pickett, Jatnna Ramirez, Adam Ratner, Elvia Rodriguez Ochoa, Kris Scopinich, Margie Simon de Ortiz, Maria L. Talero, Karen Temple-Beamish, Carlos Velazquez, EE Capacity and North American Environmental Education Association Ithaca, New York and Washington DC 2017 This book was written by more than 30 All photos in this book are used with ©2017 by Cornell University Civic environmental educators in the United permissions from photographers and Ecology Lab, NAAEE, and EECapacity States who participated in a multi-year persons in the photos. Chapter authors project. Publication date: April 22, 2017. Community Climate Change Fellowship keep all relevant releases and starting in June 2014. This online and permissions to use photos, quotations, in-person learning and networking and other materials in their chapters. Feel free to print, use, copy, cite, Fellowship was one of the professional Authors are responsible for the content translate into other languages, post development activities organized by of their chapter, including correct online, and disseminate this free book or EECapacity, a national EPA-funded citations and acknowledgement of other any its parts – while giving appropriate environmental education training project works. The front page photo is a stock credit and acknowledging authors conducted by the Cornell University image. Civic Ecology Lab, the North American Association for Environmental Education Suggested reference: Hauk, M., & (NAAEE), and partner organizations. This publication was developed under Pickett, E. (Eds.). (2017). Community Assistant Agreement No. NT-83497401 climate change education: A mosaic of awarded by the US Environmental approaches. Ithaca, NY and The authors and editor thank Marianne Protection Agency (EPA). It has not Washington, DC: EECapacity and Krasny (EECapacity PI and Cornell been formally reviewed by EPA. The NAAEE. University Civic Ecology Lab’s Director), views expressed are solely those of Judy Braus (NAAEE Executive authors, and EPA does not endorse any Director), Jose Marcos-Iga (NAAEE products or commercial services Board President), Anne Umali Ferguson mentioned. (EECapacity Project Manager) and ISBN 978-0-692-85542-3 others for leading the EECapacity 90000> project that enabled creating this book, and for inspiring the idea and format of this book. 9 780692 855423 . Foreword v Theme: Environmental Justice and Theme: Climate Change and The Climate Justice 34 Marine Environment 56 Prelude x Story: Global Kids Organizing for Story: Experiential Marine Science Introduction to Climate Change Climate Justice 39 and Climate Change Education 58 Education xi Theme: Gardens and Greening: Story: Incorporating Climate Change Urban Gardens, Climate Resilient into Education Training at the Marine Climate Change Fellowship Overview 2.2 Food Systems, and Schoolyard Mammal Center 64 Greening as Sites of Community THEMES AND STORIES Climate Change Education and Theme: Nature Immersion and Nature Action 41 Experience 70 Theme: Art and Public Education Story: Open Lands Climate Change Story: Malama Kai Foundation Youth Campaigns 5 Gardening in Chicago and an Urban Programs for Community Climate Story: Youth Co-Designing Climate Web of Green 43 Change Action 73 Resilience 7 Story: Climate Change Gardening at Theme: Public Engagement and Civic Theme: Climate Change the Desert Garden at Albuquerque Action in Community Climate Change Communication and Social Academy 45 Education 75 Psychology 9 Story: Climate Change and Food Story: Faith in Place and Culturally Story: Climate Courage Education Systems: Building Community Relevant Community Climate and Organizing in Denver, Colorado Networks and Capacity 48 Resurgence: Training CC Educators 12 Across Community Faith Networks in Theme: Indigenous Approaches to Chicago 78 Theme: Conservation and Natural Community Climate Change Resources Management 16 Education 50 Story: Empowering LA Neighborhoods for Collective Climate Story: Community-Based Bird Story: Collaborating with Inuit Peoples Action 82 Conservation Model and Climate on Climate Change Impacts and Change Curriculum 18 Environmental Education 53 Theme: The Science Dimensions of Climate Change Education 84 Story: The Power of the Night in Story: Culturally Responsive Climate Climate Change Action: The Dark Sky Change Education: Organizing Story: Building a Network of “Science Festival in the Sequoia National Park Supporting Aboriginal Communities on the Sphere” Theaters for Climate 23 54 Change Education in Mexico 86 Theme: Consultative Approaches 28 Story: Catalyzing Climate-Responsive Food Systems 31 i Theme: Social Innovation and Story: Concepting Digital Products on Theme: Youth Investment and Innovation for Community Climate Climate Resilience in Canada 100 Empowerment 107 Change Action 88 Theme: Teachers as Leader and Story: Bringing it Home: Galvanizing Story: Somewhere Over the Rainbow: College-Age Students in the Big Women Empowering Climate Action Training the Trainer for Community Picture of Climate Change 109 Network as a Social Incubator for Climate Change 101 Climate Justice and Gaian Resilience Story: Developing Climate Change Story: Youth Climate Resilience Job 91 Curriculum with Common Ground Training in Baltimore 113 High School 103 Story: Empowering Public School Theme: Storytelling and Digital Media Story: Biking Our Way to Climate Climate Change Curriculum in Santa in Climate Change Education 96 Repair at Laurel Mountain Elementary Cruz 117 Story: Listening to Climate Change: School in Austin, Texas 105 Story: Mass Audubon Community The Climate Stories Project 99 Climate Change Initiatives 119 VIGNETTES Introduction to the Vignettes: Inviting Youth Action 128 Best Practices Create Refined Creativity, Engaging the Heart, and Nurturing Supportive Relationships Accelerating Climate Change Program Design and Development for Collective Impact 123 Education Planning Through Dynamic 133 Intergenerational Research Networks Strategic Communications: The Preventing Burnout 124 129 Power of Engaging Speaking Skills An Invaluable Network 125 Never Too Young: Mutual Learning 133 129 The Power of Distributed Momentum  Rejuvenation Through Shared 134 Learning 125 Students Lead the Way 130 Igniting Activism and Connectivity Community Input Towards Effective The Will To Keep Going: Recognizing Reframing 135 That Change Does Not Happen Among Youth Climate Change Overnight 126 Leaders 130 Change Starts at the Inclusive Community Level 135 Coping with Burnout 126 Professional Capacities 131 Educators Nurturing Emotional Needs Cultivating Climate Change Program of Learners Foster Hope for the Development and Management Skills Future 127 Among Citizens 132 ii Fundraising 136 Mutual Learning 146 Culture Creation 155 Collaborative Fundraising Efforts to Uncovering Solutions Through Creating an Effective, Replicable Support Climate Change Programs Fellowship Collaboration 147 Module for Communicating Climate 137 The Fellowship Process Accelerated Change 156 Personal Epiphanies in Fund Program Design and Implementation Citizen Action Can Mean More Than a Development Strategies 137 147 Reduced Carbon Footprint 156 How to Make a Pitch to a Funder 138 Collaborative Co-Design Through Grasping the Human Dimension of Elements Which Support Longer Reflection and Connection 148 Climate Change 157 Term Project Sustainability 139 Sam’s Story: Diversity and Schools Reduce Their Carbon Fundraising Becomes Easier After Community Environmental Footprints 158 Validation From Your First Victory 140 Engagement 148 Inspired to add art and music to the Finding One’s People and the science! 159 Networking 141 Significance of Social Learning 149 The Importance of Networking 142 Broadened Perspectives Supporting Inspiration 161 Prioritizing People: A Connected Future Work of Fellows 149 Leadership in Event Facilitation Community is the Most Important A Sense of Community 150 Inspiring Budding Role Models 162 Resource 142 Long Lasting Climate Change Collective Capacity and Collective Storytelling 151 Advocacy Emerges from Genuine Impact 143 Identifying Platforms for Common Community Oneness 163 Climate Fellows Appreciated In- Ground to Connect with Climate When the Framing of Facts Can Make Person Time Together 143 Change Non-Believers 152 A Difference 164 A Beautiful Web 144 Expanding an Inclusive Storytelling You Are Not Alone: Finding Strength Network for a Climate Change Leader in Shared Vision Toward Change 164 Seeing the Bigger Picture: Fellows 152 Provided Diverse Perspectives 145 Any Means Necessary 165 Building Leadership Capacity for Climate Justice 153 Life Altering Program Creating Lifelong Partnerships 165 Synthesizing the Significance of Language and Emotional Messaging The Musician 166 153 Building the Individual Leader to Connect Necessary Sectors 154 iii ARTICLES Article: “Cast your minds into the Article: Community Climate Change Article: Surfacing Unheard Voices: future...” – About the Co-Design Fellows Evolution as a Community of Catalyzing Collaborative Writing for Approach of Emergent Illustration 168 Practice 171 Climate Change 173 Article: How Open Space Technology Article: An Ongoing Digital Community Article: Original Research on Ignited Environmental Learning and of Practice: EEPro’s Climate Change Nurturing Community Climate Change Action in L.A. 169 Education Nexus 172 Educators, Effective Communication Strategies, and Avoiding Burnout 179 TOPIC INDEX 185 CONTRIBUTORS 194 iv Foreword   In fall 2016, as reports of yet another temperature record being broken numbed my thoughts, the NY Times ran an article on climate migrants in Ningxia Province in northern China. Forced by drought to leave their ancestral homes, families were resettled in new apartments surrounding by the desert sand. They had no jobs, no gardens, no green. My immediate thought was: what is the role of environmental education in a displaced community that has lost a way of life and even a means of surviving? This drew me to thoughts of other displaced communities. I fear for the Bangladeshis vulnerable to disastrous typhoons. Alaskan Natives recently voted to build a completely new village as they saw their ancestral home encroached on by the sea. Coastal residents of Virginia whose conservative identities lead them to question climate change, are watching as their shorelines erode and water encroaches on their streets. But displacement is not limited to climate change. In my work with EECapacity, I visited “reentry” communities whose citizens were seeking ways to welcome back and reintegrate men who had spent years in prison. One ex-prisoner talked about the green jobs he created to employ his reentry peers and another showed me the community garden where he mentored younger men so that they might escape the displacement he had experienced. In 2010, when I wrote the proposal to fund EECapacity, my thinking focused on a different news event—the fact that the number of people living in cities had surpassed the number living in rural areas. How should environmental education address these changing demographics? I had observed how people in New York and other cities were “reclaiming” their right to nature through “reclaiming” the broken places in their neighborhoods. While standing next to a raised bed with pigeon peas and amaranth in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, I listened to middle school students and Bangladeshi immigrants tell the story of transforming a former bus parking lot into a community garden. A young woman invited me to join her on an evening row along the lower Bronx River. Her youth organization Rocking the Boat is part of a network of over 60 community organizations reclaiming a river that 30 years earlier one could cross by skipping from one dumped refrigerator to another, and a neighborhood where in the early 1970s 90% of the housing had been abandoned or set on fire. And in Cape Flats townships in South Africa, I had been given a tour of Edith Stephens Wetland Preserve, where young people were working to preserve an extremely rare fern-like plant and where gangs from the surrounding community had met to hold “peace talks.” v Three findings emerged from my visits to these and similar civic ecology sites in the U.S. and internationally. First, environmental learning was a big part of community gardening, river cleanups, and managing plant communities in urban parks. But the leaders of these programs did not see themselves as environmental educators. They saw their role as fostering youth (and sometimes community) development and the environmental activities were a means toward their youth development goal. Although they may have been fostering environmentally sound behaviors among youth and their families, this was happening almost by accident—as a byproduct of gaining communication and academic skills or forming tighter family and community bonds. The second finding: people in cities, including people of color and people living in low income neighborhoods, were leading efforts to reclaim nature and their communities. And third, environmental stewardship and learning could be a means to address issues of poverty, displacement, and even gang violence. EECapacity drew on these findings. Our goal was to find answers to the question: How can the field of environmental education continue its long-standing tradition of changing to address societal changes? Or more specifically: How can environmental education evolve to reflect the fact that the majority of the world’s citizens, and 80% of the US population, live in cities? To address the challenge of creating environmental learning opportunities in cities, we used a social innovation model. Social innovations are distinguished from technological innovations in that they specifically contribute to a public good—like in education, health, or environmental management. Importantly for EECapacity, they also create new social networks that can continue to contribute to the public good beyond producing a single innovation. We can think of social innovations as: “new ideas (products, services and models) that simultaneously meet social needs and create new social relationships or collaborations. In other words, they are innovations that are both good for society and enhance society’s capacity to act.” Not only do innovations create new social relationships or collaboration, they are created when people holding diverse perspectives come together to share their views. For this reason, EECapacity sought to build opportunities for environmental educators and youth/community development professionals, like the ones I had come to know in New York, Cape Flats, and other cities, to exchange ideas about their practices. Over a period of five years, EECapacity workshops, online courses and professional learning communities, grants to states, and fellowship programs created opportunities for diverse groups of professionals to share their resources, their ideas, and their environmental and community work with youth and adults. Our approach reflected not only the real world environmental education and related practices I had observed in cities, but also changing university culture of which I am a part. What once were colleges or departments of fisheries, forestry and wildlife now are interdisciplinary groups of faculty representing the ecological and social sciences and humanities. (I work in such a department at Cornell.) Calls for research funding at Cornell and elsewhere require cross-disciplinary collaborations. Scholars see environmental problems as inseparable from social problems, and new terms like social-ecological systems resilience replace older labels like ecosystem management. Further, scholarship to address complex social-ecological or so-called “wicked” problems is becoming trans- disciplinary, where researchers from multiple disciplines and sectors devise collaborative ways not necessarily to solve, but to “re-solve” problems on an ongoing basis. In short, university departments are acting like “trading zones” for the exchange of ideas in their attempts to address critical problems facing our Planet. vi The Community Climate Change Fellows embodies EECapacity’s vision of creating “trading zones” for the exchange of ideas, resources, and practices to address critical issues facing environmental education. Yet the fellows expanded this vision in two important ways. First, the fellows’ professional identities were much broader than simply environmental educator and youth and community development professional. As you read the chapters that follow, you will meet a fellow who is a bird conservationist in Nayarit Mexico, an aquarium educator in Monterrey CA, an elementary school teacher in Austin TX, a landscape architect and artist in Vancouver BC, and a musician and sound engineer in Boston MA. Second, whereas EECapacity focused largely on urban environmental education, the fellows expanded our work to specifically address climate change education and action. Similar to managing invasive species, growing food to feed a growing population, and changing environmental behaviors, there is not one best way to approach climate change. Climate change is a wicked problem that calls for trans-disciplinary approaches that bridge disciplines and sectors—like the non-profit, education, and government sectors represented by the Climate Change Fellows. Climate change will not be solved—but we can seek to “re-solve” it on an ongoing basis, learning from each other and from our successes and our mistakes. And resolving climate change requires thousands of small innovations, like the projects reported by the fellows in this book. There is much to impress the reader of this compendium. Inspiration, hope, creativity, and commitment to name a few. But what struck me from my role as the leader of the EECapacity project is our fellows’ embodiment of two components of the definition of social innovation. The fellows not only created new processes, products, and practices that address the ability of local communities to address climate change. They also increased the capacity of themselves, their local communities, and the field of environmental education to act. We see this at the local level through the work of fellows like Maria Talero, who created community weaving circles that continue to discuss ways to address climate change in Denver. Or through the work of Veronica Kyle, who uses the theme of migration—of African Americans to Chicago and of monarch butterflies to Mexico—to bring together urban parishioners, community gardeners, and nature lovers. Looking more broadly at our group of 26 fellows from Mexico, the US and Canada, Cornell PhD researcher Yue Li documented network formation using social network analysis—how the fellows became sources of ideas and resources for each other. Although not formally documented, the personal and emotional bonds forged by the fellows have become obvious to all of us who have interacted with them—bonds that can sustain the hope and support needed to address a future impacted Photo by Alex Russ by climate change. And through this publication and their vii presentations at national conferences, the fellows are enhancing the ability of the field of environmental education to address climate change. The communities the fellows live and work in do not seem so totally devoid of hope as that of the climate change migrants living in the midst of the Ningxia desert. But communities everywhere are vulnerable—our collective future is uncertain. And governments in many communities and countries are promising NOT to act. Or if they do act, it may be to adapt to climate change in order to continue our current life styles—by building elevated roads in Miami Beach or paving ski slopes with synthetic snow. These efforts ignore the imperative to mitigate our negative impacts on our Planet and on our communities. The imperative for environmental education as we move into climate change is not to simply jump on board with climate adaptation, however important that is. Rather, it is to ensure that any needed learning and action for climate adaptation is consistent our foundational principles of fostering ecosystem wellbeing, and community wellbeing. A number of adaptation strategies, including those based on ecosystem principles and that involve community stakeholders, simultaneously address mitigation. These efforts, and those of our community climate change fellows, provide guidance for environmental education as it moves into increasingly stormy waters. Marianne  E  Krasny   Professor and Director, Civic Ecology Lab Department of Natural Resources Cornell University Ithaca NY 14850 16 November, 2016 Photo by Alex Russ viii References   • Climate change 2014: Impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability. Part A: Global and sectoral aspects. (2014). Paper presented at Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Retrieved from http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg2/ • Greg, A. (2016, May 10). As waters rise, Miami Beach builds higher streets and political willpower. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2016/05/10/476071206/as-waters-rise-miami-beach-builds-higher-streets-and-political-willpower • Hadorn, H. G. (2008). Handbook of transdisciplinary research. New York City, NY: Springer. • IPCC. (2014). Climate change 2014: Impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability. Part A: Global and sectoral aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. C. B. Field, V. R. Barros, D. J. Dokken, K. J. Mach, M. D. Mastrandrea, T. E. Bilir,… L. L. White (Eds.). New York: Cambridge University Press. • Krasny, M. E. (2016). Climate adaptation education: embracing reality or abandoning environmental values. Environmental education research: 1-12. Li (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University. • Krasny, M. E., & Dillon, J. (2013). Trading zones in environmental education: Creating transdisciplinary dialogue. New York, NY: Peter Lang. • Murray, R., Caulier-Grice, J., Mulgan, G., National Endowment for Science, & Technology and the Arts (Great Britain), Young Foundation (London, England). (2010). The open book of social innovation. Retrieved from http://youngfoundation.org/wp- content/uploads/2012/10/The-Open-Book-of-Social-Innovationg.pdf • Rittel, H. W., & Webber, M. M. (1973). Dilemmas in a general theory of planning. Policy Sciences, 4(2), 155-169. doi:10.1007/bf01405730 • Wong, E. (2016). Resettling China's "Ecological Migrants." Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/10/25/world/asia/china-climate-change-resettlement.html • Young Foundation. (2012). Social innovation overview: A deliverable of the project: The theoretical, empirical and policy foundations for building social innovation in Europe (TEPSIE). Paper presented at European Commission – 7th Framework Programme, Brussels, Belgium. ix Prelude  to  the  Community  Climate  Change  Fellowship’s  eBook,  A  Mosaic  of  Approaches   Leadership. Passion. Commitment. Camaraderie. Creativity. Impact. Words can’t say enough about the talented group of leaders who came together in June, 2014, as part of the first Community Climate Change Fellowship program to address climate change at the community level. Selected through a highly competitive review process, the Fellows knew that their challenge was daunting, given that climate change is, as President Obama describes, “the one issue that will define the contours of this century more dramatically than any other.” These Fellows represented diversity in every sense of the word: They came from formal and nonformal backgrounds; from rural, suburban, and urban areas; and from multiple disciplines. And they represented a range of races, ethnicities, geographic regions, ages, and approaches. They also shared a willingness to work together with an array of partners— including "out of the box” collaborators—to create change at all levels. This book represents their collective work—stories about what community change looks like and how it plays out in neighborhoods and cities across North America. From using technology and music, to growing verdant community gardens, to incorporating indigenous ways of knowing, the Fellows demonstrate our individual and collective power. They show us that every single person can do something to help build community resiliency, reduce energy use, address environmental and social issues simultaneously, and join forces to create a brighter future. I have been honored to be a part of this program from the start and look forward to following the careers of this inaugural class of Community Climate Change Fellows as they continue to foster innovation and change. And we hope that their stories will help provide ideas and inspiration to everyone working to tackle the greatest environmental challenge of our time. Judy  Braus   Executive Director, NAAEE Co-Founder of the Community Climate Change Fellowship Program October 2016 Washington, D.C. x Introduction  to  Community  Climate  Change  Education:  A  Mosaic  of  Approaches   Marna Hauk and Elizabeth Pickett, Editors Social scientists tell us that people are more likely to feel recorded. In September 2016, the artic sea ice annual minimum motivated and hopeful enough to take action when they aren’t tied the second lowest extent on record, and the annual season starting from scratch, and when they feel like there is already of sea ice has already shrunk by 7 weeks, further reducing the movement toward a goal, progress made, and momentum breeding and feeding capabilities of polar bears— what some (Susan Hassol, Climate Change Communication). would call the poster child for climate change imagery, impacts, This book offers that in regard to climate change: Hope. and sense of loss and urgency. On the urban and human front, Optimism. Motivation. Courage. There is movement. There is several megacities with populations greater than 10 million progress being made. There is people have recently been measured as sinking faster than momentum. People are acting, and they are doing so in creative, innovative, brilliant, collaborative, and effective ways. For some, climate change can be difficult to discuss or address because its drivers are made of a tangled web of human perspectives, behaviors, values, habits, and patterns— all of which are continuously and complexly interacting with the non-human life forms and biophysical processes that comprise and inhabit this planet. Even more, its impacts are diverse— affecting land, water, air, plant and animal life, as well as human lives, lifestyles, geographies, food, water, and well-being. If that’s not complicated enough, new records are hit every day that could paralyze us into overwhelm if we let them: The last 11 consecutive months have set new monthly high-temperature records, meaning they are the warmest ever Community Climate Change Fellowship Staff and Fellows, Ottawa, Canada - October 2014 xi seas are rising, making them especially vulnerable to sea level The initiative, EECapacity’s Community Climate Change (CCC) rise and flooding from the ever-growing size of storms and Fellowship, began in 2014 as an 8-month pilot program. Fellows hurricanes. (All from NASA) first converged in Shepherdstown, West Virginia to exchange Yet, even with the complexity, enormity, and urgency of climate ideas, information, and resources. Partners in EECapacity, change and its current or predicted effects, there is progress including Cornell University, the North American Association for being made. There is momentum. There is hope. Educators, Environmental Education (NAAEE), U.S. EPA, and community leaders and change makers, activists, artists, EEExchange provided learning opportunities to expand, grow, musicians, academicians, conservationists, economists, natural and inform the fellows’ individual projects and capacity. These resource professionals, business leaders, entrepreneurs, ranged from refining project approaches and developing cultural creatives, and more— from many sectors and fundraising skills to receiving coaching on the creation of 1- geographies and using diverse minute elevator speeches to approaches— are mobilizing their succinctly communicate project expertise and passion into action, goals. In addition to the wealth with real-life and real-time progress. of expertise and insight offered This book introduces you to 26 such by the organizers during the people whose climate change work week together, fellows made is addressing local-to-global scales. use of numerous structured It also provides an overview of the and unstructured opportunities diverse ways that environmental to mix, mingle, and collaborate education can intersect with and to generate cross-pollinated increase the efficacy of climate project plans, new change action. collaborations, and a connected pathway forward. However, like climate change itself, climate change action has the Following the initial training potential to suffer from a lack of that included Shepherdstown coherent, systems level thinking. and a re-convergence in Ottawa, Canada at the annual What is unique about this book is A day in the life of a community climate change fellow, Ottawa, October 2014 NAAEE conference, five that the individuals, projects, and competitive mini-grants were material presented are the fruits of an effort to bring together awarded to fellows whose projects were field-ready and well- local leaders in the field of community-based climate change positioned to make significant impacts. Most of the fellows action and environmental education— from Canada to Mexico continued to remain actively engaged and supportive of each and from Hawaii to the Atlantic coasts of North America— to other well beyond the initial 8-month program, leading to the develop a vision for joint action and mutual support as they early conversations about a legacy project. Fellow meetings, implement their place-based projects. webinars, mutual support, and information exchange via active social media continued the momentum, and NAAEE and xii EECapacity found funding for all fellows to extend the fellowship bikes; celebrating and protecting the dark sky; marching on to support attendance at the 2015 annual conference. In 2015 in Washington; co-designing sustainable futures in urban San Diego, California, converging again at the subsequent metroplexes; climate oasis gardens in the desert diverting lawn annual NAAEE conference, fellows decided to proceed on a water into vibrant learning and teaching food systems; changing project that would capture and communicate the bounties of the public classrooms into ocean experientials and story-gathering fellowship, the individuals and projects it catalyzed and research laboratories; galvanizing environmental volunteers into supported, and the community of community climate change climate communicators and solar power advocates; supporting professionals it created. This book is that legacy project. faith communities to organize climate resilience; reclaiming In this book, we provide overviews inner city waste land as commons for food forests; nurturing of how various fields can intersect urban youth as tree planters; with climate change education and leveraging ecotourism for avian action, detail the CCC programs sanctuaries; and launching tropical themselves to provide inspiration forest fire prevention campaigns to and examples to others in the field, reduce downstream impacts. and share vignettes written by the Against the barriers of distraction, fellows about the experience of lack of support, multiple-project belonging to this community of overwhelm, and the general un- or visionaries and exchanging mutual underfunded nature of these support. We hope that the personal, initiatives, the CCC Fellowship professional, and communal lessons sustained a rippling revolution of learned and ideas generated will social innovation spiraling in a serve others who are also working to mosaic'd network across context address climate change. and place. The committed EE Now, over three years later, the Capacity staff continues to CCC Fellowship community encourage and support us in new continues to nurture ongoing energy and continued initiatives. The gifts toward effective and inspiring continue as teams research how to climate change action— a testament prevent burnout in climate change to the strength of the bonds formed and our vision of mutual organizers and as we wrap up the stories and sharing of our support and wisdom-sharing. The momentum not only continues many successes, sojourns, and learnings to support the next building for the projects themselves, but also for the rippling generation of community climate visionaries. cultures these projects spurred: through social innovation, farmer networks, and indigenous story and organizing; through Final  thoughts….   climate change film festivals and womyn's intergenerational, In a time that calls us to clarity, to connection, and to action. In a mentored climate justice and climate action social incubators; by time when we are charged with thinking outside the scope of our sparking young people in multiple cities to take action fixing own bubble of time and place, called outside our generation and xiii called by the future, we wonder how we can help generate a Pickett, Elvia Rodriguez Ochoa, Jennifer Hubbard-Sánchez, future of flourishing, as well as a present moment of well-being Laura Mack, Marna Hauk, Maria Talero, Michelle Eckman, and of justice. We are also called to attend to the planetary, and Susan Chung, and Tara Hostnik for authoring theme pages, our empathy, concern, and love for the world stirs within. longer vignettes, and articles. Thanks also to the team of seven Joanna Macy calls this opportunity the moment of The Great fellows who developed the article and resource on avoiding Turning. The stories in this book are stories of the Great burnout and sustaining effective climate communication Turning. They are not just stories about particular people in included here. CCC Fellow Michelle Eckman helped generate particular places collaborating on particular projects. Though content, had promotional postcards printed, and worked they are also such stories. These are stories of patterns of collaboratively to elicit some of the stories. Michelle Eckman awakening and surging towards flourishing. and Anne Umali Ferguson met with Marna Hauk for the last These stories of resurgence form a mosaic. The tessellating half-year of the project, and along with Elizabeth Pickett and patterns shot through these twenty-six stories of community Marna Hauk worked on gathering and theming the vignettes. climate change education, climate resilience, climate justice, Anne Umali Ferguson additionally provided creative coaching, and climate resistance include approaches to action. They also organizational logistical coordination, and vision throughout. describe processes and patterns for sustaining those involved Elvia Rodriguez Ochoa helped organize the launch. Two of with these actions in over sixty accounts. We hope you find here Marna’s students provided indispensable help in manuscript patterns and lines in the mosaic that inspire you. Read the preparation. Rachel Kippen, a graduate scholar in project stories, with themes running through, and find your way Environmental Studies at Prescott, edited the manuscript, into the heart of this resurgence. Take in the vignettes to groomed the vignettes, and augmented some of the theme remember how connected you are as you spark and reach out, content. Another Prescott graduate scholar, in Education, right where you are. All these projects started as wild imaginings Mandy Leetch, categorized the vignettes and provided insightful and jump off synchronicities. We invite you into this resurgence, editing of some of the longer articles, and served as beautifying your own wild-hearted contribution growing still. Seek the wizard for the final ebook. We thank everyone for their inspiration and sustenance for your own part and the call of your generous, tireless, and creative inspiration and collaboration. community in this time of the Great Turning, holding in our Big hugs and thank you’s to Judy Braus, Marianne Krasny, hearts this call for flourishing. Jose Pepe Marcos-Iga, and Anne Umali Ferguson along with NAAEE, Cornell, and EE Capacity staff including Lori Mann and Acknowledgments   Drew Price for providing this opportunity and for encouraging us and sustaining us in this fellowship experience spanning three We’d like to acknowledge the brilliant and generous work of so years. Thanks to our additional teachers and presenters, many who helped generate and edit this e-book manuscript and including Akiima Price, Andy Robinson, Kelly Macias, Keya its engaging content. The rich gifts of the Climate Change Chatterjee, Peter Rafle, and Yue Li. A shout out to the insightful Fellows, who each authored material, is at the heart of this researchers at New Knowledge, including Shelley Stern, Rupu work. Thanks to Adam Ratner, Jennifer Hubbard-Sánchez, Gupta, and John Fraser. Michelle Eckman, Tara Hostnik, and Trevor Hance for developing the original story structure. Additional thanks to Elizabeth Pickett and Marna Hauk envisioned the volume Adam Ratner, Anne Umali Ferguson, Jason Davis, Elizabeth structure and content elicitation. Marna was responsible for xiv coordinating manuscript elicitation, for manuscript editing and Unheard Voices,” a deepening friendship, and has inspired a arrangement, for original content development, and for visual vision for future climate change writing facilitation. So this treatments and structures. Susan Chung, our co-design ebook, in its making, has been a further embodiment of the illustrator, gave generously of her creative time and spirit, creative synergies, collaboration, mutual inspiration, and traveling from B.C. to Port Townsend for a multi-day climate momentum of the Community Climate Change Fellowship itself. change drawing fest on some sunny days in August 2016 with For this, we are very grateful. May it spark and inspire further Marna and Elizabeth. The partnership that arose for Elizabeth community-based climate change action and creativity on the and Marna around the creating and coordination of this land where you find yourself thriving. manuscript inspired the article and workshop on “Surfacing Photo by Elizabeth Pickett xv Community Climate Change Fellows, June 2014, Shepardstown, West Virginia   1 Climate  Change  Fellowship  Overview   By  EECapacity   In 2014, EECapacity, a partnership between the U.S. EPA, innovation, and had the opportunity to attend the 2014 NAAEE Cornell University, NAAEE, and EEExchange, piloted the Annual Conference to network with others in the field. Community Climate Change Fellowship. The eight-month program engaged 26 individuals across North America to In 2015, EECapacity supported small grants for the CCC address climate change with projects in their local communities. Fellows. These innovative projects ranged from kickstarting a community climate change film series in Denver, Colorado, to Fellows were selected based on key criteria such as experience helping area citizens connect with local environmental in environmental education, community development, and organizations, to launching a Project-based Online Learning creative climate change solutions. Each fellow designed a Community (POLC) in drought-stricken Los Angeles, Community EE Action Project using an innovative education collaborating with the city’s 96 Neighborhood Councils strategy to tackle a community climate change problem. Each to evaluate and report on community water conservation project project was linked to EPA priorities such as improving air outputs and outcomes. The CCC Fellows are also working as a quality, protecting America’s waters, and working towards a Professional Learning Community to create a product that will sustainable future. showcase the variety of strategies and methods used to Projects ranged from a Climate Change 101 course for college- address climate change at the community level. aged students in Frankfort, Kentucky to an education program The Fellows have online profiles at the following location: focused on how to grow food in hotter, drier land in http://www.eecapacity.net/activities/ccc-fellowship/2014-ccc- Albuquerque, New Mexico. Fellows attended a five-day fellows intensive workshop to promote leadership and professional development, participated in exclusive webinars to encourage This article is adapted from https://naaee.org/our-work/programs/climate-change-fellowship The Community Climate Change Fellowship was exactly what my organization needed to achieve our mission. The fellowship built my capacity as a director of a nonprofit organization. The tools and trainings I received during the leadership workshop in Shepherdstown, West Virginia were powerful. I have utilized the strategic communications skills gained for the purposes of educating and training others, as well as securing funding for my fellowship project, “Energy Efficiency to Mitigate Climate Change and Ocean Acidification.” In addition, the insights, strategies, and materials I received during the fellowship allowed me to properly serve as a member of the California Environmental Literacy Task Force in 2014. I was able to provide advice and share cutting-edge strategies that I learned through the fellowship to help develop a fundraising plan for the California Environmental Literacy Blueprint. —Rocío Lozano-Knowlton, Executive Director, MERITO Foundation; 2014 CCC Fellow 2 3 Community Climate Change Education Themes & Stories A M O S A I C o f a p p r o a c h e s Art and Education Theme Art and Public Education Campaigns Community Climate Change Fellow - Susan Chung Youth Storyboard the Future the drawings become the design criteria for new communities. “No city is governable if it does not grow citizens who feel it to Art is a powerful tool for seeing into the future. Climate change be theirs.” - Paul Goodman educators are using art to help youth create a new community narrative, to co-design their future. As spoken word transform Break out the pens and draw, doodle, describe a desired life. into drawings, youth claim ownership of the illustrated goals, Dialogue with your neighbors and cartoon your future. And let and a commitment to see it become reality. Related  Content   Stories • Climate Courage • Dark Sky Festival • LA Neighborhoods • Malama Kai Youth Action • Women’s Ecosocial Incubator • Youth Co-Design Vignettes • Culture Creation • Inspiration • Storytelling • Youth Action Articles • About Co-Design • Surfacing Unheard Voices Resources   • Tedx Talk about including youth in planning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBeU0K0B2yc • Including young people in co-designing their spaces http://youthmanual.blogspot.ca/ • Fresh Eyes: Including Youth in planning http://plannersweb.com/1995/07/fresh-eyes/ • Youth-led conferences http://primeearth.org/projects/pie/ http://vsb-sustainabilityconference.com/ . 6 In 2010, Susan received Architecture Canada's Foundation Bursary as coauthor of the Youth Manual for Sustainable Youth  Co-­‐Designing  Climate  Resilience   Design (Stanley King and Susan Chung). For her work in youth engagement through co-design, she won the 2011 Royal CCC  Fellow  –  Susan  Chung   Architectural Institute of Canada Advocate for Architecture award. In 2013, she co-founded the Social Art of Architecture for Youth Society of British Columbia. In 2014, Growing Up Boulder Background used the Youth Manual to engage young people in design Susan holds a B.Sc. in Biology, a B.Ed., and an M.Ed. in participation in Boulder, Colorado. Susan is also a nature Science Education. She is a science teacher with the interpreter who conducts teacher training for the Camosun Bog Vancouver Board of Education, an informal educator, a member Restoration Group. of the Camosun Bog Restoration Group, is affiliated with the Institute for Environmental Learning and the Pacific Spirit Park Project  Description   Society, and is a co-design artist with the Co-Design Group. Susan connects youth to their place by inviting them to visualize Susan's climate change project involved equipping young themselves as organisms co-designing a new ecosystem. people to collaboratively design their own communities through Susan has twenty years of experience as a science educator the process of co-design. The ecological challenges due to and as a co-design artist. In the past five years, Susan has urbanization requires an unprecedented collaborative effort from integrated ecological education into Stanley King's co-design architects, engineers, and landscape architects—a charrette of process so that youth may respond to climate change through epic proportions. It's also an educational challenge for teachers the art of co-design. to prepare youth for the future. The design solution lies not in buildings, energy efficient cars, or gadgets, but the redesign and re-imagining of a life. Susan conducts co-design training for youth so they may have the tools to engage other youth to storyboard a future that does not have to include carbon. She teaches them to facilitate dialogue with the tip of a felt pen. The collaborative dreams and sketches of like-minded youth will draw new ecologies. I engage youth to co-design spaces they will inherit. Presently I am assisting students with developmental disabilities to co- design their future school garden space. We are coordinating with Fresh Roots, a nonprofit organization with experience in urban agriculture. The VSB Transition Team for Low Incidence Students seek to include students with developmental disabilities in the design process to co-design, and build a 7 market garden. Co-design will provide drawing facilitation for staff, students as well as training youth artists from the school to co-design this garden for their peers. Additional  Climate  Change  Action  &  Education  Resources   • Fresh Roots had heard of the co-design work and as they coordinated with the school: http://freshroots.ca/ http://vsb.bc.ca Value  Offered  to  the  Community   Through co-design dialogue, many different community members can rehearse their social interactions and have a youth artist draw these interactions as a rehearsal. This rehearsal forms the design criteria for future planning. There is an amazing energy during a co-design session where peoplespeak their dreams for a space. As spoken word gets turned into drawings, participants claim ownership of the illustrated goals, and a commitment to see it become reality. Project  Link   The Youth Manual for Sustainable Design, By Stanley King and Susan Chung http://youthmanual.blogspot.ca/ This website includes a manual for including youth in planning. This manual does not require drawing ability but gives a lesson plan for how facilitators can guide youth to draw their future. Keywords   Sector Keywords: Community Organizations – K-12 Schools – Civic Action Approach Keywords: Innovation and Social Innovation – Youth Investment/Empowerment – Consultative – Communication Models – Building Community Networks – Gardening – Co- Design Dialogue 8 Communicating Climate Change Theme Climate Change Communication and Social Psychology Community Climate Change Fellow - Maria Talero Climate change communication poses many psychological A primary challenge has to do with basic psychological challenges, and advocates and educators are eager for a responses that render a primarily information-driven approach deeper understanding of the social, psychological and (i.e. "let's get the science out there") much less effective than cognitive barriers that get in the way of the public's ability to we would hope. For example, if I happen to notice that my absorb the urgency of the climate crisis. neighbor doesn't recycle it might be tempting to assume that person is apathetic when it comes to environmental issues; that they simply don't know or care very much, and that the solution is to give that person information about climate science to make them care. But researchers like Renee Lertzman from the Cardiff School of Social Sciences argue that it is a myth that individual inaction on climate is simply due to apathy. Instead, she argues, people may simply feel paralyzed by the size and complexity of the problem. Just as it doesn't work to bombard a client with facts and information about how their behavior is harmful in a private therapeutic setting, we should not assume that this strategy is effective on a society-wide scale. The most compelling and important insight that social psychology has to offer to climate communicators is this: it is a mistake to frame climate communication around a model of human beings as fully rational, information-driven beings who need only to properly understand what climate scientists are saying in order to start taking appropriate action. Instead, we should be cognizant of the many ways in which human beings are inherently prone to contradictory, biased and emotion-laden thinking that predisposes us to filter the world around us in order to fit our pre-existing beliefs. We should also recognize that we are deeply social beings, and that our individual beliefs, values and commitments are heavily influenced by the social norms of the 'in-groups' to which we belong to - for example, our families of origin, our local communities, and the local, professional and political groups with which we identify. Organizations all over the world are now focusing their efforts on developing climate communication strategies and principles that are consistent with research and evidence from the field of social psychology. This is yielding a rich bounty of recommendations, but also creating a grab-bag situation where conflicting or insufficiently-tested advice abounds. What's our best strategy as climate communicators and educators, then? Pay attention, read widely and look for the best evidence-based resources we can get our hands on. 10 Related  Content Resources   Stories • Renee Lertzman: http://reneelertzman.com/the-myth-of- • Bird Observatory Project apathy/ • Climate Courage • Center for Research on Environmental Decisions • Climate Stories Project (CRED): http://guide.cred.columbia.edu/guide/sec3.html • Dark Sky Festival • Climate Outreach: http://climateoutreach.org/ • Digital Travel in Canada • Climate Outreach's "The Uncertainty Handbook": • Faith in Place in Chicago http://climateoutreach.org/resources/uncertainty- • Global Kids Organizing handbook/ • LA Neighborhoods • Cultural Cognition Project (Yale University): • Marine Mammal Volunteers http://www.culturalcognition.net/ • Mass Audubon Initiative • Yale Program on Climate Change Communication: • Science on the Sphere http://climatecommunication.yale.edu/ • Youth Co-Design • Common Cause Foundation: http://valuesandframes.org/ Vignettes • Public Interest Research Centre (PIRC), Climate Change • Culture Creation Communication Advisory Group (CCCAG): • Inspiration http://publicinterest.org.uk/cccag/ • Mutual Learning • Networking • Professional Capacities • Storytelling Articles • About Co-Design • Communities of Practice • EEPro as Digital Community • Surfacing Unheard Voices 11 In her work, she draws on her academic research in an Climate  Courage  Education  and   interdisciplinary area called embodied cognition, which holds Organizing  in  Denver,  Colorado   that minds are embodied: that our perceptions, thoughts and beliefs are deeply dependent on what we DO—on what kind of CCC  Fellow  –  Maria  Talero     activities (physical, social, cultural) we engage in in our everyday lives. Background   Maria Talero, Ph.D., is the founder of Climate Courage Maria’s key goals include: Education and Organizing. She is a Denver-based, Colombian- born, independent community climate change educator. She • Developing new approaches to climate change develops tools and practices that foster psychological resilience, communication that foster self-efficacy (the sense that 'I effective communication and courageous engagement on really can make a difference') and hope climate change. She works closely with groups to create • Creating easily replicable models that feature social custom-tailored workshops and trainings that support the connection and human warmth evolution of their members’ awareness and involvement on • Fostering 'opinion leadership' (where ordinary people climate change. She draws on a wide spectrum of practices and help influence and shape the opinions of climate change activities—including movement, meditation, audio-visual with their friends and family) and organic, citizen-led resources, small-group work, and other creative tools and initiatives props—to create positive, energizing educational environments • Growing and diversifying the climate movement 'beyond that catalyze hope, inspiration and new levels of commitment. the choir' Project  Description   My idea for my fellowship project came from noticing a significant gap in the way we are seeking greater public involvement on climate change. Many organizations seek to encourage engagement through "simple and painless" action steps and calls to reduce one's consumer footprint, but few are poised to help facilitate grassroots, community-level climate change dialogue and citizen-led engagement. Recycling and reducing one's carbon footprint are important steps to take, but many people intuitively sense a mismatch between the size of the problem and these 'solutions' that are directed to single individuals. I believe this leads to a sense of hopelessness and 12 despair, which can lead people to turn away from the problem and push it onto the 'back burner' as they cope with the demands of everyday life. To address this gap, and as the first part of my CCC Fellowship through EE Capacity, I have been leading a pilot community group called the Climate Courage Resilience Circle, which features hands-on, interactive group learning and discussion as well as strategies for cultivating psychological resilience in the face of climate change. The goal of the pilot group is to generate a roadmap, and eventually a template, for building inspired, courageous, citizen-led micro-communities ready to confront the climate crisis. As part of this phase of my project, I researched and test activities for a training program to help community volunteers lead successful, inspiring, values-based climate change conversations, which helped me launch "phase two" of my project (below). Community Climate Courage network forged around the goals In 2015, with the help of a CCC Fellowship Mini-Grant, I of psychological resilience, social connection and warmth, and launched the second phase of my project, a pilot model for citizen-led, community-based engagement on climate change. grassroots community engagement on climate change, using film and video combined with peer-to-peer interaction and small- Successes  and  Best  Practices   group dialogue. Volunteers for this pilot community climate One big success has been the level of public interest in my change film forum (called Community Climate Courage: A 'phase two' Community Climate Change Film Forum events Film/Discussion/Action Forum) came from my Phase One (these events rocked the house with unheard-of audience community group. They helped to plan and organize the events sizes!). This was especially important to me because my and to guide the small-group dialogue as "Conversation Hosts." research in embodied cognition and philosophy leads me to We hosted two very successful film forums, with attendance of believe that human beings are deeply motivated and inspired by 110-150 people at each event. the experience of bottom-up social collaboration. By "bottom-up" in this context I am referring to "not top-down" - not prescribed In 2016, my goal is to build on the success of the pilot events to by experts, non-profits, leaders, campaigners or organizations. I continue to field-test and optimize my model, and to launch an believe that our most powerful wellsprings of hope and online "toolkit" that can be used by others nationwide to inspiration on climate change are currently - for the most part - replicate our success in their communities. I am reaching out to locked up within the hearts of citizens who feel powerless and my network around the country to recruit interested groups to overwhelmed by the issue. And I believe that giving people a help field-test the model, and I will continue to offer it here in the safe, supportive structure in which they can have rewarding Denver, CO area, with the goal of establishing a robust 13 members into much stronger and more deliberate networking circles and launched an online communication platform (through "Loomio") to help us build more relationships among our participants. The success of this "extra" event (excellent attendance, very few no-shows, very strong and enthusiastic participation throughout the 3-hour program, and 8 new micro- networks launched) is a clear indicator that the project has "found its groove" and that we are answering a deep unmet community need for a forum that supports powerful and inspiring social, grassroots, connection on climate change. Lessons  Learned   My biggest lesson is that I need to develop a way of measuring and quantifying the extraordinary levels of public engagement that my project has generated. The survey tools we used were simple and generic, and they have not succeeded in capturing social dialogue that sparks ideas for action is a potent source of the many indicators of higher-level forms of engagement - healing for these feelings of powerlessness. beyond attendance and enthusiasm - that emerged. People came up to me after every event to express their heartfelt At our pilot events, the results were unmistakable. We took care appreciation for what they had just experienced, and to say how that at the end of the film, no "expert voice" would intervene, much they think, “there is a need for this.” People brought and so our discussion format guided participants in turning friends and family with them, they stayed afterwards to keep directly to each other to exchange impressions and ideas. The talking with those around them, and they shared our event on built-up emotions and energy that come from watching a social media and by word of mouth. They donated money, and powerful documentary discharged itself directly into these lots of it. We raised a total of $1,797 by asking for donations at conversations: our venue vibrated with social energy as the three of the five events, enough to crowd-fund approximately discussion continued and the conversations deepened. four more film forum events. And most importantly of all, they Participants formed connections, exchanged ideas, and share formed citizen micro-networks: exchanging contact information their contact information with each other to launch impromptu and launching new collaborations and projects. However, I ran "micro-networks" for further action. all five events in the pilot series without incorporating specific questions into our surveys to document and quantify these In fact, in order to more fully capture the social energy mobilized micro-networks. I simply hadn't realized how important and by our project, I decided to add a culminating, community- valuable it would be for me to capture and quantify these weaving event to the pilot series (we called it a "Deep results, and I need to learn how to do this for the next phase of Networking Party") in which we recruited our community my project. 14 Additional  Climate  Change  Action  &  Education  Resources   Project  Links   • Climate Outreach (formerly COIN): Website: http://climatecourage.cc http://climateoutreach.org/ Video documenting Project Phase 2 (Beta) – “Community • Climate Access: http://www.climateaccess.org/about_us Climate Courage: A Film Discussion and Action Forum: • The Cultural Cognition Project at Yale Law School: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC1Wm_bRxuY&feat http://www.culturalcognition.net/ ure=youtu.be • Climate Communication Science: https://www.climatecommunication.org Keywords   • eco-America: see esp. their "Let's Talk Climate" Guide: Sector Keywords: Science or Nature Center – Community http://ecoamerica.org/ Organizations – Nonformal Education – Faith Organizations • Yale Project on Climate Change Communiction: – Civic Action http://environment.yale.edu/climate-communication/ Approach Keywords: Innovation and Social Innovation – • Climate Advocacy Lab: http://climateadvocacylab.org/ Culture Creation – Consultative – Communication Models – • Common Cause Foundation: http://valuesandframes.org Creating a Model – Building Community Networks – Uses or Makes Film/Video/Media References   Additional Keywords: Psychology of Climate ChangeCommunication – Cultural Cognition – Cognitive Framing – • Lakoff, George, 2010: "Why it matters how we frame the In- Groups – Opinion Leadership – Self-Efficacy environment," Environmental Communication, vol 4(10), pp. 70-81. • Marshall, George. Don't Even Think about It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change. New York: Bloomsbury, 2014. • Per Espen Stoknes, What we think about when we try not to think about global warming. Chelsea Green Publishing, 2015. • Kari Marie Norgaard: Living in denial: why even people who believe in climate change do nothing about it. MIT, 2011. 15 Conservation Theme Conservation and Natural Resources Management Community Climate Change Fellow - Elizabeth Pickett The fields of conservation and natural resource management of species growth patterns (species moving in and out of are heavily impacted by climate change. Strategies for jurisdictional boundaries), times and locations that an area is resource management and protection are experiencing safe for public use, hunting, fishing, and recreation, and more. dramatic shifts due to climate change-caused variations in To adapt to this, policies, practices, and priorities are having to environmental conditions. These variations include notable be responsive to existing and anticipated changes. Whether in changes to spawning/breeding/pupping seasons and the management of forestry operations, public trails, agricultural available habitat, water quality and availability, distribution operations, recreational areas, parks and protected areas, conservation projects, or any other landscape or watershed Resources   feature and its connected plant, animal, and human interactions, • Abramovitz, J., T. Banuri, P. O. Girot, B. Orlando, N. climate change is becoming an important consideration in Schneider, E. Spanger-Siegfried, J. Switzer, and A. conservation and natural resource management planning, Hammill. 2001. Adapting to climate change: natural practices, outreach efforts, and ongoing practitioner education. resource management and vulnerability reduction. To this end, natural resource practitioners are in the challenging International Union for Conservation of Nature and position of needing to be both a student of climate change in Natural Resources, Gland, Switzerland. order to consider its impacts on the very landscape, waters, • Alig, Ralph J. 2011. Effects of climate change on natural habitats, or species they are stewarding, and teacher of climate resources and communities: A compendium of briefing change, in order to provide information and education to the papers. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW- GTR-837. Portland, OR: people with whom they work to coordinate adaptive strategies U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific for their professional goals, activities, and mandates. Northwest Research Station. 169 p. Retrieved from www.fs.fed.us/pnw/pubs/pnw_gtr837.pdf Related  Content   • Berkhout, F., J. Hertin, and D. M. Gann. 2004. Learning Stories to adapt: Organisational adaptation to climate change • Bird Observatory Project impacts. Tyndall Centre Working Paper 47. Tyndall • CCEd in Aboriginal Communities Centre for Climate Change Research, University of East • Dark Sky Festival Anglia, Norwich, UK. • Desert Oasis Garden • Biocultural Diversity Education Resources from • Digital Travel in Canada TerraLingua - http://terralingua.org/our-work/bcd- • Experiential Marine Science education/ • LA Neighborhoods • Climate Change: The Challenge for Natural Resource • Malama Kai Youth Action Management. Department of Natural Resources and • Marine Mammal Volunteers Mines GPO Box 2454. Brisbane, Australia. 2004. • Mass Audubon Initiatives https://www.longpaddock.qld.gov.au/about/publications/p • Youth Climate Job Training df/climatechange/challengefornaturalresourcemanageme Vignettes nt/Booklet_LowQuality.pdf • Storytelling • Climate Smart Agriculture • Youth Action www.climatesmartagriculture.org/en • Joyce, Linda; Haynes, Richard; White, Rachel; Barbour, R. James. 2006. Bringing climate change into natural resource management: Proceedings. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-706. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 150 p. http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/pubs/pnw_gtr706.pdf 17 Luis has worked in multiple sectors including governmental, Community-­‐Based  Bird  Conservation   private, academic, and social initiatives. Luis is currently the Model  and  Climate  Change  Curriculum   Executive Director of the San Pancho Bird Observatory (SPBO), CCC  Fellow  –  Luis  Morales   a conservation oriented non-profit organization based in San Francisco, Nayarit, Mexico. As part of his job, Luis helps develop SPBO´s programs as well as leads birding tours for Background     national and international tourists. Luis studied Marine Biology at As a result of Luis´ work in the Banderas Bay region, the Birding Universidad del San Pancho Network has established long-term partnerships Mar in Puerto with dozens of communities, hundreds of people from different Angel, Oaxaca businesses, non-profit organizations, government agencies, and (Mexico) with a stakeholders both locally and internationally. major in coral-reef ecology. During his Luis is an active member of the Partners in Flight Regional bachelor studies he Conservation Business Plan for Western Mexico, which allows was awarded by for collaboration between multiple organizations to develop Cornell University integrated strategies to conserve priority habitats and species. with a Tropical Marine Ecology fellowship in the Project  Description   year 2000. More As part of the CCC fellowship program I developed a two-stage recently (2012) he project: 1) Integrated climate change into the curriculum of an was awarded by existing program developed with a grant provided by the Rotary the US Forest International Foundation called “Building Capacity for Bird Service´s Conservation in Western Mexico”; and 2) The much more international challenging project of starting to develop a community-based program Wings bird conservation model. It includes the creation of infrastructure Across the to foster ecotourism as well as the formation of international Americas for a collaborations for common issues around EE, climate change, four-month bird- and sustainability. banding internship As a result of stage one, over 100 participants ages 13-47 at the Klamath Bird (target group) at seven coastal communities during eight Observatory in southern Oregon. His work experience has been months (September 2014- March 2015) received training on bird oriented towards environmental education and conservation. identification, nature guiding, and monitoring techniques. 18 Climate change was naturally addressed and participants in their families. Their bird-art is offered to birders who visit the general cared about the consequences of climate change on lodge and community garden, at farmers’ markets and other birds and other wildlife and assimilated climate change (global community events. warming) as a common concern. Climate change was relatively easy to relate to changes in weather patterns and increasingly With their purchase, visitors support the local economy also damaging tropical storms over the last years. helping to close the cycle of conservation since a portion of the sales revenue goes directly into conservation leases to protect Using birds as indicators of changes in the environment was a land (from bird poaching and wildlife extraction). This purchase common exercise that allowed participants to develop a helps local people care more about birds, birders, and habitat, stronger sense of connection with their natural environment and and their community´s well-being as they feel motivated by developing a deeper appreciation in scope of the value of wild economic incentives, empowered for a more active and birds and nature for healthier communities, economy, and “greener” community and hopeful of maintaining and expanding ecosystems. our conservation outcomes for the well-being of the current generations and the ones to come. The second stage relates organically and complements the first as we started to develop infrastructure for a community-based 2) Habitat Natural Lodge: a three-bedroom guesthouse next to bird habitat conservation model, which benefits the local the community garden. This private business partnership with community of San Francisco (San Pancho), Nayarit Mexico. SPBO is supporting our conservation strategy while catering for The infrastructure for ecotourism and conservation developed a growing bird-watching market and developing new services and maintained by SPBO with the help of the local community and products oriented to community-sustainability. include: 1) Jardín Comunitario Lado Silvestre (Wildside Community Garden): a garden created and sustained by the neighborhood of Agua Escondida in San Pancho. The 400 m2 (about 4000 square feet) garden includes: • Picnic tables for ecotourism and community use • Food garden with fruit trees and other seasonal edibles • A plant nursery for habitat restoration plants and hummingbird-friendly shrubs • Bird feeders and baths. Local community women organized themselves and gather in the garden to make crafts inspired in the local bird fauna. Some of them do it for fun or therapy, others for an extra income to 19 After a challenging negotiation with the owners and tons of Some of the conservation outcomes of this community-based community effort, the house (which was abandoned for several conservation effort are: years) was turned into a lodge to host birders and SPBO collaborators. (i) Allowing the restoration and growth of 35 acres of tropical forest. The place also hosts a gallery and info center for SPBO which (ii) Successfully preventing the illegal poaching of native proudly displays the bird related arts and crafts made by locals birds and wildlife extraction. and information on local wildlife and nature activities. (iii) Strengthening the local community by providing in situ Natural Habitat Lodge is an example of how a business can also employment opportunities for local youth as nature benefit an NGO and support conservation. guides (beneficiaries from SPBO´s Capacity-building program). 3) Sendero Capomo: Adjacent to the community garden and (iv) Increasing ecotourism opportunities in the area, lodge SPBO maintains a three mile nature-trail system that is serving as a demonstration site for other communities currently protecting 35 acres (14 hectares) of tropical forest. to adapt the model to their own natural sites. This effort is possible thanks to the support of the local (v) Serving as a research station and monitoring site for community and visitors through a conservation easement with studies on bird migration and connectivity. the owners of three parcels. (vi) Offering the opportunity for locals and visitors to approach and learn nature. Helpful  Resources  and  Community  Partners     The Rotary Foundation and Rotary District 5110 of Oregon and northern California awarded a Humanitarian Grant of $12,000 to fund an international capacity building project that was successfully completed in partnership with San Pancho Bird Observatory in Nayarit Mexico and the Klamath Bird Observatory based in Ashland (Oregon, USA). The Rotary Club of Ashland, collaborating with the Jaltemba Bay Rotary Club of Mexico and supported by Shasta Valley, Bend High Desert, and Cottage Grove Rotary Clubs of District 5110, initially promoted this project and provided the funding required to receive matching awards from Rotary District 5110 and The Rotary Foundation. 20 This grant allowed the implementation of a project focused on enables local Rotary Clubs and their associated individuals and bird conservation and sustainable community development that organizations to have a huge positive impact in communities reached over 100 participants (ages 12-47) at the community worldwide and its sustainability principles should be taken into centers of seven coastal communities of the southern Nayarit consideration when applying for grants regarding community coast: PEACE at Punta de Mita, La Casa Clu at San Ignacio, development grants. I widely recommend organizations or Entreamigos at San Pancho, Casa de los Niños at Lo de individuals to approach your local Rotary Club as this can be a Marcos, Valor para Soñar at Villa Morelos, Amigos de Jaltemba great way to connect with members at other clubs and have the at La Peñita, and Cambiando Vidas at Chacala, Nayarit. opportunity to participate in this type of collaborative efforts. It is important that during the application process or before, Successes  and  Best  Practices   organizations or individuals searching for funds through RIF can Some of the outstanding participants were provided with count with other matching sources that can ensure that the equipment and they have been able to start guiding birding trips project leaders are being paid for their work since often Rotary at their local communities as well as continuing conservation grants have some restrictions and opportunities for funding of efforts at their local communities. salaries are limited and there is a considerable amount of reporting involved. Some communities have started to develop informative signs for their existing nature trails and some have expressed their Value  to  the  Community   interest in creating new natural protected areas with nature trails Since most families in the region have an economy that in them for ecotourism use envisioning a long-term conservation depends on tourism and there is a general need of increasing effort. and diversifying their sources of revenue, SPBO´s educational and community development approach really helped to allow locals to participate at the capacity-building workshops. This led Lessons  Learned   to an increased awareness regarding local environmental issues The process of developing international grants like this one is a as well as the appreciation of locals and their unique diversity of very complex and fascinating process that requires a lot of bird and habitats. patience in dealing with people with a wide variety of backgrounds, multiple unexpected situations, accounting for expenses that are not or could not be included within the Developing a hands-on community-based conservation action project, and often adapting the project to many changing plan by which people can be part of the change they want to scenarios from the conditions and circumstances of the see in their communities is empowering, it gives people hope for communities or other administrative decisions from the multiple a better life and creates the perfect scenario to assimilate local and international partner organizations outside of our important issues like climate change adaptation and community control. Adaptation and developing a timely communication resilience. skillset was critical to the success and completion of the project. Thanks to each and all of the CCC fellows, to the EECapacity- The Rotary International Foundation (RIF) funded this project. NAAEE team for such an amazing support and inspiration! RIF has a very effective and powerful matching system that 21 Project  Link   www.birdingsanpancho.net Keywords   Sector Keywords: Science or Nature Center – Community Organizations – Nonformal Education Approach Keywords: Youth Investment/Empowerment – Nature Experience or Immersion – Building Community Networks – Watersheds – Resource Management Additional Keywords: Bird Conservation – Bird Observatory – Migratory Connectivity – Ecotourism – Scientific Monitoring – Community-Based Conservation Model 22 The  Power  of  the  Night  in  Climate   Change  Action:  The  Dark  Sky  Festival   in  the  Sequoia  National  Park   CCC  Fellow  –  Tara  Hostnik     Background   Tara Hostnik graduated from Saint Michael’s College in 2007 with a degree in Biology and has worked for ten years as an outdoor educator and wilderness guide. Since 2011 she has managed the Sequoia Field Institute in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks and is responsible for the expansion, planning and evaluation of various educational and outdoor experiences including astronomy, living history, night hikes and birding. As a certified yoga instructor and experienced backpacker, Tara has also guided several multi-day trips in the Sierra wilderness and teaches yoga at the local lodge. During the past three years she has designed and executed the largest event in Sequoia and Kings Canyon, the Dark Sky Festival, which provides a diversity of experiences for park visitors over a three-day event. From telescope viewings, music under the stars, science talks, water rockets and other astronomy-themed programs, the Festival aims to both celebrate the night and teach its participants bout the preservation of dark skies. Project  Description   Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks are home to the largest trees in the world, the Giant Sequoias. They also contain the tallest peak in the contiguous United States, 838,000 acres of designated wilderness, two nationally recognized Wild and Scenic rivers, one of the deepest canyons in North America, over 800 miles of hiking trails, over 275 caves, and wildlife such as bear, lions and condors. Another important feature is a spectacular night sky far from city lights and dark enough to see the Milky Way, Andromeda Galaxy and thousands of stars 23 during clear, moon-less nights. nation. As a result, adjacent Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park have the worst air quality of any other National The Dark Sky Festival project is an attempt to capture the Park! The Central Valley also exemplifies most of the urban and immense beauty of the night sky in Sequoia and Kings Canyon suburban areas in our nation, with ever increasing light pollution National Parks. The Sequoia Parks Conservancy, the major affecting our health, the wildlife, and our ability to enjoy the stars cooperating association for these National Parks, is incredibly and other celestial objects. active in interpretation, education and promoting stewardship. In 2014, the Festival The Dark Sky Festival attracted over 2,000 engages the public and experienced enthusiasts in the topic astronomers, Park of astronomy and uses employees, local and this exciting platform to foreign visitors, increase awareness of astronomical societies, the importance of science educators and healthy skies, from the more. The first ever quality of the air to the Festival included darkness of the night. activities such as water Hopefully, attendees of rocket launches, City past and future Dark film showings, Festivals will learn how ranger walks and talks, to protect skies in their nightscape communities and photography pledge action to help workshops and achieve a healthier artwork, kids’ activities, atmosphere. junior ranger programs, astronaut and NASA We hope to progress speakers such as Dr. the Festival each year Story Musgrave, to better achieve our demonstrations by goals and look for new local experts, and even ways to engage a Saturday evening Star Party with telescopes. participants in the topic of astronomy. The National Park Service will be celebrating its Centennial in 2016 and one of the goals of Increasing climate change literacy in the Central Valley of interpretation in the Parks is to experiment with and use 21st California is another aspect of this Festival. Shaped like a bowl, century and new techniques to connect the public to their Parks. pollutants such as ozone, carbon monoxide, and particulate The Dark Sky Festival is certainly attempting to match this Park matter get trapped, leading to the worst air polluted cities in our Service goal. The 2016 dates are set for August 5-7 and will 24 highlight astronaut Jose Hernandez, a star party with the Kern both the 2014 and 2015 festivals. Astronomical Society, and various speakers from JPL and other educational institutions. Another valuable resources for this event was getting to know the local astronomical associations such as Kern Astronomical Helpful  Resources  and  Community  Partners   Society. Many clubs are more than excited to share their My major community partner is the Sequoia Parks astronomy equipment and knowledge with the general public Conservancy, also my employer. Each national park has an and Festivals are a great way for them to attract new members. association whose primary function is to sell educational Funding for this project primarily came from the Sequoia Parks materials such as books to park visitors. Many associations also Conservancy although many volunteers for the Festival, such as perform education programs to the public. As a Manager in our speakers, donated their travel and time to the Festival. In 2015, Education Department, I was looking for new ways to teach the Celestron Telescopes donated two telescopes and staff for our public about the value of night sky preservation and was event. They plan on returning in 2016. inspired by the work of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, that teaches local educators how to interpret astronomy to their NASA has been another valuable partner. You can apply for an audience. Kevin Poe, a night sky tour guide and teacher for astronaut and/or education staff to attend your special event ASP, helped inspire the idea behind the Dark Sky Festival by and we have used this option during both Festivals so far. Local his own experience organizing a similar event in Bryce Canyon educational institutions such as JPL, planetariums, college National Park. It was there that I learned how national parks all campuses, and even high schools have also been contacted to across our country host astronomy festivals. Kevin Poe was a make this event successful. speaker at our 2015 Festival and Suzie Gurton of ASP spoke at 25 The National Park Service (NPS) is an essential partner. We programming, giving our organization more opportunities to collaborate with NPS on this and many other projects. Making work together as a team! sure we are maintaining a positive relationship with NPS is valuable to us and helps our event succeed as many rangers are out giving programs and helping to advertise and organize Lessons  Learned   the Festival. Participating in the Community Climate Change Fellows project helped me recognize the importance of setting goals, establishing funding projections, recognizing target audiences, Successes  and  Best  Practices   and implementing effective communication strategies. Maintaining positive relationships with volunteers and partners Networking with other project leaders helped me think is of utmost importance. Our Festival could not run without creatively, feel supported, and offered new insights in how to volunteers and making sure they feel respected, useful, and lead a major project like this. appreciated is necessary. We give each volunteer a gift bag filled with goodies and a t-shirt for their time, a thank you card after the event, and recognition on our website. For Value  to  the  Community   astronomical clubs such as KAS, I attend their meetings and try Organizing a special event or Festival that targets some specific to be active in their group to maintain good communication and preservation goal (not necessarily Dark Skies), but perhaps messaging. Prioritizing positive, clear and frequent beach conservation, celebrating a local park, a wild animal (like communication with our primary partner, the NPS is also wolves), or outdoor activity (such as climbing or yoga) is very important. We allow them to be part of the planning process to valuable to a community. It could promote a healthy lifestyle, ensure this is a collaborative event and to allow for unexpected highlight and advertise the use of a place (like a national, state barriers to be presented (such as space, staff, equipment, and or local park), and allow groups within a community to resource availability). collaborate or network. For example, the Kern Astronomical Society can now collaborate with Astronomical Society of the Pacific for other projects, etc. This kind of event is an attractive One difficult surprise was how some of the NPS management way to teach the general public about a conservation subject. staff felt they were left out of the planning process even though For example, the general public might not solely want to attend it was of value for us to make this a collaborative event. It was a lecture on night sky preservation, but they may be more our understanding that NPS was being asked to work with us excited to hear an astronaut's who touches on this subject and we were unaware some members of their staff felt the way briefly in his presentation. People could also be inspired by they did. To account for this, we are making sure they feel listening to the symphony perform under the night sky where ownership of this even throughout the planning process. stars are visible and realize how awesome darkness is! Sometimes, I think we need to put a fun twist on the things we We have had some great feedback over the years from not only want to teach people about. We need to draw in the crowd first visitors but also the speakers. We know this since many with something fun, teach them second, and leave them returned or plan on returning for future Dark Sky Festivals. This inspired towards CHANGE in their communities third. event has also allowed staff of the Sequoia Parks Conservancy from other departments to be more involved with educational 26 Resource  Links   Kern Astronomical Society: www.kernastro.org climate.nasa.gov Astronomical Society of the Pacific: www.astrosociety.org noaa.gov/climate http://www.afguonline.org/ Keywords   Sector Keywords: Nonformal Education – Parks Project  Links   Approach Keywords: Nature Experience or Immersion Sequoia Parks Conservancy: – Building Community Networks – Resource http://www.sequoiaparksconservancy.org/ Management Additional Keywords: Astronomy – Dark Sky Festival page: Festival or Event Organization http://www.exploresequoiakingscanyon.com/ Sequoia National Park: www.nps.gov/seki 27 Consultative Approaches Theme Consultative Approaches Community Climate Change Fellow - Marna Hauk Another strategy in the community climate change mosaic of perceived as a neutral party or expert, can dissolve internal approaches is consultative engagement. Consultants are barriers or political friction for change adoption. Consultants able to concentrate practice and expertise and offer can provide a seasoned perspective, informed by a depth of coaching and guidance across multiple organizations. knowledge in the field. Organizations, in effect, can leverage Consultant approaches offer the benefit of a fresh consulting to instantly access a deep bench of expertise, perspective, new to all players in a given organization or which can be a worthwhile investment with a complex context. At time having a consultant’s insight, topic such as climate change. Consultants can also offer limited Related  Content   duration project leadership for pilots and planning. Consultants Stories cross-pollinate vibrant practices across organizations, rapidly • Bird Observatory Project proliferating emerging innovations and success strategies. Due • Climate Courage to this powerful web-working point of view across organizations • Climate Resilient Food Systems and community initiative, consultants can also effectively spark and bridge cross-organizational coalitions. • Climate Stories Project • Inuit Collaborations Another consultative approach in the community climate change • LA Neighborhoods action mosaic is the opportunity to serve as an internal • Women’s Ecosocial Incubator consultant. As a consultant inside of an organization, organizers Vignettes and educators can catalyze a center of excellence and inject a • Fundraising depth of attention for community climate change concerns into • Mutual Learning existing organizations, including those that might not • Networking traditionally see themselves as climate change actors. Passionate internal consultants can sustain attention inside an • Professional Capacities organization, building networks within communities • Storytelling Articles • Open Space Technology • Research on CC Educators • Surfacing Unheard Voices Image from Climate Stories Project 29 Resources   • Beautiful Solutions for “This Changes Everything” - Inspired by Naomi Klein’s book - curated climate change related community solutions and strategies site: https://solutions.thischangeseverything.org/ • Maine Adaptation Toolkit for Consultants - http://maine.gov/dep/sustainability/climate/adaptation- toolkit/consultant.html • Tools of Engagement: A Toolkit for Engaging People in Conservation (Audubon, 2011) from http://web4.audubon.org/educate/toolkit/toolkit.php • Ayers, Forsyth, Community Based Adaptation to Climate Change. Retrieved from http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/24188/1/Ayers_Forsyth_Communit y_based_adaptation_to_climate_change_2009.pdf • Nelson, R., Kokic P., Crimp, S., Meinke, H., & Howden, S.M. (2010). The vulnerability of Australian rural communities to climate variability and change: Part I— Conceptualising and measuring vulnerability. Environmental Science & Policy, 13, 8–17. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Stuart_Howden/publ ication/41140305_The_vulnerability_of_Australian_rural_ communities_to_climate_variability_and_change_Part_IC onceptualising_and_measuring_vulnerability/links/0deec Keya Chatterjee, Climate Action Network National Conservation Training 522136a1dc9af000000.pdf Center, Summer 2014 • Jennie C. Stephens, J. C., Maria E. Hernandez, M. E., Román, M., Graham, A. C., & Scholz, R. W. (2008). Higher education as a change agent for sustainability in different cultures and contexts. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 9(3), 317-338. 30 serves as the UNEP Global Environment Outlook 6 Regional Catalyzing  Climate-­‐Responsive  Food   Coordinating Lead Author (North America), Lead Author for the Systems   United Nations Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Initiative, CCC  Fellow  –  Jacob  Park     Expert Reviewer for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fourth Assessment Report, and the Renewable Energy and Adaptation to Climate Technologies Investment Background     Committee member of Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund, Jacob Park is Professor of Strategy, Innovation, and Nairobi, Kenya-based $150 million sustainable investment fund. Entrepreneurship at Green Mountain College in Vermont (USA) specializing in social and environmental innovation, Jacob works primarily as an academic scholar who specializes entrepreneurship, and management with a special in business-society and global environmental/climate change expertise/interest in emerging economies in Asia-Pacific, Africa, governance issues. Jacob also has extensive experience and Caribbean regions. working collaboratively/in partnership with business/private sector, civil society/NGO groups, and governmental (including UN/international organizations). Project  Description  and  Insights   As an academic scholar and international policy analyst who have been studying climate change as a policy and business management concern for the past twenty years, I have noticed with growing alarm increasing evidence for climate change- induced agricultural and food system fragility in the U.S. (particularly in states like California) and global context. As a CCC project fellow, I decided to try to better understand and to raise awareness of the relationship between climate change and agriculture/food system among farmers and other community-based stakeholders. My research/writing on the relationship between climate change and agriculture/food system was an important part of my work as the Coordinating Lead Author (North America) for the UN Environment Program Global Environment Outlook project (http://www.unep.org/geo). Recipient of the 2015 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (Region 1) Environmental Merit Award for his climate change Some of key insights and conclusions from my CCC science teaching and educational engagement activities, Jacob fellowship/research include: 31 FIRST, despite a wide range of climate change and agriculture/food system research efforts that is currently underway in the U.S., there is still limited scientific research being done on the potential impacts of climate-induced biotic stressors and extreme events within the context of bioregions (i.e. not just at the national or state level). SECOND, the scientific literature assessing the impact of climate change on agriculture largely focuses on relatively simple assessments of the impact of changing temperature, precipitation patterns, and CO2 elevation on crop yield, with inadequate attention to the consequences of extreme weather events and limited evaluation of adaptive responses by farmers and other agriculture/food producers. This is particularly the case of small-scale family-owning farming enterprises which are more economically vulnerable to climate change due to tight profit margins that hinder their ability to respond to risk Helpful  Resources  and  Community  Partners   THIRD, there is a critical need in the U.S. to improve its Although the focus of my engagement activities initially targeted understanding of how food production and distribution can be farmers and food system stakeholders in Vermont and in the more effectively governed so that economically vulnerable New England region, for a number of reasons (some expected farmers and the food insecure communities do not bear the and some unexpected), my CCC fellowship/project lead to a disproportionate burden of the climate change-related risks to close partnership and engagement work with Kingston, agricultural and food supply chains. Because agricultural and Jamaica-based Jamaica Rural Economy and Ecosystems food products are increasingly produced and traded in a global Adapting to Climate Change market that has been traditionally reliant on cheap (https://www.usaid.gov/documents/1862/jamaica-reeach) which transportation and labor as well as predictable weather patterns, works to advance climate smart agricultural practices with extreme weather events and other associated climate change farmers/small scale food producers in collaboration with the risks might intensify the vulnerabilities of the U.S. transportation U.S. Agency for International Development. infrastructure. 32 Project  Link Keywords For my overall climate change education efforts, including my Sector Keywords: Community Organizations – International work on behalf of the CCC fellowship/project, I received the Organizations – UN Environmental Programme 2015 Environmental Protection Agency (Region 1) Approach Keywords: Innovation and Social Innovation – Train Environmental Merit Award, located at the Trainer – Creating a Model – Building Community Networks https://www.epa.gov/environmental-merit-awards-new- – Resource Management england/2015-environmental-merit-award- recipients#Individual – Photo by Karen Temple-Beamish 33 Climate Justice Theme Environmental Justice and Climate Justice Community Climate Change Fellows - Marna Hauk and Michelle Eckman The movement for environmental justice attends to the Hot spots for environmental justice have included education intersections of structural discrimination and inequity across and action against urban incineration in communities of color, dimensions of race, class, culture, and public health. It relates creative student protests against polluted air near schools, to justice in access to clean water, air, and resources and the reclamation of blighted urban lands as community gardens, chronic patterns of increased risk of toxic exposure that and the structural dimensions of the diabetes crisis. communities of color and communities living in poverty face. Environmental justice educators use place-based “toxic tours” and multi-speaker site visits to bring the issues of environmental justice into focus. Taylor (2000) argued that at this waste facility was not generated by the local residents, it environmental justice was more effective than environmentalism came from residents throughout the city. A 2009 NYU (Restrepo or environmental education at speaking to issues of concern for and Zimmerman, 2009) study cites that the rate of death from communities of color and galvanizing action. Concepts that asthma is approximately 3 times higher and for hospitalization, 5 relate to environmental justice and climate change include: just times higher, in the Bronx compared to the national average. sustainability, environmental health, and climate justice. Investment of time, money and attention in the most vulnerable Climate justice in particular highlights how the populations who communities is arguably the more effective intervention. Climate are most at risk for climate change effects are often the ones justice brings clarity to the structural dimensions of climate who have used the least resources to create the crises. For change, and it argues that community-based action can be example, Hunts Point in the South Bronx, NY is home to one of incredibly effective at taking action on the environmental justice the largest landfills in the U.S., exposing low-income residents dimensions of climate change. Education for just sustainabilities to air-borne toxins as a result of the emissions from the vehicles arise at the intersection of ecology, environment, and equity depositing thousands of tons of trash on a daily basis. Yet the (Agyeman, Bullard, and Evans, 2003; Crouch and Agyeman, majority of the waste that has been and continues to be dumped 2004). Climate justice educational approaches range across a spectrum of engagement (Hauk, 2015). 35 Related  Content   Stories • Bird Observatory Project • Bringing it Home Kentucky • CCEd in Aboriginal Communities • Climate Resilient Food Systems • Climate Stories Project • Community Food Networks • Faith in Place in Chicago • Global Kids Organizing • Inuit Collaborations • Malam Kai Youth Action • Open Lands CC Gardens • Public School CC Curriculum • Women’s Ecosocial Incubator • Youth Climate Job Training Vignettes • Preventing Burnout Articles • Surfacing Unheard Voices Youth activists speaking for Human Rights Activists Project (HRAP) Photo by Jatnna Ramierez 36 Resources   • See also the Theme of Public Engagement and Civic • A People’s Curriculum for the Earth: Teaching Climate Ecology Change and the Environmental Crisis (2014) - Bigelow & References   Swinehart, Rethinking Schools http://www.rethinkingschools.org/proddetails.asp?ID=978 • Adger, W. N., Paavola, J., Huq, S., & Mace, M. J. (2006). 0942961577 Fairness in adaptation to climate change. Cambridge, Climate Justice Education Materials (2012) - Martinez, MA: MIT Press. • Brown University Master’s Project - • Agyeman, Julian. (2013). Introducing just sustainabilities: https://sites.google.com/a/brown.edu/ejeheducation/envir Policy, planning and practice. London: Zed Books. onmental-justice-educational-materials/climate-justice- • Agyeman, J., Bullard, R. D., & Evans, B. (2003). Just education-materials sustainabilities. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. • Everybody’s Movement: Environmental Justice and • Bigelow, B., & Swinehart, T. (2014). A people’s Climate Change - Environmental Support Center (2009) curriculum for the earth: Teaching climate change and http://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/ESCeveryb the environmental crisis. Madison, WI: Rethinking odymovement.pdf Schools. • How to Construct an Environmental Justice Lesson Plan • Cabrales, R., Chang, A., Fried, S., & Mukti, A. (2014). - Cabrales, Chang, Fried, & Mukti (2014) - How to construct an environmental justice lesson plan http://pitweb.pitzer.edu/redfordconservancy/wp- [Portable document format]. Pitzer College. Retrieved content/uploads/sites/6/2015/01/EJ-Lesson-Plan-web.pdf from http://pitweb.pitzer.edu/redfordconservancy/wp- NAACP’s Teaching Intersectionality and Environmental content/uploads/sites/6/2015/01/EJ-Lesson-Plan-web.pdf• Justice in Our Classrooms & Environmental Justice • Hackman, (2015). Climate justice through a social justice Classroom Resource Guide lens [Online video]. Hackman Group. Retrieved from http://action.naacp.org/page/- http://www.hackmanconsultinggroup.org/uncategorized/cl /Climate/Teaching%20Intersectionality%20and%20Envir imate-justice-and-social-justice-as-sequential-issues/ onmental%20Justice%20in%20Our%20Classrooms%20 • Hauk, M. (2015). Designing and assessing climate justice FINAL.pdf education: Spectra of inclusive resilience [Poster]. • National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences - Research symposium of the North American Association Educator Resources of Environmental Educators. Retrieved from http://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/scied/teachers/ http://tinyurl.com/cj-ed-spectrum-15 • Principles of Environmental Justice: • Jones, Van. (2008). The green collar economy: How one http://www.ejnet.org/ej/principles.html solution can fix our two biggest problems. New York: • Climate Justice Education Spectrum of Inclusive Harper One. Resilience (Hauk, 2015): Poster (http://tinyurl.com/cj-ed- • Kagawa, F., & Selby, D. (2009). Climate change spectrum-15 ) and Handout (http://tinyurl.com/cj-ed- education: A critical agenda for interesting times. In spectrum-handout-15 ) as PDFs Authors (Eds.), Education and climate change: Living and Toxic Tour Example, LA Progressive Article, retrieved learning in interesting times (pp. 241-243). New York,• from https://www.laprogressive.com/toxic-tour/ NY: Routledge. 37 • Lotz-Sisitka, H. (2009). Climate injustice: How should (2015). For educators. Research Triangle Park, NC: education respond? In Kagawa, F., & Selby, D. (Eds.), NIEHS. [Aggregated list of many online resources]. Education for Climate Change: Living and Learning in http://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/scied/teachers/ Interesting Times (pp. 71-88). Routledge. • Park, A. (2009). Everybody’s movement: Environmental • Martinez, T. (2012). Climate justice education materials justice and climate change. Washington, DC: [Web page]. Environmental Justice & Environmental Environmental Support Center. Retrieved from Health Education Curricula [Web site]. Brown University http://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/ESCeveryb Master’s Project. Retrieved from odymovement.pdf https://sites.google.com/a/brown.edu/ejeheducation/envir • Restrepo, Carlos E. and Rae Zimmerman. (2009). South onmental-justice-educational-materials/climate-justice- Bronx Environmental Health and Policy Study. Final education-materials Report for Phase VI. Institute for Civil Infrastructure • NAACP. (n.d.). Teaching intersectionality and Systems (ICIS), Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of environmental justice in our classrooms: Environmental Public Service, New York University. justice classroom resource guide. Washington, DC: http://www.icisnyu.org/south_bronx/admin/files/NYUWag NAACP. Retrieved from http://action.naacp.org/page/- nerPhaseVIreport.pdf /Climate/Teaching%20Intersectionality%20and%20Envir • Taylor, Dorceta E. (2000). The rise of the environmental onmental%20Justice%20in%20Our%20Classrooms%20 justice paradigm: Injustice framing and the social FINAL.pdf construction of environmental discourses. American • National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Behavioral Scientist, 43(4), 508-580. 38 issue of our time and Global  Kids  Organizing  for   have developed Climate  Justice   various climate justice CCC  Fellow  –  Jatnna  Ramierez   campaigns. For my fellowship project, I am supporting my Background   students' climate Jatnna Ramirez is the Senior Trainer/Human Rights Specialist change education at Global Kids, a nonprofit educational and youth development campaign. This is a organization working to empower youth from underserved student led campaign communities to become leaders in their local and global that calls on NYC to communities. Global Kids operates in-school and out-of-school mandate climate time programs in Washington, D.C. and New York City, where change education in Jatnna lives and works. grades K-12. Having worked on climate Jatnna migrated to the United State from the Dominican change with high Republic when she was 12 years-old. She has been passionate school students for a about social justice and human rights since she was very young. few years, we realized In addition to her work in education and youth development, she that most students did has experience in community organizing, which is incorporated not have a clear in her work at Global Kids. understanding of what climate change is, how it is impacting peoples' lives and the solutions that can be Jatnna was relatively new to the field of climate change implemented to tackle it. Once they learn how climate change is education when she joined the fellowship, and attests that she a human rights issue they became passionate about it. Our learned much through the project. The fellowship empowered students also realized that their peers, who were not part of her to mobilize her passion and eagerness to be an effective HRAP, did not know enough about climate change to take leader and support her community of students on their journey individual or collective action. to become climate activists. Helpful  Resources  and  Community  Partners   Project  Description   We have worked and partnered with the NYC Department of At Global Kids, I co-direct the Human Rights Activist Project Education Sustainability Department, which connects various Program (HRAP). This program serves as a platform for New organizations throughout the city. In addition to that, the timing York City high school students to take action on issues affecting of my project coincided with the People's Climate March. The their local and global community. For the past five years, our People's Climate March required rigorous community organizing students have identified climate change as the most pressing and led to the formation of a strong network of hundreds of local 39 and national organizations working to combat climate change Lessons  Learned   and environmental injustice. We were able to join this network As part of my project, I conducted an intensive climate change and movement that is still present in NYC and continues to push and environmental justice intensive summer program for 16 high the city to become an environmental sustainable city. school students. In retrospect, I wish we had had the capacity to extend this opportunity to a larger group of students. Out of Successes  and  Best  Practices   those 16 students, eight remained engaged and very active in One of the biggest successes of the project has been having a the program throughout the rest of the school year. I think that if strong cohort and core leaders who have continued to work on we had a bigger group, we also would've had more students the climate education campaign. These are high school involve in our school-year program. Value  to  the  Community   There are tons of reasons to do a community climate change program. This experience helps for personal growth, it helps you connect to your community and help your community. Although climate change is a global problem, the actions that we take at a local level matter and building community matters. Our communities hold the power to make changes that will move us towards a more sustainable future. Additional  Climate  Change  Action  &  Education  Resources   • 350.org • http://www.sustainaware.net/campaign • Film on the fashion industry and injustice: The True Cost • http://hrap.globalkids.org • https://www.facebook.com/gkhrap/ Project  Link   students who are conscious about our environment and climate and who make personal and collective decisions with the future http://globalkids.org our environment at heart. They are educating and inspiring their friends and family to do the same. They are going off to college Keywords   to study environmental education, political science and Sector Keywords: K-12 Schools – After-School international affairs. As an NAAEE project, I can't think of a Programs – Nonformal Education – Civic Action better outcome than having educated and empowering youth Approach Keywords: Youth Investment/Empowerment from underserved communities to be sustainability leaders. – Environmental Justice – Public Education Campaigns 40 Gardens and Greening Theme Gardens and Greening: Sites of Community Climate Change Education and Action Community Climate Change Fellows - Elvia Rodriguez Ochoa and Marna Hauk “Learning gardens generate a …whole systems can steward the land around us, connect to nature, and solution...connecting learning with eating, growing with create a resilient future. Creating and sustaining community harvesting, caring with consuming…[to form a] nexus of gardens, however, can involve a lot of hard work. School interconnectedness.” – Williams & Brown, 2012, p. 139 yards are important institutions that help provide Gardening is one of the most fun and rewarding ways that cohesiveness in our communities. What if we could we transform them into spaces that provide students, their families and the broader community with opportunities for active play and physical education, outdoor learning and Resources   environmental literacy, while significantly contributing to the Urban Gardening effective management of stormwater? What if we could then encourage local residents to adapt some of these same • Denver Urban Gardens: https://dug.org/ practices at home? Further, what role do local governments and • American Community Gardener Association: nonprofits play in helping to create and sustain community https://communitygarden.org/ gardens? • Greening of Detroit http://www.greeningofdetroit.com/ • http://www.openlands.org/gardenkeepers During this time when community food resilience is a top concern, particularly given the challenges of a changing climate, School yard Greening neighbors, communities, and schools are organizing together • http://www.openlands.org/space-to-grow and growing new solutions. Community gardens, schoolyard • https://greenschoolyardnetwork.org/ greening, and urban food systems can all contribute to • http://www.ecoschools.com/KeyOrgs/KeyOrgs_wSidebar. community climate resilience. Distributed urban gardening, html garden-based environmental and sustainability education, • http://www.childrenandnature.org/initiatives/schoolyards/ Fighting food waste, and organizing local food networks all can help generate distributive justice and mitigate climate change. Water-saving through school learning gardens in New Mexico, building sustainable food systems in Columbus Ohio inspired by botanical gardens, and collaborative community garden and schoolyard projects in Chicago all exemplify these vibrant strategies. Related  Content   Stories • Bringing it Home Kentucky • Climate Resilient Food Systems • Community Food Networks • Desert Oasis Garden • Faith in Place in Chicago • Open Lands CC Gardens • Youth Climate Job Training Photo by Elizabeth Pickett 42 communities are the ones where residents train and engage in Open  Lands  Climate  Change  Gardening   local politics with the same fervor they have for our city sports in  Chicago  and  an  Urban  Web  of  Green   teams. More information is available at openlands.org/staff. CCC  Fellow  –  Elvia  Rodriguez Ochoa   The  Project   Background   At the time of my application to be an EE Capacity Fellow, Elvia Rodriguez Ochoa is a multi-disciplinary artist, educator Openlands had shifted its work model to create a “web of green” and administrator with over 20 years of experience working in in Chicago communities by focusing our Neighborhood, School nonprofit community settings. As a lifelong city resident, Elvia and Forestry programs in one place to have a greater impact. enjoys visiting the diverse neighborhoods that make up Chicago The pilot community was Chicago Lawn, a predominantly Latino and learning about the impact each ethnic group has in shaping neighborhood which is a heat island and also prone to flooding this dynamic region. She also believes the happiest located in the city’s southwest side. In 2014, Openlands, in partnership with Healthy Schools Campaing worked with a neighborhood elementary school, Morrill Math and Science Academy, to transform their campus as part of the Space to Grow program. The changes included adding rain catchment capacity underneath a new turf field, creating an outdoor classroom with an edible school garden and installing native plants, shrubs and trees in several areas. The Space to Grow program is in place in six schools in Chicago with the plan of converting a total of 34 schoolyards over the course of five years to meet several environmental and health goals. A year later, Openlands Treekeeper program went back into Chicago Lawn to plant trees on residential parkways including some directly across the street from Morrill with additional trees planted in nearby parks as additional water management that would also proved shade in summer to mitigate the heat island effect. As part of my EE Capacity project I proposed to help develop neighborhood green space in Chicago Lawn in addition to the schoolyard and parkway areas, with the idea that any community gardens created would explicitly include water conservation principles in their management as well as serve as a hub for presenting these principles for adoption at home. Our short-term goal for the proposal was to have thriving garden 43 sites that are not reliant on city supplied water. For the long term partnerships with other fellows. This includes working with we wanted to see a reduction of impact from flooding incidents Veronica Kyle at Faith in Place to have a deeper impact on the related to rainstorms, greater water conservation in homes, and Chicago region, connecting with Luis Morales at San Pancho a wider acceptance of the message of wise water use in order Bird Observatory in Nayarit to connect Openlands Birds in My to protect one of our Great Lakes. Neighborhood program to their program around parent/child engagement in Spanish, and connecting with Margie Simon de During the time of the fellowship my proposal shifted to focus on Ortiz at CICEANA in Mexico City around community the need for materials and programs to be accessible in multiple engagement and environmental issues in a major metropolis. languages. It felt incomplete to try bringing additional programs into a community if we were not addressing the complexity of Keywords   communication. Openlands long-term goal is to have workshops Sector Keywords: Green Spaces – Urban Gardens – Native and materials in English, Spanish, Polish, and Chinese. Our plants – Stormwater team did develop and present bilingual workshops Approach Keywords: Youth Investment/Empowerment – Culture (English/Spanish) at Morrill about storm water management Creation – Intergenerational – Consultative – Building which explained the benefits of the Space to Grow schoolyard Community Networks – Public Education Campaigns improvements as a pilot. The bilingual workshops have now been used at other schools in the program. I have multiple roles within Space to Grow; assisting with asset mapping around the schools in order to connect any existing community organizations to the school program; developing and translating content for the workshops; presenting on native plants as part of the stormwater workshops in English or Spanish depending on the audience; leading tours of the improved schoolyards in Spanish for community residents on the days of our workshops; and communicating with Spanish speaking residents as part of our community engagement. Connections   I have enjoyed being part of this program because of all the Fellows, it has helped me expand my thinking on the impact of the work we do individually. Having the opportunity to know about all the work happening from Canada, across the US and in Mexico brings me great hope. It also gives me an opportunity to connect beyond the region in which I work. As a result of this fellowship I am actively engaged in creating three organizational 44 Climate Steward. In addition, she received the 2013 Presidential Climate  Change  Gardening  at  the  Desert   Award for Excellence in Science Teaching.   Garden  at  Albuquerque  Academy   CCC  Fellow  –  Karen  Temple-Beamish   Project  Description   Growing food and teaching about sustainable agriculture has Background   been a passion for Karen for many years. She wanted to have Karen Temple-Beamish teaches 8th grade Earth Systems farm-scale food production on her campus to feed students Science and Biology with an Ecology emphasis at organic, healthy produce. However, Karen's school is located in Albuquerque Academy. She is also the Sustainability Director a high desert climate that receives only six to ten inches of for her school and the Director of the Desert Oasis Teaching precipitation each year with campus soil that is lacking organic Garden. matter and highly compacted. Karen became inspired to grow food using the principles of water conservation, soil building, Karen has a pollinator protection and biodiversity that she learned about from Master’s degree in Gary Nabhan's book, "Growing Food in a Hotter, Drier Land." environmental Karen, with the help of her team, created the Desert Oasis science and has Teaching (DOT) Garden to provide her community with the skills taught for 20 they need to be resilient in the face of climate uncertainty. years. As a member of the Environmental Helpful  Resources  and  Community  Partners   Education The DOT Garden has been supported with both funding and Association of outreach opportunities from Albuquerque's Water Authority. The New Mexico, she team has received water rebates to help build out the gardens has been sharing as well as help pay for a garden manager salary. In addition, the her passion with team provides water smart gardening classes that are set up students in her and funded by the water authority. The team has received a own community large grant from the electric utility to build the DOT Garden's and seeks to welcome center, which will help interpret the mission and goals share her of the garden, as well as invite people to participate in its knowledge with workshops and learn/work days. The team has partnered with people both near the local extension office to hold workshops, market and and far. She has educate the community. The team created an advisory board to travelled to Costa Rica, Japan and Canada to learn and help further integrate the garden opportunities into the contribute. She will soon be traveling to the Arctic with the community. Polartrec program to study the carbon balance in permafrost as it heats and dries due to climate change. Karen is a 2015 NOAA 45 Successes  and  Best  Practices   Teamwork has been the main reason that the garden has been successful. Bringing together people with different strengths and taking the time to communicate all of the wonderful things that the team does has been essential in getting the school's administration to help the team move forward. Money was expended to hire a professional to design the garden, a design which allows the team to show people the vision and the progress. Parents of students were recruited to help with some of the really big efforts like the Earth Works, which needs to be done for the welcome center. Lessons  Learned   The team needed to focus more quickly on fund raising. We are six months out of running out money for our garden manager and without her we will not be able to continue. We have been so busy with building the garden and creating the educational materials and programs that we have not identified funders that will help us keep the ball rolling. Program  Value   A quote from a student tells it all! The student exclaimed “I believe Garden Day is one of the most important uses of our time in BioE, and this recent adventure explained why. Our use of teamwork—for example, when my group was planting, we all had different duties—one of us was writing the names of the plant (Missouri Evening Primrose) while the two other members sprinkled the seeds into the six packs of dirt. This not only taught teamwork, but also gives us real-life skills in gardening and making dirt. In another garden activity we cleaned discarded irrigation tape, which made me reflect on how Photo by Karen Temple-Beamish something seemingly ugly and useless can still be transformed into a work of art like the baskets we will make with the tape. I think Garden Day is one of the most important elements in our course study, as it reinforces what we learn inside the classroom and make it applicable in the real world.” 46 Project  Links   gettingthepicture.info http://www.thedotgarden.org/ https://www.facebook.com/TheDesertOasisTeachingGarden https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiNI6INAytE Keywords   Sector Keywords: University – Community Organizations – K-12 Schools – After-School Programs Approach Keywords: Science Dimension – Youth Investment/Empowerment – Intergenerational – Super Teacher / Teacher / Leader – Building Community Networks – Gardening A bee hotel at the DOT Garden Photo by Karen Temple-Beamish Photo by Karen Temple-Beamish 47 Climate  Change  and  Food  Systems:   that focus on butterflies, environmental education, horticulture, Building  Community  Networks  and   and botany. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Natural Resources from The Ohio State University in 2011. She Capacity   majored in Parks, Recreation & Tourism and her studies CCC  Fellow  –  Nicole  Jackson     focused on Environmental Education and Interpretation, which allowed her to learn more about topics such as environmental Background   stewardship, environmental literacy, and capacity building. After Nicole is an environmental educator and worked during the college, Nicole was determined to find more opportunities CCC Fellowship as an Educator and Camp Coordinator at relating to connecting her community to nature and the Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. Her duties environment. included creating, planning, and implementing garden adult education and school programs for grades pre K-12. She also Since 2012, Nicole has taken a few non-credit online courses managed high school interns and coordinated summer camps through Cornell University’s Civic Ecology Lab. Some of the topics included Urban Environmental Education, Environmental Education in faith-based communities, and capacity building. Some of her other endeavors included creating a bird conservation action plan as a youth fellow through TogetherGreen, participating in the 2013 Natural Leaders Legacy Camp of the Children & Nature Network, and receiving a scholarship to attend the 2013 North American Association of Environmental Education conference in Baltimore, Maryland. These opportunities were made available to her because of her great networking skills. Connecting people to each other and the environment has always been a passion of Nicole’s and she wants to continue helping others in her community become better environmental stewards. In 2013, Nicole was selected to be a fellow for the Outdoor Afro Leadership Team. The mission of Outdoor Afro is to get more people of color connected to the outdoors and nature. Fifteen members were selected from major cities across the U.S., including Ohio, which has been chosen for the first time since the team was created in 2009. Nicole’s hobbies include birding, hiking, and leading informal environmental education programs. 48 Participating  Together   concerning information will continue to hinder families Being a part of this fellowship has helped me in so many ways. l financially. learned so much about what I can do as an individual and what more can be done as a group when doing this work. Since receiving the training for my community project, attending the My action plan consists of putting on a community forum to get conference in Ottawa, Canada showed me what could be feedback from residents, urban farmers, and community leaders accomplished on a community and national level. Conferences regarding their thoughts and concerns about climate change can be very exhausting, but I find my inspiration not from the and how it's affecting food access. From the feedback, my team lectures or presentations, but from the individual conversations I and I will develop a list of climate change adaptation strategies have after a session or workshop. I think that's where the magic for urban agriculture to present to local government officials and happens! Fellows likes Jennifer, Trevor, and Karen have done policy makers. great work with their projects and those stood out to me because of their hard work, enthusiastic spirits, caring hearts I will then create and implement monthly community activities and relationship building skills. Climate change education can and workshops to show how reducing food waste could ease be very challenging especially when others don't see the bigger the effects of climate change in urban environments. Topics picture of how the world is being affected on a local level. This covered include climate change, food production, food waste, topic can be very overwhelming, but the important thing I think and the food transportation system (i.e. harvesting, distribution, as an environmental educator is to remember to take care of packaging, etc.) With this program, I hope to teach my yourself and connect with people who are willing to fight the community about the importance of resilient cities, sustainable good fight with you. As long as you have a good support system communities, and learning how to reduce food waste in the you can accomplish so much more than if you were to do it home. alone. It only takes a few to put things into view. Project  Link   The  Project     http://www.fpconservatory.org/   My project is focused on climate change and food systems. In 2010, around one-third of the food produced in the United Keywords   States was not consumed, and ended up being thrown away. Food waste is the main source of garbage in landfills and Sector Keywords: Green Spaces – Urban Gardens – producing the food we throw away generates more greenhouse Nonformal Education gases than most entire countries do. In addition, the impact of Approach Keywords: Public Education Campaigns – Building climate change on food production can already be seen, and will Community Networks worsen as climate change progresses. First, slow-onset changes in mean temperature and precipitation patterns are putting downward pressure on average global yields. Added to this are crop losses resulting from more frequent and intense extreme weather events. With cities growing bigger and climate change affecting food access for many around the globe, this 49 Indigenous Approaches Theme Indigenous Approaches to Community Climate Change Education Community Climate Change Fellows - Elizabeth Pickett and Marna Hauk Community Approaches impacts. Additionally, indigenous knowledge and traditional Indigenous communities are leaders in organizing community- ecological knowledge provide practices, long-term based approaches to climate change. Elder traditions of adaptation insights, and observational science insight into community-based education and action respond effectively to the scale and scope of change and how to respond. emergent needs focusing on collective action and impact, an “Indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing are important approach due to the nature of climate change recognized as complex knowledge systems with an adaptive integrity of their own” that can serve “as a catalyst for educational renewal” (Kawagley & Barnhardt, 2006, p. 29). demonstrating and sustaining cultures and lifeways based on Challenging  Contexts   adaptive insight. Indigenous science insights are critical in the climate science arena. As some environmental educators have Indigenous peoples, lands, and resources face myriad climate noted, it is important to include and also not appropriate change impacts and vulnerabilities that threaten and undermine indigenous leadership and insight. It is important to understand ways of life that have persisted for centuries, and in many cases that indigenous worldviews and decolonizing approaches longer. This occurs on top of complex social and environmental appropriately unsettle Eurocentric planetary consciousness and histories that also challenge numerous indigenous populations. Western hierarchical, separation-oriented, individualistic- Traditional lifeways are reliant on seasonal cycles of anticipated construct, expeditionary, and acquisitive distortions and deep harvests and predictable water flows (Turner & Clifton, 2007). structures that have generated the current state of imbalance As climate change disrupts the intertwined plant signals for (Grande, 2015; Tuck & McKenzie, 2015, pp. 50-51). Land- harvest, disruptions in food webs ensue. As a climate justice based rather than place-based pedagogies can reflect this shift issue, many indigenous communities are disproportionately and inform educational approaches. Indigenous ways of affected by impacts of a changing climate relative to carbon knowing model systems of reciprocity important for community output. Historical relocation to marginal lands further endangers climate change responses (Kimmerer, 2014). communities. Already, sea level rise and changing precipitation patterns are causing displacements. This is particularly difficult  Education  Approaches   for the sensitive entwinements of place, culture, and ecology Integrating and leading with strategies that are rich with local that are the hallmark of many indigenous systems. content and planned in collaboration with local people offers a Indigenous  Science,  Adaptation,  and  Leadership   time-tested, grounded, sustainable, and collective way forward. Environmental educators can play an important intermediary Indigenous knowledge, science, and lifeways can lead the way among youth, communities, and decision-makers by developing in practices for a post-carbon future. Indigenous peoples are curricula, experiences, signage, talking points, and materials experts across several scales of climate change disruptions that lead with and integrate indigenous experience, (Kimmerer, 2014). Oral history traditions spanning thousands of perspectives, and voices. years can offer strategies for adaptation and transformation (Turner & Clifton, 2007). “Indigenous people have lived through The indigenous dimension of community climate change environmental collapse on local and regional levels since the included CCC Fellow projects in community organizing in beginning of colonialism” (Simpson, 2013). Further, indigenous climate change education and action for the Mi’kmaq. They peoples in their diverse local settings have implemented touched on how elder storytellers can carry insights and extensive adaptation and mitigation strategies to past climate experiences across different communities. Working with variability and other environmental change and challenges, indigenous youth in nature-immersive experiential education some beyond the current predicted models of change (Turner & using STEAM (arts and science integration) prove effective Clifton, 2007). Indigenous knowledge has extensive and vital community climate change education strategies, too. Insights application opportunities for local to global efforts working to about culturally relevant climate change education strategies prepare for and reduce climate change impacts. are critical to the success of indigenous climate change and climate justice projects. Tribes and indigenous groups in many places are leaders in halting climate denial and carbon damage practices while 51 Related  Content   • Maynard, Nancy C. (Ed). Final Report Native People- Stories Native Homelands Workshop on Climate Change U.S. • CCEd in Aboriginal Communities Global Change Research Program, Albuquerque, New • Inuit Collaborations Mexico, 1998. Available online at • Malama Kai Youth Action http://www.usgcrp.gov/usgcrp/Library/nationalassessmen Vignettes t/native.pdf. • Culture Creation • Nyong, F. Adesina, B. Osman Elasha. The value of • Inspiration indigenous knowledge in climate change mitigation and • Mutual Learning adaptation strategies in the African Sahel. Mitig Adapt Storytelling Strat Glob Change (2007) 12:787–797• Articles • Simpson, Leanne. (2013, March 5). Dancing the world Surfacing Unheard Voices into being: A Conversation with Idle No More’s Leanne• Simpson. Interview conducted by Naomi Klein. Retrieved Resources   from http://www.yesmagazine.org/peace-justice/dancing- • North of 60 Project, a Video Tapesty of Climate Change the-world-into-being-a-conversation-with-idle-no-more- Stories - http://n60.co/ leanne-simpson • Arctic Climate Impact Assessment. Cambridge University • Tuck, Eve, & McKenzie, Marcia. Place in research: Press, 2005. Available online at http://amap.no/acia/. Theory, methodology, and methods. New York, NY: • Barnhardt & Kawagley, 2005, Alaska - Routledge. http://www.dinecollege.edu/cdte/docs/Barnhardt- • Turner, Nancy, & Clifton, Helen. (2007), Ethnoecology Kawagley.pdf and Climate Change. Retrieved from Research Gate • Grande, Sandy. (2015). Red pedagogy: Native American http://tinyurl.com/jz5yvf2 social and political thought. Rowman & Littlefield. • Indigenous Peoples’ Forum on Climate Change: • Henriksen, John B. Report on Indigenous and Local http://iipfcc.org Communities highly vulnerable to Climate Change inter • Indigenous Peoples’ Biocultural Climate Change alia of the Arctic, Small Island States and High Altitudes, Assessment Initiative: http://ipcca.info with a focus on causes and solutions. Convention on • International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs: Biological Diversity, 2007. UN Document symbol: http://iwgia.org UNEP/CDB/WG8J/5/INF/. • UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues: • Kimmerer, Robin Wall. (2014). The role of traditional http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/ ecological knowledge creating solutions for climate • United Nations Environment Programme: change. Address to the Center for Aboriginal Initiatives. http://www.unep.org/ Retrieved from http://indigenousstudies.utoronto.ca/news/watch-robin- wall-kimmerers-talk-on-climate-change-indigenous- knowledge/ 52 Collaborating  with  Inuit  Peoples  on   Climate  Change  Impacts  and   Environmental  Education   CCC  Fellow  –  Carlos  Velaszquez   Background   Carlos Velazquez, an Otomi Indian, is a retired Mechanical Engineer, recipient of the Environmental Educators of North Carolina Outstanding Partnership Award, Environmental Educator of the Year from Wake County, NC, and winner of the NAAEE 2011 Rosa Parks and Grace Lee Boggs Environment Award. He is the former director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs of the Southern Cherokee Nation. Mr. Velazquez has worked with environmental groups in Alaska and Canada, and in China as a project engineer, where Territory of Nunavut, Mr. Velazquez was invited to learn about he met with the Chinese Environmental Department. Mr. the lives and environmental conditions of the Inuit people, Velazquez was sharing some of the work being done by U.S. state, federal, and the first environmental agencies to protect the environment. Carlos is westerner to currently in correspondence with members of the Sustainable give a talk on Development Department in the Nunavut Territory. Currently, Preserving the Carlos works with the North Carolina Environmental Educators Environment (EENC), the Center for Human-Earth Restoration (CHER), and and the Ways the Raleigh Parks Recreational and Cultural Resources. Many of China's of his lectures are listed on Google under Carlos Velazquez Minorities, at Inuit. Dalian University, in Keywords   mainland Sector Keywords: Community Organizations – Climate China. Change Impacts Approach Keywords: Indigenous Dimension – Project   Building Community Networks While living for months in the newly formed Canadian 53 Culturally  Responsive  Climate  Change   knowledge and science that foster (re)connection with culture Education:  Organizing  and  Supporting   and our environment. She is currently Education and Outreach Coordinator with the Mi’kmaq Environmental Learning Centre in Aboriginal  Communities   Eskasoni First Nation. She develops programs and resources CCC  Fellow  –  Nadine  Lefort   that share and promote Mi’kmaq traditional knowledge on environmental sustainability. She sits on the board of the Background   Canadian Network for Environmental Education and Nadine grew up skipping stones, climbing trees, and playing in Communication, as well as a local environmental organization. lighthouses on Cape Breton Island in eastern Canada. She She spends her free time with her family on hiking trails, on didn’t realize it at the time, but that strong relationship with beaches, and playing in their backyard. nature would strongly influence her life. She studied ecology and environmental education, with a focus on ways to foster The  Project     relationships with nature through deep ecology practices. She spent several years managing a province-wide Environmental It is important for everyone to understand climate and people's Education Program in British Columbia. She has worked with role within it, however, climate change education is not always First Nations communities across Canada to develop culturally accessible for Aboriginal learners, even though Aboriginal relevant learning tools that integrate traditional ecological communities are especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Climate change education is already established as an important community need, so the goal of this project was to help individuals in Mi’kmaq communities understand the science of climate change, how human activities influence climate, and how individuals can take culturally-relevant action to mitigate the damage of climate change and make their communities more resilient to changing climate. This project: • Consulted with Elders, youth, educators, science experts, and community organizations to determine relevant content and context of a climate change education project. • Developed a climate change curriculum package based on existing activities and lesson plans, integrating local traditional knowledge and examples of climate change issues and actions. • Developed a workshop on climate change for community organizations to better understand climate change and to commit to hands-on climate change action. 54 • Followed up with schools and community organizations to support climate change actions in the community. By early 2016, the project completed a curriculum package with activities and lesson plans, which was made available to teachers in Mi’kmaq schools (through Mi’kmaw Kinamatnewey), and schools in the Cape Breton Victoria and Straight Regional School Boards, as well as three completed community workshops engaging local organizations and businesses in climate change education and action. Throughout this project, we saw more citizens engaged in environmental action in their communities through individual, organization, and local government changes to reduce ecological footprints and become more resilient to climate change. We saw Mi’kmaq communities become regional leaders in community climate change action. Project  Link   http://www.melcentre.ca/ Please visit our sister organization, the Unama'ki Institute of Natural Resources. Keywords   Sector Keywords: Aboriginal Communities – Climate Change Impacts – Public School Curricular Design – Community Workshops – Indigenous Science – Culturally Responsive Environmental Education – Environmental Sustainability Approach Keywords: Indigenous Dimension – Building Community Networks – Public Education Campaigns – Natural Resource Management 55 Marine Climate Change Theme Climate Change and the Marine Environment Community Climate Change Fellow - Adam Ratner From the air we breathe to the food we eat, regardless of Effects of climate change on marine environments where we live, we are all connected to the ocean. By Climate change is altering the marine environment in recognizing the connection between human practices and various ways. Due to water's higher heat capacity than air, their impacts on marine life and habitats, we can do a approximately 90% of the excess atmospheric heat better job of leaving the oceans in good shape for the next associated with greenhouse gas emissions since 1970 has generation. been absorbed by the ocean (Glecker et al., 2016). This rise in ocean temperatures can have dramatic impact on animal migrations and prey distribution, shifts in suitable habitat for specific animals, and sea level rise taking away beach habitat for various marine life. In addition to changes in temperature, the oceans ability to take in excess carbon dioxide is causing an increase in the acidity of the ocean, hindering the growth and life expectancy of numerous marine creatures. Climate  change  education  opportunities Given our interconnectedness to the ocean, we are provided with an opportunity to engage our communities around climate change using a topic that has a great degree of relevance to our audiences. Similar to nature immersion and other approaches, working with audiences around the marine environment provides opportunities to connect with nature, but also showcase a visible change over time due to the effects of climate change. How do we capture this passion and attention for the marine environment and motivate behavior change around actions people can take to reduce their carbon footprint? What opportunities already exist around the country? Related  Content   Stories • Experiential Marine Science • Malama Kai Youth Action • Marine Mammal Volunteers Resources   • Glecker, P.J, et. al. (2016, Jan.). Industrial-era global ocean heat uptake doubles in recent decades. Nature Climate Change. Photo by Elizabeth Pickett 57 Many human actions are threatening marine environments by Experiential  Marine  Science  and   changing the abiotic factors that sustain marine ecosystems. Climate  Change  Education   The MERITO Foundation focuses on addressing Urban Runoff, CCC  Fellow  –  Rocío  Lozano-­‐Knowlton   Unsustainable Fishing practices, Marine Debris, Climate Change and Ocean acidification. Through our CCC Project titled 'Energy Efficiency to Mitigate Climate Change and Ocean Background   Acidification' (aka EECCOA), we have been able to empower Rocío Lozano-Knowlton is the Director of the MERITO teachers and their students to mitigate the two unprecedented Foundation (www.meritofoundation.org), a not for profit environmental issues of our time; Climate Change and Ocean organization dedicated to protect the ocean by facilitating Acidification. This is due to the excessive human produced education, conservation and citizen science opportunities to carbon dioxide being trapped in our atmosphere that is multicultural youth and communities. The organization also changing not only our global climate but also the chemistry of strives to motivate diverse youth to pursue STEM careers that our oceans! relate to the ocean or the environment. Rocío has a B. Sc. in Oceanography from UABC in Mexico, and a M. Sc. in Marine Resource Protection from Herriot Watt University in Scotland. Prior to co-founding the MERITO Foundation in 2014, Rocío worked for NOAA Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary as the MERITO Program Coordinator for ten years providing bilingual (English/Spanish) ocean conservation education and outreach services to over 8,000 culturally diverse and economically unprivileged students. Rocio’s co-developed the MERITO Academy Curriculum; has coordinated and led hundreds of island, coastal and watershed field experiences for students, trained over 250 teachers on Earth and ocean science during professional development workshops; has raised over a million dollars for environmental education programs’ by landing critical federal grants and eliciting in-kind contributions. Rocío currently also works as the liaison and coordinator for NOAA International Marine Protected Areas Capacity Building Program in South Korea. Prior to living in California, Rocío worked for Photo by Azucena Yzquierdo conservation organizations in Baja, Mexico while she co-owned and directed Baja Quest, an ecotourism and SCUBA diving Project  Description   business from 1996-2004. Rocío is an outdoor enthusiast who EECCOA is a project-based science education program of the loves to travel, SCUBA dive, see the world, and with her family MERITO Foundation that provides energy, climate and ocean strives to live in an environmentally sustainable manner. literacy services and products to 8th – 12th grade teachers and their students in Ventura or Santa Barbara Counties. EECCOA 58 empowers students to address climate change and ocean 3) Meaningful Field Experiences for Students. The participating acidification by providing them the tools to research, design and schools are receiving sponsorship for students bus innovate Energy Efficiency or other sustainability models their transportation and instruction by MERITO Foundation staff for schools can adopt, or develop Ocean Acidification (OA) EECCOA field experiences during which students implement awareness campaigns that inform their communities. Rocío hands-on activities related to sustainability, watershed Lozano-Knowlton came up with the idea after noticing that after education, and ocean acidification. many years of offering and providing free of cost earth and ocean science curriculum, experiences in nature and 4) EECCOA Students’ Challenge. Students interested have incorporating conservation topics to thousands of students at entered a project-based challenge in teams of three to six more than 25 schools, hardly any changes in the infrastructure, students to develop proposals to reduce the carbon footprint of waste, and water management within many of the schools had their school and mitigate climate change, ocean acidification, occurred. The carbon footprint was the same or larger in most reduce the cost of utilities, and make their school a healthier schools. Rocío hopes that if there are new ways to address the place. Projects have to be specific, measurable, attainable, and use of energy, water, and management of waste, and that if the realistic. There are four tiers of projects from which teams of new behaviors are proposed by the students, students will take students can choose: ownership of them, parents will cherish them, and administrators will more likely adopt them. 4.1) Design and propose a method to reduce their school’s energy use and utilities’ costs, Services  and  Products  Developed  and  Providing   4.2) Design and propose a method to reduce the potable 1) The EECCOA Activity Guide: A compilation of 20 lesson water use of their school campus, plans that illustrate energy, climate and ocean literacy and 4.3) Design and propose a method to increase recycling address Climate Change and Ocean Acidification aligned to and reduce waste production at the school site, or academic standards and over 50 supporting online resources 4.4) Design of an effective community outreach project to with hands-on activities, experiments and supporting information increase public awareness regarding Ocean Acidification for students to develop their EECCOA project proposals for their that increases the understanding of the issue in the schools to reduce their carbon footprints while implementing the community (town) where they live and promote specific 3 dimensions of the Next Generation of Science Standards. individual actions that can collectively mitigate the issue. 2) EECCOA Professional Development Workshops (EECCOA- Students authors of the top 12 projects for each category PD); The eight participating teachers of the 2015-2016 school receive prizes that range from SCUBA certification courses; year have received printed and digital copies of the EECCOA sponsorship of field-studies, cash or other equivalent to the Activity guide; training on the lesson plans, lectures from expert discretion of educators and their school districts. scientists and supporting materials during the EECCOA PD Workshops of Nov. 13, 2015, and Feb. 4-5, 2016. 5) EECCOA Students’ Summit: A judging panel composed of engineers, environmentalists, scientists, educators and sustainability experts will review all 59 projects, select best five of each of the eight participating Project  Outcomes   schools. On June 2016, the best five teams of each participating The highlights so far are, firstly, the Nov 13, 2016 and Feb. 4-5, school will present their projects to a wider audience that will 2016 Professional Development Workshops. They went include peers, family members, city council members, school fantastic! board members, school administrators and the media. A keynote speaker will kick off the event. Best three in each project category will receive prizes, and we hope schools will Secondly, presenting at all eight schools, three to five adopt their proposals. presentations per day using NOAA Magic Planet, a 3-D display to demonstrate atmospheric and ocean processes. I co- developed a script with my intern, Azcena Yzquierdo who is 6) Other Incentives: about to finish B. Sc. in applied physics. We enjoyed taking the The educators who participated in the workshops are teaching $36K gadget to each school and seeing the face of awe of the and testing the lesson plans. They mentor their students on their students when we show El Niño effect, lights at night, CO2 projects and will receive stipends. concentrations, ocean currents, etc. Involvement  and  Partnerships   Thirdly, my intern. The best ever. She is perhaps the best The lead organization of the project is the MERITO Foundation person I have worked with in years. She is so interested, directed by Rocío Lozano-Knowlton working with 8 science committed, intelligent and honest. I am very proud of her. teachers from 8 schools, of 5 school districts in five cities among two counties. The teachers combined are teaching the EECCOA activity guide and involving in the EECCOA Challenge Other  Developments   (students' projects) to 700 7th-12th grade students. The adoption of curricular lesson plans by teachers at public schools that address climate change from an Earth system approach that is practical, that meets all academic standards Rocío is leading the effort with support from an array of the teachers are required to teach, but also provide students consultants and partners, including CCC Fellow Laura Mack, as with the how to make a difference every day. Each year, each the projects' Sustainability Specialist; two curriculum teacher will teach these lessons to an average of 150 students developers, one intern, one external evaluator, one volunteer, per year. and our board of directors. The pride of students experienced by students as they are The EECCOA 2015-2016 is being sponsored by NOAAB-WET, developing solutions that are specific, measurable, attainable EPA, and NAAEE. The teachers time is sponsored by the and realistic, and the opportunity to shine and get some cash. school districts. Important in kind contributors include NOAA The EECCOA Challenge may open window of career Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, NOAA Weather opportunities to students, aside from changing individual Service, Ph. D. Gretchen Hoffman Lab for OA, UCSB, Jean behaviors. Michael's Cousteau Ocean Futures Society, and NOAA Climate Office. The feasibility and momentum created by scientifically sound proposals made by students to reduce their school's carbon 60 footprint. School administrators may feel pressured to change For example, the labor/time to plan, search, select, adapt, and some things at their school, and once they see the advantages, align 20 lesson plans was a very intense and time consuming they can continue to improve reducing the schools energy or task. Sadly also as a project lead to be the soldier reminding water use. Presently, on average, one high school spends and guiding all participants and sub-vendors and consultants to $30,000 in electricity per month. The average cost per Kilowatt do their tasks honestly and honorably, it is not fun. is $10/hr, which is 3000Kw/hr x 8-9 hours/day x 200 days per year. That is huge! I do it because I understand ocean-atmosphere interactions, and what causes climate change, and how can be mitigated, but I have not completed all tasks in the yearlong project. Therefore, many people either don't really understand it, and most think is I may still need to face the biggest lesson learned. I hope not. overwhelming and too late to do anything about it. Through this For now, the labor hours required for this project were project, me and my partners can help teachers be better tooled dramatically underestimated for the Project Manager. I have to academically teach Climate literacy to potentially thousands worked many more hours than I am compensated for of students, how CC happens, and they can help students unfortunately. visualize how can we stop it now, in a tangible and collective manner. Students will own their project ideas, and therefore will follow them with more fidelity than if imposed. Administrators will hopefully see that many schools across USA are doing it, and they need to follow. For me as an individual, I want to see I influenced changes that are making a difference in my lifetime, for my personal satisfaction and for the safety of my children who will suffer otherwise the consequences of several very irresponsible generations. EECCOA  Web  Resources   Carbon  Calculators   • Inquiry to Student Environmental Action (I2SEA) Project of University of Gothenburg (Sweden) and Stanford University (USA) promotes international collaboration among secondary school and university students as they learn about, discuss, and envision solutions to shared environmental challenges. They offer the following free, interactive digital learning tools relating to marine and environmental sciences • Our Carbon Footprint Calculator engages students to explore how much carbon dioxide is produced in their daily Photo by Azucena Yzquierdo lives, focusing in particular on things that students can 61 control. The calculator, calibrated for every country around Atmospheric  Circulation   the world as well as US state and Canadian province, https://climate.ncsu.edu/edu/k12/.atmosphere_circulation provides direct feedback on the impact of personal choices http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/OceanClimate/ocean and is extensively documented making it a truly scientific -atmos_chem.php classroom tool. https://www.learner.org/courses/envsci/unit/text.php?unit=28sec • The International Student Carbon Footprint Challenge. After Num=6 students measure their individual carbon footprints, teachers Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye45DGkqUkE submit class data that we post on the ISCFC world map. Students then join several parallel online discussions using a familiar post and comment micro-blog format, thinking What  we  know  now  about  Climate  Change?   through their emissions with their peers around the world, http://whatweknow.aaas.org/ and envisioning personal and societal solutions to decrease http://www.climatechange.gc.ca/default.asp?lang=en&n=20A20 them. 1A3-1   Other  Carbon  Calculators   Videos     http://www.nature.org/greenliving/carboncalculator/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95TtXYjOEv4 http://www3.epa.gov/carbon-footprint-calculator/ (simple and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dC_2WXyORGA provides one with pie charts at the end) http://coolclimate.berkeley.edu/calculator Carbon  cycle   http://www.visionlearning.com/en/library/Earth-Science/6/The- Samples  for  Students’  Action  Projects   Carbon-Cycle/95 • # Earth to Paris campaign: videos, photos due Nov 22: http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/research/themes/carbon/ http://www.earthtoparis.org/ Carbon Simulator • NOAA Climate Stewards Education Project: project support https://www.learner.org/courses/envsci/interactives/carbon/ apps due Nov 22: http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/climate-stewards/ Ocean  Literacy   • Using media to raise awareness of Ocean Acidification: Ocean Circulation http://action3630.com/action-research-fires-up-teens- https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_currents/welco tackling-ocean-acidification/ me.html https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/oceanog Climate  Literacy   raphy/ocean-current.html CLEAN (Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network): A collection of 600+ free and ready to use on line resources Great  Conveyer  Belt  Videos   reviewed by educators and scientists (project funded by NSF) - https://education.nationalgeographic.com/media/ocean- → http://cleanet.org/index.html currents-and-climate/ *Recommend this video as it uses a roller coaster analogy 62 Simulators  Experiments   • California Green Schools Initiative → http://greenschools.net • http://www.inquiryinaction.org/classroomactivities/activity.ph Similar to above but not as extensive but specific to p?id=39 California and endorsed by CDE Can be modified by “fresh water” and food colored blue “salt • Grades of Green: An NGO that provides free on-line water” instead of syrup and oil to helps students visualize resources for teachers and students to green their schools in density in action. Southern California - www.gradesofgreen.org https://www.beloit.edu/sepm/Water_Works/density_currents. html Project  Links   • Our Acidifying Ocean virtual laboratory: Students learn about http://www.meritofoundation.org/services/eeccoa/ the causes and consequences of ocean acidification and https://www.facebook.com/MERITOFoundation conduct an experiment to test the impact of a decrease in pH on the development of sea urchin larvae. • Virtual Marine Scientist is a second virtual laboratory where Keywords   the students play the role of a Ph.D student studying the Sector Keywords: Community Organizations – K-12 Schools impact of climate change and ocean acidification on Approach Keywords: Science Dimension – Youth Investment/ mussels’ population. They develop their own hypothesis to Empowerment – Culture Creation – Environmental Justice – test experimentally, apply for funding and design their own Train the Trainer – Building Community Networks, Marine – experiment that tests their hypothesis in our virtual wet lab. Watersheds – Resource Management – Green schools – • The “Ocean Acidification: So What?” interactive talk allows Climate literacy students to communicate asynchronously with Dr. Sam Dupont, our project co-Director and ocean acidification scientist. This presentation starts where Our Acidifying Ocean ends; he guides the students to place the results from the virtual lab in a global context, exploring the biological and societal implications. Each class receives a private copy of the presentation that they can watch at their own pace and ask questions for the scientist. https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-acidification Greening  Schools   • Green School Alliance, the largest NGO that connects schools with resources such as carbon and environmental calculators, environmental lesson plans, ideas for teachers on how to start green (or Blue-Green ☺) Clubs, collaborate with other schools around the globe, and empower students Understanding Ocean Acidification at Hoffman's Lab. and their teachers to green their schools → Photo by Azucena Yzquierdo www.greenschoolalliance.org 63 Incorporating  Climate  Change  into   Project  Description   Education  Training  at  The  Marine   The Climate Change Education Initiative at The Marine Mammal Center brings climate change into the conversation. Utilizing the Mammal  Center   sick and injured marine mammal patients at the hospital as a CCC  Fellow  –  Adam  Ratner   vehicle to communicate, the Center can engage guests around the science of climate change, the effects it is having on Background   animals, ecosystems and people, and what people can do in Adam Ratner is the Guest Experience Manager at The Marine their own lives and communities to help curb carbon pollution. Mammal Center, the world's largest marine mammal hospital and education facility. The Center is responsible for rescuing, rehabilitating and releasing an average of 600-800 sick and So often with climate change, the effects communicated today injured seals and sea lions each year. At the same time, it are abstract and foreign to the everyday member of the public. provides over 100,000 visitors a year the opportunity to visit the By highlighting marine mammals suffering direct consequences hospital and see the patients and their care, as well as how they of changes in their ocean environment (and Californian's can help keep marine mammals and the oceans safe. Adam “backyard”), the Center can bring climate change to the forefront oversees the visitor and education operations, including training of the conversation and connect the community to the ocean and managing 130 education volunteers, and managing tours, ecosystem. The Center was able to secure grant funding for the classroom programming, and exhibits. Within the education project through the generous support of the California Coastal programs, three sustainability initiatives are consistently Commission Whale Tail program in March 2015 to begin and highlighted and emphasized: climate change, ocean trash, and grow this initiative. sustainable seafood. Partnering with local and national organizations, such as the Bay Area Climate Literacy Collaborative, the National Network of Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation (NNOCCI), the Monterey Bay Seafood Watch Program, and the Bay Area Sustainable Seafood Alliance, the Center leverages the great working happening in the San Francisco Bay Area and nationwide with people's love for marine mammals to help inspire environmental stewardship. Before the Marine Mammal Center, Adam utilized his marine biology and psychology background to study animal behavior in labs around the county, focusing on bird hearing and speech, and fish learning and memory (before deciding that he no longer liked birds because all they do is bite and talk back). Adam Ratner Presenting at a National Networks for Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation(NNOCCI) workshop 64 Through a system of training classes focusing on climate and social psychology allows us to build messages that are change science and communication, the Center introduces powerful and relatable, leading to stewardship in our hundreds of adult and youth education volunteers and staff each communities, while being consistent across numerous year to the science of climate change, providing them with tools organizations around the country. Leveraging The Marine for interpreting the science to audiences of all ages, and Mammal Center as an NAAEE partner, the training classes techniques to guide guests to identify solution-based actions to enhance the ability of front line staff, volunteers, and community reduce their carbon footprint and become better environmental leaders to communicate about climate change effectively to the stewards. The “train the trainers” program allows the Center to guests of the Center, and at other environmental organizations reach tens of thousands of people each year and is easily in the Bay area and beyond. The training offerings address replicable by other organizations, using the tools created from numerous critical areas, such as opportunities for the this program. This project builds upon the system of the community to participate in continuing education on ocean National Network of Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation health and climate change; giving dedicated, environmentally- (NNOCCI) which provides staff and volunteers at zoos and focused individuals in the community the tools to become aquariums around the country with climate change science successful non-formal educators, creating informed citizens, direct from the climate scientists and scientifically-tested and fostering an appreciation for volunteerism and community communication strategies from social psychologists to guide involvement. visitors toward strategies to reduce their fossil fuel use. Bringing together experts from different fields of science, communication, Through the project, in addition to the conversations had at the Center, the Center wanted to have a digital presence and create tools that can be used by the community. One of the most exciting elements of the initiative was the development of a climate change animated short, in collaboration with the California College of the Arts and Bret Parker of Pixar Animation Studios. Utilizing animation students, under the direction of Bret Parker, the animated short highlights the science of climate change and effects on marine mammals in a way that can be engaging for both kids and adults. The video will be launched in April 2016, along with new Online web content, and is available at: Climate Change at The Marine Mammal Center. Helpful  Resources  and  Community  Partners   The project includes numerous community partners. First and foremost is The Marine Mammal Center, which provides the facility and volunteer corps to engage the community around the topic of climate change. The Marine Mammal Center is a non- The Marine Mammal Center is the World’s largest marine mammal hospital and education facility © David Wakely profit and receives over 80% of its funding from private donations, and depends on rich engaging stories of our marine 65 mammal patients and conservation work to raise funds for our aquariums and nature centers with social psychologists at work. This particular climate change project was aided with Frameworks Institutes and climate scientists at Woods Hole support of a grant from the California Coastal Commission's Oceanographic Institute to craft messaging that can lead to Whale Tail Program in March 2015 to cover the expenses productive, creative and solution-focused discourse around related to staff time and development of an animated video that climate change. Frameworks Institute has developed numerous would serve as a resource for trainings, community metaphors and a strategic framing model for communicating presentations and online. climate change that has been scientifically tested and shown to be effective. Outside of the initial trainings and communication, The animated video component was built upon a previous the network of alumni around the country has and continues to partnership with the California College of the Arts. In 2013, provide both an emotional and cognitive partner and Adam had the opportunity to sit down and talk with an animation collaborator on climate change initiatives.   professor about the role of animation in education and it became quickly apparent that the professors in the Animation Department want real-life experiences for their students in animation, in part for the experience itself, but also to highlight the various career fields within animation outside of Hollywood. This became a win-win for both The Marine Mammal Center and the California College of the Arts as the college created a course that those students could take and create an animated short to be used for The Marine Mammal Center. The first video, Domoic Acid Attack, provided a visual representation of harmful algae responsible for hundreds of sick California sea lions. The toxin, which accumulates up the food chain and causes neurological damage, had been a tough concept to communicate, but through the use of animation was able to told through a story that is engaging and informative for all ages. Through the Climate Change Education Initiative, the Center wanted to do the same for climate change and again approached the California College of the Arts and they were excited to offer two more semesters of courses for their students based around this new animation. Lastly, much of the ability to communicate comfortably and Dr. Whizzlepuff and Assistant: Characters from an animated short related to climate change and marine mammals © The confidently around the science of climate change and the best Marine Mammal Center and California College of the Arts practices for communicating it came from partnerships with the National Network of Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation (NNOCCI). NNOCCI has brought together over 100 zoos, 66 Project  Successes  and  Best  Practices   climate change, the Bay Area Climate Literacy Collaborative. Over the course of the one year grant, The Marine Mammal The collaborative continues to grow and now includes over 30 center included climate training and messaging into numerous environmental education organizations working on providing programs and resources for our volunteers, visitors to the climate trainings to a wide range of educators across the Bay Center, and visitors to our website. In total, 395 people Area, connecting educators with the local impacts and science participated in a climate change lecture or training hosted by the of climate change and piloting joint sustainability projects. This Center. We believe an additional 17,980 visitors were engaged continues to expand the reach of The Marine Mammal Center’s in climate change science by one of our trained education staff work and provide pathways for visitors to those organizations to members or volunteers. An additional 916 members of the build on their climate knowledge, and ensure consistency of public participated in family-friendly programming highlighting messaging related to climate science, impacts, and solutions. climate change at The Marine Mammal Center. Lessons  Learned   Throughout the project, we also conducted pre and post One of the biggest barriers originally was having our volunteers questionnaires on training participants to gain a better sense of and staff members feel comfortable with communicating climate the program’s effectiveness on changing knowledge, attitudes change and the perceived fear of climate denial or the public’s and behaviors related to climate change. Using a 20 question disinterest in climate change. This was eventually tackled in two survey before the training or lecture began, and then the same ways. The first was utilizing studies of the zoo and aquarium survey two months following the session, we were able to field by the Ocean Project and Association of Zoos and identify significant increases in numerous areas for past training Aquariums that identified that 70% of visitors to zoos and participants. Results revealed that all participants increased the aquariums viewed climate change as the most important percent of correct answers on the climate change knowledge environmental issue in the world, and 75% of visitors believed section of the questionnaire following the survey (average of that zoos and aquariums should make recommendations for 36% on the pre-questionnaire versus 70% on the post- how the public can protect the environment. By showcasing questionnaire). Participants also ranked their understanding of there is a want from the audience (maybe not explicitly at times, climate change and its effects on the environment and marine but when asked), this helped our staff and volunteers feel more organisms 23% higher on the post-questionnaire than the pre- comfortable incorporating it into their conversations and not feel questionnaire. Behavior change was more difficult to measure, like they are forcing an unwanted topic of conversation. The and reliant on self-reporting, but in some behavior categories second was a series of resources, trainings and materials to (i.e. increases in carpooling, using solar energy, and help them feel comfortable with the key messages of climate composting), increases were observed between the pre and science and effects on marine mammals. This allowed our post surveys. volunteers and staff to feel like they didn’t need to be climate scientists or experts on all things climate science, but could The focus on climate change and communication with local and speak to the marine mammal patients at the hospital and risks national partners has also led to increased collaboration and they face. All of the volunteers and staff were also encouraged joint initiatives with other organizations. Shortly after the project to always feel comfortable not knowing the answers and to began, The Marine Mammal Center was approached to help provide a way to connect the guests with a more knowledgeable form a new San Francisco Bay Area collaborative focusing on staff (through either a radio that volunteers could use to reach 67 and Education Staff), or in some cases depending on the Additional  Climate  Change  Action  &  Education  Resources     question, contact information of one of the climate scientists in A major component of the work of the National Network of the NNOCCI program. Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation (and the backbone of the communication strategy used in this educational initiative) Value  to  the  Community   utilized the work of Frameworks Institute and their research into One of the biggest assets from this program has been the ability framing climate change messages. All of their resources are for a wide range of individuals to communicate climate change available online at: Frameworks Institute Guide to Climate science in a way that is understood, well received, and acted Change and the Ocean. upon by a wide range of audiences. By working with social psychologists on tested metaphors such as the Heat Trapping For those worried about climate denial, there is a wonderful Blanket and Rampant Versus Regular Carbon Dioxide, the online course available for free from the University of Center has been able to simplify the science and frame the Queensland called Making Sense of Climate Denial. It is self- information around common values to have a big impact. paced through YouTube videos and connects you directly with Through the train the trainer’s model, key center staff were able climate scientists from around the world. For more information, to share experiences and knowledge that can empower check out: Making Sense of Climate Denial. hundreds of volunteers and other staff to share climate change in their conversations, exponentially increasing the message’s reach. Given the large volunteer involvement, the Center also empowered hundreds of passionate individuals that outside of their roles at The Marine Mammal Center could share their new knowledge and skills with their friends, families and other community organizations they are involved in. Working with students at the California College of the Arts, not only did the Center develop an animated resource that is available to everyone (and wouldn't have been possible without the expertise and professional work of the Animation Department), but we also engaged a group that hadn't been previously engaged in the climate change conversation. The merging of arts and science has provided a new network to include in the climate discussion and also provided much needed tool to engage audiences of all ages around such a Climate Change: Characters from an animated short related to climate change and marine mammals © The Marine Mammal Center and complex problem. California College of the Arts 68 Project  Links   Keywords   Frameworks Institute Guide to Climate Change and Sector Keywords: Museum – Science or Nature Center – the Ocean: Community Organizations – Nonformal Education – Zoos/ http://www.frameworksinstitute.org/climate-change- Aquariums and-the- ocean.html Approach Keywords: Train the Trainer – Communication www.MarineMammalCenter.org Models – Creating a Model – Building Community Networks http://www.nnocci.org/ – Marine – Uses or Makes Film/Video/Media – Public Climate Change Animated Short Released April 2016: Education Campaigns https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBTy4JfJUQM Visitors to The Marine Mammal Center can see patients undergoing rehabilitation and learn how they can become environmental and ocean stewards © The Marine Mammal Center 69 Nature Immersion Theme Nature Immersion and Experience Community Climate Change Fellow - Elizabeth Pickett “What we have seen through these trainings is that by Nature Immersion immersing and connecting the participants to natural Nature immersion and meaningful outdoor experiences can environments, they become inspired. Inspired to tell other be simple yet powerful modalities for environmental people about their experiences, inspired to act in their education. Through time spent outside, students have the local communities, and inspired to work together for a opportunity to connect with the natural world through common cause.” (Prokosch & Rawlins, 2012) wonder, play, creativity, and investigation, allowing for personal outdoor experiences and memories to create a foundation for care and connection to nature. Numerous in- • Climate change topics are topics of reflection and school, extracurricular, and park-based programs utilize this discussion after students have had unstructured or semi- type of methodology to guide their students/participants toward structured time to play in and connect to nature. Once a environmental stewardship and scientific understanding, as well place-based understanding or appreciation is developed, as to allow them time to deeply connect to their surrounding students are often concerned and intrigued to learn about environs. Many view nature immersion as an essential yet how the environs they have come to know will be under-provided aspect of healthy child development, as prior to impacted (or already have changed) because of climate industrialization humans did the bulk of their learning in this change. manner. This type of learning capitalizes on the innate tendency • Students are supported to visit and compare healthy and for diverse students (ie. young children, adult nature park degraded areas to see, smell, and feel the difference visitors, etc.) to use all the senses to notice the natural world, among sites of varied degradation/health or providing “teachable moments” as winds blow and bees land on raw/developed for themselves. flowers. Experiencing the elements and processes of nature • Students are supported to track changes over time or to firsthand also invites students to learn through investigation, and think through and notice any pressure or challenging can provide a platform for teachers to integrate additional influence on the system they are observing. scientific, place-based, or cultural information into the outdoor experience. Nature immersion and outdoor experiential learning Nature immersion practitioners and providers often report that programs range from unstructured to more structured, students and park visitors who have had the opportunity to depending on the specific goals of the program. personally connect with nature more intuitively understand the levity of climate change impacts and are often willing to take Climate  Change  Education  Approaches  with  Nature   personal action. Immersion   Related  Content   The nature immersion approach to climate change education Stories rests on a foundation of care and connection students have • Bird Observatory Project developed toward their landscape, watershed, coast, etc. to • Dark Sky Festival inspire additional learning and action to steward or safeguard it. • Experiential Marine Science Climate change education can be a natural addition to nature immersion/experiential environmental education when • Malama Kai Youth Action opportunities are provided for the localized outdoor experience Resources   and understanding to scale up toward global changes, impacts, • Aldo Leopold Climate Science Center - and local-to-global solutions. http://aldoleopoldnaturecenter.org/climate-science- Climate change concepts are being integrated into the nature center/ immersion style of environmental education through numerous • Children and Nature Network. means. The opportunities for connecting nature immersion to http://www.childrenandnature.org/ climate science or action are as diverse as the types of • Dunlap, J., & Kellert, S. R. (2012). Companions in programs that utilize nature experiences in their teaching. Some wonder: Children and adults exploring nature together. methods include: Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 71 • Shulins, N. (2014, April 25). Fighting climate change through nature connectedness. Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/25/nature- connectedness-clim_n_5214761.html • Sobel, D. (1996). Beyond ecophobia. Reclaiming the heart in nature education. Great Barrington, MA: Orion Society. Photo by Elizabeth Pickett 72 Malama  Kai  Foundation  Youth   Project  Description   Programs  for  Community  Climate   Working for two nonprofit organizations in Hawai’i, I had been Change  Action   looking for two things: 1) a way to integrate the two types of work I do while also promoting greater climate change CCC  Fellow  –  Elizabeth  Pickett   awareness in our community, and 2) incorporate some new Background   aspects that felt missing in my busy life, like art and music. Elizabeth Pickett is the Executive Director of Hawai’i Wildfire Management Organization (HWMO), where she began working To achieve these two goals, I decided to coordinate a in 2008 after completing her graduate work at the Yale School community event at a local theater that would involve both of my of Forestry. Elizabeth works with HWMO staff and collaborators organizations (led by and starring the youth in my program) and to lead projects with the goal of increasing wildfire awareness invite other organizations and local artists to perform and and preparedness in Hawai’i. These include developing the first- present, as well. ever statewide fire history map and database, assessing wildfire hazards for every community in Hawai’i, working to develop and First I developed a new curriculum for the year for our implement community wildfire protection plans, co-developing afterschool program that braided our place-based, cultural, and the Pacific Fire Exchange, and implementing numerous fuels environmental topics together toward an understanding of reduction and outreach projects. Wildfire is a novel and climate change. Part of the students' experience was to do increasing issue in Hawai’i, due to invasive species, increased service learning projects for local organizations. Students then human access to fire prone areas, climate change, and drought. developed the program for the community event based on what they learned throughout the year, and invited the partner Elizabeth also works for Malama Kai Foundation, where she co- organizations to attend and present their work and provide the coordinates an after school public information as well as opportunities to get involved. One place-based, outdoor of the partner organizations was the other one that I work for. experiential, environmental education and substance Concurrently, I invited local artists to participate in the event and abuse prevention program explained that the theme was climate change causes, impacts, for middle school youth. The and local ways to get involved. Poets and artists agreed to program name is Ocean participate and created work based on the climate change and Warriors, and has expanded action themes. from one cohort per year at one school to five cohorts of We held the event in April 2015. The students led most of the students per year at two presentations in the first act and the invited local organizations schools on Hawai’i Island. presented about their related work in the second act. Perry and art was woven throughout the entire show. The local organizations also tabled at the theater before, during, and after 73 the show to provide informational resources and to enlist organizing the event. At the last minute I stepped in and pulled community volunteers in conservation, community garden, and the whole thing together because the students were nervous to land/ocean/watershed protection efforts. complete various components that they had previously signed up for. Helpful  Resources  and  Community  Partners   There was both personal and professional value in completing Value  to  the  Community   this project. Professionally, the project brought together There is tremendous value in bringing together local numerous organizations who work together often, but had never organizations to provide the community with a one stop shop before focused together on climate change as a collaborative opportunity to learn about volunteer opportunities. Adding on to issue. Personally, I was able to tie together my two jobs and my that information the motivation provided by students explaining love of art and music into one seamless focus, project, and the science and worldly value behind those efforts just seals the experience. deal in terms of catalyzing adult community member enthusiasm and interest. Successes  and  Best  Practices   We have learned that when youth lead an educational event in Project  Link   the community, adults listen. They are neutral messengers, and hawaiiwildfire.org the audience is inclined to listen and support them in ways that they wouldn't if the messenger were a scientist of adult. Keywords   Sector Keywords: Community Organizations – K-12 Schools Lessons  Learned   –After-School Programs – Nonformal Education I would have provided a bit more structure to the students as Approach Keywords: Science Dimension – Innovation and they developed the event, as they were great at remembering Social Innovation – Youth Investment/Empowerment – Nature and presenting the knowledge they had acquired about climate Experience or Immersion – Creating a Model – Resource change throughout the year, but needed more support in Management – Art-Making – Public Education Campaigns Photo by Elizabeth Pickett 74 Public Engagement Theme Public Engagement and Civic Action in Community Climate Change Community Climate Change Fellow - Marna Hauk “Given the severity of the problem of climate change, and Public engagement, civic action, and climate change. the time lag in the climate system that commits the world Solving the various problems associated with climate to significant changes in climate in the near future, many change requires more than the efforts of experts, acknowledge that the public has an important role to play scientists, and regulators; the solutions are dependent on in reducing emissions and adapting to impacts.” (Wolf, the actions of the individuals that collectively come 2011, p. 121) together in communities. As Moser (2006) notes, the very words ‘communication’ and ‘community’ share Latin derivation from the two roots “com” The first two types of behaviors are considered “public sphere”, meaning ‘together’ and “munia” meaning ‘public duties’. or civic actions, as contrasted with the latter two which are There is an abundance of examples all over the world of how private sphere actions, those an individual does in the course of communities worked together at a grassroots level to create their daily life. All four of these behaviors are important, and change. Certainly, most people can think of moments in history collectively have the potential to make significant impact in the when a few strong voices motivated many to become major areas of mitigation and resilience. movements; Gandhi, Tubman, Chavez, Carson are names that Environmental  education,  social  capital,  and  civic   might come to mind. These voices educated, they engagement   communicated. They motivated people to come together as activists for an issue or problem they wished to solve. Effective The work of environmental educators is to educate their solutions to climate change, just as any other problem facing audience about the natural world with the ultimate goal of humankind, require community engagement and civic action. moving their audience to positive environmental action. Environmental educators that are effective have social capital Whether through public events, community climate organizing in with their audience, meaning that their audience views the neighborhoods, coalitional work with peer organizations, or educator and/or the organization they represent as a meaningful public information and action campaigns, communities are rising and credible resource; these educators can use this social up to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build resilience to capital as a means to build civic engagement and action in their climate change impacts where they live, with their neighbors. communities, thus increasing the network of ‘social capitalists’ Environmental educators who are motivated to become agents working together for the common goal of climate change of change in their communities will find here some approaches mitigation and/or resilience. and models of public engagement that they can incorporate into Civic engagement activities may play important roles in their work. developing environmentally literate citizens; including students, How  do  we  publically  engage  for  climate  change  action?:   families, and adults. Through issue investigations, environmental education provides a unique vehicle with which to Environmental  behaviors   connect people to their community and their world. While Based on extensive literature, Stern (2000) identifies four types historically environmental education programs have sought to of environmentally significant behaviors: increase ties between people and places, often these programs 1. Environmental activism (e.g., taking part in a focus on environmental outcomes or building ‘natural capital’ as demonstration) opposed to ‘social capital’. Social capital emphasizes civic 2. Non-activist behaviors in the public sphere (e.g., signing engagement through collective action and may be represented a petition or joining an environmental organization) as a society’s ability to solve complex problems, such as 3. Private sphere environmentalism (i.e., the purchase, use, environmental problems. By seeking to increase civic and disposal of personal or household goods) engagement and sense of place through an interdisciplinary 4. Professional or organizational decision making (e.g., a approach, both formal and non-formal education communities designer chooses to use sustainable materials in her might also play an important role in increasing social capital. products; a banker invests only in ethical firms) 76 Related  Content   Vignettes Stories • Culture Creation • Bringing it Home Kentucky • Fundraising • CCEd in Aboriginal Communities • Networking • Climate Courage • Storytelling • Dark Sky Festival Articles • Digital Travel in Canada • About Co-Design • Faith in Place in Chicago • Open Space Technology • Global Kids Organizing • Surfacing Unheard Voices • LA Neighborhoods Resources   • Mass Audubon Initiatives • Caruana, Vincent. (2014). Civic action for sustainable • Open Lands CC Garden futures: what role for adult environmental education? • Women’s Ecosocial Incubator Dissertation, Faculty of Education, University of Malta. • Youth Co-Design https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar//handle/123456789/10 196 • Krasny, Marianne E., Leigh Kalbacker, Richard C. Stedman & Alex Russ, Environmental Education Research (2013): Measuring social capital among youth: applications in environmental education. Environmental Education Research, DOI:10.1080/13504622.2013.843647. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2013.843647 • Moser, Susanne. (2006). Communicating Climate Change - Motivating Civic Action:Opportunity for Democratic Renewal? Paper presented at the conference on “Climate Change Politics in North America,” Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, DC, May 18-19, 2006. www.wilsoncenter.org/ecsp • Stern, P. (2000). “Toward a coherent theory of environmentally significant behavior,” Journal of Social Issues, vol 56, pp 407-424. • Wolf, Johanna. “Ecological Citizenship as Public Engagement with Climate Change.” Engaging the Public Photo from Neighborhood Council Sustainability Alliance, With Climate Change. Whitmarsh, Lorraine, Saffron September 28, 2015 O’Neill, and Irene Lorenzoni, eds. London: Earthscan Ltd, 2011. 120-138. Print. 77 Faith  in  Place  and  Culturally  Relevant   footprint, CO2 emissions, adaptation, biofuels, carbon Community  Climate  Resurgence:   sequestration, greenhouse effect and the like - are not a part of the conversations that are taking place in the communities I Training  CC  Educators  Across  Community   engage with regularly. I am a firm believer in the motto, “if we Faith  Networks  in  Chicago   ‘really’ knew better, we’d do better.” CCC  Fellow  –  Veronica  Kyle     Chicago Botanical Garden’s Connect Project to engage the 3,000 member African American community of the CUCC in Background     understanding climate change and taking personal and Veronica Kyle spent the past 35+ years in many parts of the US collective responsibility to lessen its impact. as well as Southern Africa and the Caribbean working on community development/human capacity programs and I developed a project that engages community and projects, many of which she developed. Creating projects that congregational leaders (youth and adults) in both the African- provide people with the tools to be better caregivers for the American and Latino communities across Chicago to become earth while building their human capacity has been her primary Climate Change Educators (CCE). The project focused on objective. For the past 6 years, She has worked as educating community leaders from both groups on the definition Congregational Outreach and implications of climate change, the contrasting opinions Director for Faith In Place, about its reality, as well as the strong evidence of its existence. engaging communities across Illinois on issues related to sustainability; water, energy, This is a highly-collaborative and diverse project; many people food/land use, environmental from different organizations and congregations come together to policy and advocacy. Veronica help us successfully reach and include multiple generations, was a Toyota TogetherGreen interests, perspectives and backgrounds. To ensure success, fellow. She presently serves on there are many programs and activities woven into this project, the Illinois Vital Land Working including the establishment of a CUCC Green Team, creation of Group and is an Environmental a native plant garden near the Youth Church Building, planting Justice Commissioner for the and harvesting a local, church-owned Congregation-supported State of Illinois. Agriculture Program, signing petitions and posting them on social media sites to encourage our state legislators to pass the Clean Jobs Bill, intergenerational discussion groups, Green The  Project   Movie matinees, green drink meet-ups, speaker forums, and Faith in Place and Covenant United Church of Christ (CUCC) local artist-led workshops. joined forces with the After working as an environmentalist in many parts of the world and especially in urban settings, I was Cultural relevancy is at the forefront of the project; it is important convinced that many people still do not know what climate that this work speaks with and to the communities involved. My change is, nor are they convinced that it exists. Even the very hope is that communities will benefit from engaging with vocabulary that is often associated with climate change - carbon 78 “ecological ambassadors” from their own communities. It’s create a Green (Ministry) Team whose members plan and about trusting the messenger. As such, the CCE were trained to implement culturally relevant educational activities. Here some facilitate and implement group discussions on the effects of of the ways we moved the Covenant UCC community toward climate change on their perspective climate change awareness and individual and collective change. communities/neighborhoods and how they can begin to make both individual and communal behavior changes to offset the 1. Faith in Place worked with the CUCC Green Team with the impact of climate change. concept of first just “tabling.” The team set up a table in the narthex that was filled with relevant environmental handouts and Story  Circle  Events   demonstrations around particular climate change issues. The Green Team hosted numerous story circle events, using Tabling included using the Connect Collage Tool to teach folks the Chicago Botanical Garden’s Connect Migration Stories tool about the effects of climate change on the food we eat, the to highlight the migration stories of their members, young and water we drink, water sources, how we dispose of our old alike. The stories were then linked to the effects of climate waste/recycling, gardening (food and native) composting and change on both human habitats and the natural habitats of other the like. species like the monarch butterfly. The similarities of African- American migration and that of the monarch was the thread that 2. At our Tabling Events, participants learned how to sign ultimately connected the community to thinking about how to be petitions and send them to their legislators regarding climate better stewards of nature for the next generation. change and clean jobs, how to use environmentally friendly and homemade cleaning solutions, native plants and seeds Workshops   giveaways and celebrating the accomplishments of other local Faith in Place sponsored workshops where members of CUCC faith partners, like Vernon Park Church of God. Vernon Park and their Green Team hosted numerous workshops to educate Mother Carr Congregation supported the Agriculture Program the community about climate change and the environment, the with a generous $10,000 donation. It was during the Connect importance of native gardening to human and environmental Project that several CUCC members also joined the CSA. health, and how to be better stewards and advocated for the environment. 3. In addition to the Connect Migration Stories Tools from both the Connect toolkit and Faith in Place’s Migration & Me toolkit. Description  of  Approach   Through “story circles,” we invited and often pre-selected folksto share their families’ migration stories about coming to Faith in Place partners with congregations on environmental Chicago. The migration stories tools were an excellent way to initiatives, meeting each faith partner “where they are” on their gather people to not only share their stories in a relaxed and journey to be better stewards of the Earth, beginning with low affirming setting, but to make the connection to the plight of the hanging fruit and getting deeper into subject matter education Monarch butterfly and other species and how climate change and engagement from there. affects all of us and our natural habitats. To ensure a holistic methodology to climate change interpretation, our approach involves having each faith partner 79 4. We then moved to more challenging “in your face” type of Faith in Place has a lending library of movies, books and climate change education through our “Green Movie” events. It environmental educational supplies that congregational green was in these events that we were able to introduce the teams can borrow to support their green initiatives. community to some pretty heavy and challenging topics surrounding climate change and the environment. We showed In conclusion this case study with the collaboration of Faith in documentaries such as TAPPED, What’s On Your Plate, Place and Covenant UCC was a journey in testing the theory Trashed, Flow and other movies to engage all ages in the that if Climate Change was introduced to any community (of education of these issues. faith) in a culturally sensitive way that people would “get it” and change in behavior would occur. “A picture is worth a thousand words”—and nothing showcases an issue like a full-screen movie theatre experience. At these Through the African American Bible study tool, CUCC Green events, environmental topics, like water, waste, food and Team Ministry was able to educate the members on the impact climate change, were introduced to hundreds of congregational of CC on the African-American community. The bible study also and community members. Afterwards the floor was open for helped to support the notion that how we respond to climate discussions and Q&A. At the events, the CUCC Green Team change as people of faith is important. served healthy snacks and drinks not made from high fructose corn syrup and other artificial ingredients. Helpful  Resources  and  Community  Partners   At our events, the Green Team also had tables filled with Chicago Botanical Gardens’ CONNECT Tools (Climate handouts of the subject matter. Jeopardy, Create Your Own Visual Collages, Climate Change 101 Workshop, Climate-Community Connections: Garden Landscaping, Migration Stories) were pivotal in the success of 5. We sponsored workshops and invited local environmental this project. We had established a relationship with the experts to share, teach and engage the community in topics Gardens. The Vernon Park Church of God was a vital partner in such basic Climate Change 101 (using the Connect Tool, this project. This relationship formed as a result of my Climate Jeopardy), what are rain barrels, rain gardens, TogetherGreen Fellowship project where I worked with this composting, recycling, planting a garden, etc. and what they congregation to develop a pollinator garden, the result of which each have to do with climate change. was the formation of a CSA. 6. Finally, we organized hands-on intergenerational activities Successes  and  Best  Practices   such as tree planting, working at a local CSA farm, planting a native garden on the church grounds, recycling and advocating This project was a labor of love, especially because this was for clean air and clean jobs, at the annual outdoor Bar-b-que work with my own congregation; I had a personal investment in and Business Expo. This last step was actually physical a successful outcome. So many of the church’s practices engagement in activities to reduce and/or reverse some of the changed as a result of participation in this project, including damaging effects of climate change in our community and reduction in water use, use of biodegradable materials, and surrounding areas. reduction in food waste. The change has been systemic; there are 43 ministries at CUCC and all of them have ceased 80 purchasing water bottles for their events and Recycling Religiously! Reaching out to these ministries was a massive undertaking, as it was not possible to use sermon time or to make meetings with 43 different committees. Our most successful approaches to reach out to all of these ministries were the Green Movie and tabling at various congregational events. All of this was possible because of the willingness of the passion and commitment of the CUCC fellowship, particularly on the part of Velma Pate. We were also very fortunate to receive a generous grant from the Chicago Botanical Garden. I must also note that this project is still ongoing and other congregations are hearing about it; we hope to spread this program to other Project  Link   www.faithinplace.org Additional  Climate  Change  Action  &  Education  Resources   • Climate Change and African- American Bible Study: National Council of Churches-Eco Justice Program: http://nccecojustice.org/resources Keywords     Faith-Based –Youth Investment/Empowerment – Culture Creation – Intergenerational – Consultative – Building Community Networks – Public Education Campaigns Veronica with other environmental educational leaders in creative envisioning for community climate change projects at CCC Fellowship Training, Shepardstown, Virginia 81 And I was married to a JPL earth scientist. One day, my Empowering  LA  Neighborhoods  for   normally cheerful husband came home in a deep funk. He had just left a meeting in which he learned that Arctic ice was Collective  Climate  Action   melting at a much faster rate than any of his colleagues had CCC  Fellow  –  Laura  Mack   imagined. We had a young daughter at home. With this dire new report, Background   the climate crisis suddenly felt very personal and threatening. Laura Mack is the founding Executive Director of the At the time, I was helping people respond to climate and other Neighborhood Council disasters, but I wasn’t sure how I could help protect my own Sustainability Alliance, a daughter’s future. Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization and Then I heard about new research from UCLA that for the first initiative of Social and time showed how our changing climate might impact LA – Environmental neighborhood by neighborhood. I learned that my own Entrepreneurs (SEE), a community would face real and tangible challenges, such as 501(c)(3) public charity. sea level rise impairing emergency access to our area, and increased wildfire threats. And I saw an opportunity to act. I The Neighborhood Council joined my Neighborhood Council – groups of LA civilians who Sustainability Alliance are empowered to improve their communities – and formed a helps Angelenos do a committee to address the local threats of climate change. better job of protecting natural resources for the future and preserving their communities in the face of a changing climate, Naively, I assumed it would be easy to obtain resources and while uniting community leaders and partner organizations to support from the City of Los Angeles or other neighborhood enhance quality of life across Los Angeles. councils in LA. It soon became clear, however, that most councils were working in silos, if at all, on pressing The  Project   environmental issues. Meanwhile, the City was so big and dispersed that tapping into local government and nonprofit Long before I took personal action on climate change, I had resources was unwieldy. ample evidence that it was real, and that it was urgent. After all, I was an Emergency Manager who saw firsthand how disasters were increasing in frequency and severity due to climate In 2014, a colleague recommended I apply for the NAAEE change. I knew how they devastated the lives of co-workers and Community Climate Change fellowship program. For my CCC friends. project, I decided to form the Neighborhood Council Sustainability Alliance (NCSA), with the goal to bring together and support community leaders and partner organizations, and 82 accelerate environmental sustainability and climate resilience Our goal is to empower households to reduce both their carbon across the city. and water footprints by 25% or more, and implement simple strategies to make their communities more resilient to climate From 2014 to 2015, with the support of the CCC fellowship and other disruptions, through proven social learning and program, I launched and developed a community engagement practices. NCSA network that today includes 100 neighborhood councils, 450 community The NCSA will tap its network of leaders, and multiple partner community organizations to pilot the organizations. The NCSA also program with 240 households, on 30 formalized a governance structure and neighborhood blocks in LA, over the a fiscal sponsorship agreement, and next year. Our plan is to then evaluate secured grant funding. And we pilot results, and refine and scale up facilitated a series of community the program until a social change programs and initiatives that included a tipping point of 15% of residents in sustainable city visioning event with three LA communities is reached. We CCC fellow Susan Chung, as well as a look forward to sharing our results and NAAEE-sponsored Project-based lessons learned! Online Learning Community for sharing of drought action and water conservation resources across LA Project  Links   communities. 2016 is off to an equally http://ncsa.nationbuilder.com/ exciting start! http://empowerla.org/NCSA Facebook: facebook.com/neighborhoodcouncils With guidance from Rupu Gupta of ustainabilityalliance New Knowledge Organization on Twitter: @LA_NCSA communicating our program outcomes, the NCSA was named as one of 20 nonprofit organizations in LA County as Keywords   a semi-finalist in Social Venture Sector Keywords: Community Partners’ Social Innovation Fast Pitch Organizations – Nonformal program. Education Approach Keywords: Civic Action – The NCSA is also grateful to have Social Innovation – Culture Creation – been selected to pilot a new program that addresses the Environmental Justice – Building Community Networks – challenge that urban households are responsible for Gardening – Watersheds – Resource Management – Art- approximately half of the world’s carbon emissions, and yet are Making – Public Education Campaigns difficult to motivate to personal action on this issue. 83 Climate Change Science Theme The Science Dimensions of Climate Change Education Community Climate Change Fellow - Michelle Eckman Whatever the age of the learner, climate science informs to be a powerful way to engage with climate change community-based climate change action. In some sectors, action. Part of the project can involve science discovery there is still active resistance to the idea that climate learning approaches and experiments. Further, climate change is underway. Resources from NOAA and the links science learning can build bridges, galvanize data below can help share the basic patterns of the complex collection networks, empower youth action, and dynamics of climate change in simple language. Some support learners getting into the field for for immersive educators find empowering learners as science inquirers science learning. Climate science is the backbone of community-based climate Resources   change action, yet there exists a widespread lack of • CLEAN (Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness understanding about the science of global warming and climate Network): A collection of 600+ free and ready to use on change. While research demonstrates that a person’s scientific line resources reviewed by educators and scientists knowledge in and of itself is not a predictor of climate change (project funded by NSF). http://cleanet.org/ action, it is still important that EE practitioners have a sound • U.S. EPA’s Climate Change site understanding of climate change mechanics. This allows https://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/ - contains practitioners the ability to share the basic patterns of the everything from scientific background on why our climate complex dynamics of climate change in simple language with is changing so rapidly, carbon calculators to help users audiences of any age. Some educators find that science-based learn how they can minimize their personal carbon programs are powerful ways to move motivated learners to emissions, and includes links to Spanish versions of the climate change action. content In these pages, you will find stories of our Community Climate • U.S. NOAA’s Science and Information for a Climate- Change Fellows' work that have integrated the science of Smart Nation: https://www.climate.gov/ - tons of links to climate change into their projects. In some cases, the science of tools and information about climate science, including climate change supported a larger community project, in other global maps and trends, atmospheric and oceanographic cases, making the science of climate change clear and circulation, sea level rise, and human responses to understandable to their audience was the explicit goal of the climate change. project. Several projects also supported field learning in climate science for youth. We hope the stories, vignettes, and resources Common  Misconceptions  about  Climate  Change   we share in this chapter are helpful in your climate change • http://cires.colorado.edu/education/outreach/climateCom literacy efforts. munication/CC%20Misconceptions%20Handout.pdf • http://beyondpenguins.nsdl.org/issue/column.php?date=J Related  Content   une2008&departmentid=professional&columnid=professi Stories onal!misconceptions • Biking to Climate Repair • http://beyondpenguins.nsdl.org/issue/column.php?date=J • Bird Observatory Project une2010&departmentid=professional&columnid=professi • Bring it Home Kentucky onal!misconceptions • Climate Courage • http://www.pewclimate.org/science-impacts/realities-vs- • COOL Earth Schools misconceptions • Experiential Marine Science • Malama Kai Youth Action • Marine Mammal Volunteers • Mass Audubon Initiatives • Science on the Sphere 85 Building  a  Network  of  “Science  on  the   Sphere”  Theaters  for  Climate  Change   Education  in  Mexico   CCC  Fellow  –  Margie  Simon  de  Ortiz   Background   Margie Simon de Ortiz has ample experience in the management of environmental education and communication programs, sustainable development, solid and hazardous waste management consulting, urban and regional planning, policy and institutional analysis, project management and administrative support, and fundraising and management of these funds for non-profit organizations. During her time as CICEANA’s Director, the organization has directly benefited more than 6,000,000 persons through its many programs. CICEANA has developed a rooftop botanical garden at its headquarters that is recognized by the Secretary of the Environment (SEMARNAT), since the year 2002, as an UMA (environmentally managed space). In addition, during her period as Director, CICEANA has received various distinctions, the last three from SEMARNAT through The Center for Environmental Education and Capacity Building (CECADESU). They include; The National Prize for Environmental Merit in the category of environmental communication (2012); an honorable mention for the National Prize for Environmental Merit in the environmental education category (2011), and the accreditation of CICEANA as a Quality Center for Environmental Education (2010), for receiving the highest national evaluation in the five aspects of the model for evaluation and accreditation employed by CECADESU in the evaluation process. The  Project   In the past four years, 15 climate theaters have been built in various locations throughout Mexico. Several more are in the process of being built. All of them contain the "science on a 86 sphere,” technology developed by NASA and NOAA. This includes a round projecting screen of 2 meters in diameter and all the necessary equipment to project in a 360 degree view. These theaters have the capability to showcase over 300 presentations developed by the aforementioned organizations on a variety of topics relating to climate change. They can also project a view of the earth in real time (15 minutes delay), as they are connected to a worldwide satellite system. Currently, each theater is run as a separate entity, with varying success and results. There is little consistency in content, logistics, management of the project, and staffing. Funding is haphazard due to its reliance on political will and donations. This project strove to develop a network to better manage these programs, sharing content, supervision, and funding. Specific goals included: • Development of content and didactic material for the education program • Developing and carrying out a management plan for hiring, training and supervising each center’s staff with a centralized management team • Initiating the program for all classes of visitors • Exploring the possibilities of, and obtain funding for this project • Obtaining more partners for this project • Insuring the continuity of this project in an unsure and ever-changing political and financial environment. Project  Link   http://ciceana.org.mx/   87 Social Innovation Theme Social Innovation and Innovation for Community Climate Change Action Community Climate Change Fellow - Marna Hauk “Complex urban relationships, including organisational Climate Change Innovation networks, facilitate contact between individuals and Communities are innovating solutions for climate change groups, support sharing of information and contribute to (Biello, 2014). Cities and local communities are at the pulse the development of collective capacity to mobilize in order point of innovation with resources such as diverse to benefit more fully from the diversity of opportunities communities, sufficient density for synergies, and emergent presented within the city.” (Soltesova, Brown, Dayal, & needs due to the sometimes intense vulnerability of the Dodman, 2014) population. Biomimicry’s Janine Benyus (2014) emphasizes that innovative Questions  to  Inspire… approaches to carbon farming and sequestration, along with How could your project also generate a source of novel appropriate mitigation and adaptation, can reverse climate connection or community revenue? change. Climate change innovation can include incubators, new networks, community enterprise development, and novel How could you apply biomimicry to innovate a climate approaches and synergies for these. sequestering project? Incubating  New  Endeavors   What’s already underway in your community - are there groups What does climate change innovation look like? In some you could collaborate with? communities, forming novel networks of stakeholders to How could you or your project connect with one or more other innovate products and networks can move the community projects with whom you wouldn’t usually collaborate? agenda forward. The use of regenerative design to support social incubators of groups of innovators to form climate Related  Content   resilience startups is making strides in Oregon (Women’s Stories Ecosocial Incubator). Other business innovation can include • Biking to Climate Repair tying new business growth with climate resilience strategies, • Climate Courage such as ecotourism and bird sanctuaries in Mexico’s Banderas • Climate Resilient Food Systems Bay Region (Bird Observatory Project) or in UN projects in • Climate Stories Project Jamaica (Climate Resilient Food Systems). Technological • Community Food Networks innovation in community climate change projects can also be • COOL Earth Schools expressed through leveraging emerging technologies in service • Women’s Ecosocial Incubator to community needs: the use of 360 science learning theaters • Youth Co-Design with climate science (Science on the Sphere). Vignettes Innovating  Networks   • Culture Creation Extending already existing networks to innovate in their areas of • Fundraising concern can be a high leverage approach, as seen in a Los • Inspiration Angeles neighborhood association “going solar” (LA • Mutual Learning Neighborhoods). Innovation can mean combining approaches, • Networking such as environmental education and firefighting with youth • Professional Capacities nature immersion (Malama Kai Youth Action) or connecting • Storytelling faculty at colleges with elementary students for climate change Articles innovation research (Biking to Climate Repair). Innovation in • Communities of Practice Community Climate Change education can also mean creative • EEPro as Digital Community use of metaphors, such as inspiring climate change action • Open Space Technology through looking at intergenerational migration patterns inspired • Surfacing Unheard Voices by the migration paths of butterflies (Faith in Place in Chicago). 89 Resources • Benyus, J. M. (2014). How does nature manage carbon emissions? [Web video]. Let’s reverse climate change together [Web page]. Biomimicry 3.8. Retrieved from http://biomimicry.net/your-challenge-natures-solutions/ • Biello, D. (2014, September 23). Cities will solve climate change, not nations. Scientific American. Retrieved from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/climate-change- will-be-solved-in-cities-or-not-at-all/ • Gardiner, S. (2006). A perfect moral storm: Climate change, intergenerational ethics and the problem of moral corruption. Environmental Values, 15, 397–413. • Pelling, M. (2011). Adaptation to climate change: From resilience to transformation. New York, NY: Routledge. • Soltesova, K., Brown, A., Dayal, A., & Dodman, D. (2014). Community participation in urban adaptation to climate change: Potentials and limits for community- based adaptation approaches. In E. L. F. Schipper, et al (Eds.), Community-based adaptation to climate change: Scaling it up (pp. 214-225). New York, NY: Earthscan/Routledge. 90 Somewhere  Over  the  Rainbow:  Women   incubator nurturing mentored cohorts of community climate Empowering  Climate  Action  Network  as   change action visionary-activists and their projects (www.earthregenerative.org/wecan). She also works with a  Social  Incubator  for  Climate  Justice   Moonifest the nonprofit to fund micro-grants for women, the arts, and  Gaian  Resilience   and earth regeneration (www.moonifest.org). Dr. Hauk has over seventy peer-reviewed publications and presentations in the CCC  Fellow  –  Marna  Hauk   emerging fields of regenerative design learning, creativity and innovation, project-based learning, ecofeminist climate action, Background   land-based wisdom learning, sustainability education, systems Marna Hauk, Ph.D. is a Postdoctoral Scholar at Prescott biomimicry, environmental and climate justice, arts-based College in Sustainability Education and serves as faculty and research, and advanced research methodologies. founder of the Institute for Earth Regenerative Studies in Portland, Project  Description   Oregon in the Pacific The United Nations has identified working with women on Cascadia Bioregion, community climate change initiatives is a highly effective innovating adult learning strategy and a high priority. Women Empowered for Climate programs at the Action Network (WE-CAN) nurtures women action visionaries to confluence of creativity, unleash a next generation of climate change leadership and eco-restoration, and the grassroots projects in our community. We have developed and living wisdom traditions are delivering a mentored, year-long action learning model (www.earthregenerative. piloted in Fall 2015 through Summer 2016 nurturing women and org). She mentors queer women in community based climate change action, graduate students in climate resilience, and climate justice projects in the Portland, climate change Oregon area. This includes cross-pollinating synergies between education, biomimicry, arts-based activists, permaculture and regenerative designers, permaculture and and ecopreneurs. Think eco-incubator and mentor match meets science education, and climate crisis and agile leadership. A hive of hives for mutual regenerative design, as support and action. well as sustainability innovation and The  Opportunities   ecopreneurship. At the There are elder generations of second-wave feminist activists Institute, Dr. Hauk has and culture mothers living throughout the region, and an up and developed the Women coming generation of women and womyn concerned about Empowering Climate climate change. How can we connect intergenerationally, Action Network (WE- leveraging and mixing the support and savvy of elder visionary CAN), an ecosocial activists to remove barriers from the next generation activists? 91 How can land-based, long-term women’s sustainability projects help inform urban startups, culture, and action? How can we mix rural and urban endeavors? How can we link efforts to stop pipeline encroachment on land-based sustainability communities, community start-up and healing initiatives, and culture-making? How to mix art, innovation, and bootstrapped, small endeavors to nurture a matrix of connection and action across cultures and communities? How can we remove barriers to unleash the community organizing power and culture-making skills of women and womyn? Design  and  Development  of  the  Ecosocial  Incubator:   Removing  Barriers  and  Nurturing  Strengths  and  Relational   Support  in  Curricular  Innovation   WE-CAN Participant 02, E. Zionts, 2016 WE-CAN twinned climate resilience psychology with small business and nonprofit incubator strategies, leveraging social This program catalyzes women into visionary-activists. We capital models of community resilience and community support women with strengths-based approaches in a program development to inform the unique curricular blend. Women and that carves out time for realizing and developing their visions queer women have brilliant ideas about how to move the culture We use feminist and ecofeminist pedagogical approaches and to a deeper place of connective resilience, yet these same Joanna Macy’s The Work that Reconnects applied to climate visionaries often face hidden hurdles of internalized oppression. change challenges by using Macy and Johnstone’s (2012) Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re In Without Going Crazy for key readings and personal processes. We also leverage the Business Canvas, ecopreneurship development, and social incubator processes and practices to support each visionary-activist conducting needs assessment, asset mapping, user experience design to develop participant/client personas, chasm crossing models for cultural change framing and product/program development, and social media and launch plans wrapped into a pitch refinement process. WE-CAN accelerates visionary-activists catalyzing community climate change resilience. 92 Participant  and  Mentor  Recruitment  and  Nurture   Another dimension of the program is the matching of experienced mentors with the social incubator participants. Each project visionary-activist is matched with a mentor and meets monthly to get support and encouragement for their unique project. This 1:1 attention is a great augmentation to the online weekly check-ins and monthly meetings of the core incubator of facilitators and visionary-activists. The year-long maiden cohort program concluded with a celebration and a pitch-fest with the mentors supporting the visionary-activists in their launch plans. Associated  Community  Programming   During this pilot year, by holding information sessions and community movie screenings of films with discussions, such as “Arise: The Movie,” we modeled, discussed, summoned, and took inspiration from women visionary leaders in climate resilience projects. In addition to storyboarding and developing video pitches for their own projects, the WE-CAN social incubator participants also developed a slate of final community programs to share their climate change action initiatives with the community. This included Active Hope experiential workshops on Earth Day at a local farm as well as a slate of activities at a womyn’s summer festival. These offerings included climate change soul collage workshops for introverted activism at a summer womyn’s music festival, banner making workshops for climate change actions from recycled plastic, distributing action resource sheets for the community, and sharing on a panel about their experiences with the social incubator WE-CAN Climate project visionary-activists use collage to catalyze project to inspire others to take action. regenerative futures. 93 An  Emergentist,  Ecosocial  Incubator  Form   approach was emergentist, applying emergence and By incorporating breaking research (Hauk, Gaia E/mergent, complexivist leadership in innovation (Goldstein, Hazy, & 2014), the WE-CAN program design adapted a currently Lichtenstein, 2010), and structuring in creative and open spaces popular social learning and project-based accelerator model, the for creative emergence. Participants self-organized and social incubator, into an ecologically and bioculturally selected different climate change and climate justice topics they responsive form: the ecosocial incubator form. The ecosocial would research and present on, to emergently co-design the incubator form (Hauk, 2014, 2015) included use of “deep green “curriculum.” enterprise” (Hauk & Mitten, 2012) approaches that combine ecopreneuring, biomimicry, deep biomimicry (Mathews, 2011), Projects  Being  Eco-Incubated   regenerative design, permaculture, and social permaculture with This unique mixture of ecosocial incubator, feminist research-based program management approaches (Jordan, consciousness-raising, ecofeminist embedment, queer land deGraaf, & deGraaf, 2005) and small business development herstorical resourcery, arts-based regenerative education, and vibrant practices [including Osterwalder & Pigneur’s (2010) metadiscursion within circles of emergent support and business canvas and Moore (2014)’s research on innovation for visionary-activism informed by climate justice and product/program innovation]. Gaian resilience have all combined to bring to life the earth regenerative wisdom learning findings from the women’s land The ecosocial incubator form supported each visionary-activist and women-led expeditionary research. The daughter projects to conduct needs assessment, asset mapping, user experience in the WE-CAN ecosocial incubator include climate soul collage design to develop participant/client personas, chasm-crossing workshops for introverted activism; community organizing with models for cultural change framing and product/program teens to develop rites of passage for climate change and development, and social media and launch plans wrapped into permaculture action; designing and planting acres of carbon- a pitch refinement process. At every step of the process, sequestering food forests in a Southern Oregon climate ecosocial dimensions of context, place, land, and ecosocial sanctuary; installation of solar panels and anti-pipeline activism community needs extended the often anthropocentric project on a rural women’s land; concept phase development of a incubation practices into ecosocial incubation. Additionally, the climate food gardening collective; and organizing a women's 94 eco-music festival with climate change and climate justice Project  Link   programming. www.earthregenerative.org/wecan/ Community  Climate  Change  Ecosocial  Incubator  Research   Keywords   – and  Next  Steps Sector Keywords: Nonformal Education Another dimension of the WE-CAN success is the willingness of Approach Keywords: Intergenerational – Innovation and consenting participants to share their stories and journals of the Social Innovation – Culture Creation – Environmental Justice process of incubating their projects and for the mentors to share – Train the Trainer – Consultative – Creating a Model – their insights so that the program can leverage this research to Building Community Networks find out more about how to nurture effective visionary-activist, ecofeminist community organizing for community climate justice and resilience. This might also make virtual programming possible. I am currently conducting post-experience data collection and synthesis activities, based on coaching and conversation with John Fraser from New Knowledge. Stay tuned as the adventure unfolds…. We are happy to share our successes and look forward to future collaborations. As with permaculture models of sharing surplus, the WE-CAN program has produced not only launch-ready climate change, resilience, and justice projects, and research findings for future program enhancement, but also has shared information with larger networks and catalyzed more visionary-activists, consonant with a meta-finding of my doctoral research, about nurturing and catalyzing and spawning daughter-circles of regenerative ecosocial creativity (Hauk, 2014, pp. 433-438). Our community outreach and events leveraged the work of women visionary leaders in climate resilience projects, organic and community farming and food sovereignty action, indigenous eco-restoration projects, and queer womyn’s land sustainability culture-ways. The final celebration of the WE-CAN program similarly shared out the rich intersectional liberation to catalyze granddaughter projects in an autopoietic regeneration of the wild, landed, ecosocially embedded thriving and creative cultures and programs. 95 Digital Media Theme Storytelling and Digital Media in Climate Change Education Community Climate Change Fellow - Adam Ratner and Jason Davis Stories and storytelling are essential components of creative solutions to climate change. The creative use effective climate change education. Sharing stories about of digital media can help bring climate change personal and community observations and responses education to life. Given the wide array of tools transforms climate change from an abstract scientific idea available, educators and students can develop into shared, direct experience. Bringing stories into engaging videos, digital storytelling projects, podcasts, education helps students build vital connections between or games to help students and audiences engage climate change and their own lives and encourages more deeply with the issue of climate change The type of digital media projects you choose to develop will be Mammal Center to animate a video highlighting the science of influenced by your budget, skills, time, or staff. Projects can climate change, its impacts on seals and sea lions, and how range from extremely simple, such as posts to a Facebook people can take action to reduce their carbon footprint. This 6.5 page, to professionally produced videos and interactive minute animated short, A Word With Dr. Whizzlepuff: Climate websites. It is important to recognize that it is not necessary to Change, is now used with school and youth groups, adults and produce professional-quality media projects to further your volunteers, and on The Marine Mammal Center website to climate education goals – student or visitor-produced digital share the story in a visually compelling way, highlighting hard- media can be a fantastic way to engage diverse audiences with to-see issues in our atmosphere and in the ocean. climate change. Climate Stories Project is an educational and artistic forum for Below are two digital media-related examples from Community sharing stories about personal and community responses to Climate Change Education projects: climate change. Students from a wide variety of educational settings learn how to prepare, carry out, and record audio or video interviews with local and remote community members about their observations of and responses to climate change. Students edit the interviews and share them via the Climate Stories Project website or via social media. Students also develop creative media projects using the interviews, such as podcasts, digital storytelling projects, and musical compositions. Jason Davis, the director of Climate Stories Project, has written and recorded several original pieces using interviews recorded in Anchorage and Shishmaref, Alaska, locales already hard-hit by climate change. Related  Content   Stories Scene from an animated short related to climate change and marine • Climate Courage mammals © The Marine Mammal Center and California College of the Arts • Climate Stories Project At The Marine Mammal Center in California staff educate guests • Digital Travel in Canada about the impact of climate change on marine mammals, such • Marine Mammal Volunteers as seals and sea lions. However, it is often difficult for guests to • Science on the Sphere visualize these impacts, including sea level rise and warmer • Youth Co-Design water temperatures that have occurred over many decades.. Vignettes Education staff at the Center were looking for a way to create an • Culture Creation engaging visitor experience around these themes. They began • Inspiration a unique partnership with the California College of the Arts in • Professional Capacities which animation students under the direction of a Pixar animator • Storytelling teamed with marine biologists and educators at The Marine 97 Articles • Communities of Practice • EEPro as Digital Community • Surfacing Unheard Voices Resources   There are many useful tools, websites, and other resources available to aid educators in effectively using digital media. Here is a selection of some for you to investigate: • Climate Change in the Age of Media, a UMass Lowell project that helps teachers integrate digital media into climate change education: http://cleanet.org/cced_media/index.html • Storycorps, a NPR-affiliated project that features a wide range of personal and student-recorded interviews: https://storycorps.org/ • Audacity, a free audio editing application: http://www.audacityteam.org/download/ • Climate Visuals, scientifically tested visuals to help tell the story of climate change impacts: www.climatevisuals.org • NASA Climate Change for Kids, interactive games and videos designed for kids to learn about climate: http://climatekids.nasa.gov/ • Storytelling Links • Climate Stories Project www.climatestoriesproject.org A student from California College of the Arts develops • Climate Generation www.climategen.org animated characters for a video on climate change ©California • Climate Voices www.climatevoices.org College of the Arts • Climate Outreach www.climateoutreach.org • Storycorps www.storycorps.org Keywords     Video – Film – Storytelling – Media – Animation 98 been working with high school and college students to teach Listening  to  Climate  Change:  The   interviewing skills and set up and record interviews with local and remote community members about their responses to Climate  Stories  Project   climate change. So far, I have worked with students at high CCC  Fellow  –  Jason  Davis   schools in Maine, Connecticut, and Alaska, as well as college students in Oregon, Massachusetts, and Ottawa. Background   All of the Climate Stories Project education workshops have Jason Davis is a musician, music teacher, ESL teacher, and been successful. Students have developed important environmental educator. He founded the Climate Stories Project interviewing and communication skills and have learned to in Boston, Massachusetts. relate to climate change on a personal and community level. About  the  Project   Climate Stories Project is an educational and artistic forum for sharing stories about personal and community responses to climate change. There is a strong need for individuals and communities to engage with climate change as a personal and local issue, rather than only as an abstract scientific idea. As a musician, I first had the idea for the project by listening to pieces by composer Steve Reich that featured segments of Project  Links   recorded interviews. I began recording audio www.climateoutreach.org interviews of people www.climatestoriesproject.org speaking about their responses to climate Keywords   change and have written Sector Keywords: University – Community Organizations – and performed several Schools pieces of music featuring Approach Keywords: Youth Investment/Empowerment – these interviews. Culture Creation – Environmental Justice – Intergenerational –Communication Models – Creating a Model – Stories – Over the past year, I have Indigenous Dimension – Uses or Makes Film/Video/Media – Art-Making 99 Concepting  Digital  Products  on   My Community Climate Change Action Project was to create a digital product for summer recreational tourism visitors who Climate  Resilience  in  Canada   enter the Yukon on the Alaska Highway by vehicle, aimed at CCC  Fellow  –  Roy  Jantzen   educating them about climate change impacts along the Alaska Highway corridor. Geological, ecological, climate and cultural changes would be used to tell a story of climate impacts and alterations happening in the north.   The idea of resilience is about resisting damage and recovering from disturbance. My project was not directly aimed at resilience but rather at interpretation. Through an interpretive storyline, my idea was to help travelers recognize change and disturbances to the landscape. Using that information, they were encouraged to make a change in their own lives to help reduce their climate impacts. The digital product I had planned for my project was designed to make someone’s vehicle window a frame to tell a story about climate change. The project plan was then to actively engage travelers in that story by encouraging them to get out and experience key features and unique attributes on their Alaska Highway journey through the Yukon. Keywords   Sector Keywords: Technology – Resilience – Interpretive Signs – Travel Approach Keywords: Stories – Public Education Campaigns 100 Training The Trainer Theme Teachers as Leaders and Training the Trainer for Community Climate Change Community Climate Change Fellow - Marna Hauk Community-based work often involves informed, Teachers as Leaders and Change Agents concerned, and activated community members who Sometimes these catalysts are themselves teachers. catalyze and inspire others to action, including the action Teachers in public schools have a long and honored of catalyzing still more others. In a word, the most history as catalysts inspiring change. Teachers are effective climate change teaching is contagious! well-positioned to help learners translate climate science fact and regional context into community project actions with local relevance & connective power. In addition to teachers leading community climate change action, another successful pattern in the community climate change mosaic is train the trainer programs. Community organizations, many with public outreach, leverage the power of networks to set up train the trainer style programs for community climate change action. Related  Content   Stories • Climate Courage • Climate Resilient Food Systems • Climate Stories Project • COOL Earth Schools • Experiential Marine Science • Marine Mammal Volunteers • Women’s Ecosocial Incubator • Youth Co-Design Vignettes • Inspiration • Preventing Burnout • Professional Capacities • Storytelling • Youth Action Articles • Research on CC Educators • Surfacing Unheard Voices Resources   • Active Hope: Resources for “The Great Turning” - http://www.activehope.info/ (Macy & Johnstone, 2012) • Climate Change Education (Krasny, Chew, Hauk, & DuBois, 2016) – Pages 35 – 43 from https://naaee.org/sites/default/files/euee.pdf 102 Developing  Climate  Change  Curriculum   The  Project I am working with Common Ground High School, an with  Common  Ground  High  School   environmental science magnet school in New Haven, CT to CCC  Fellow  –  Michelle  Eckman   develop climate change curriculum that serves as the project- based work associated with various courses at the school. The idea came to me after many years of side conversations with Background   staff at this and other schools about the lack of climate change Michelle Eckman is Director of Education at the Connecticut lesson plans that are easily accessible and help meet their Audubon Society. In her role at CAS, she creates and curriculum requirements in courses beyond the traditional implements the education strategies of the organization, for science courses. There is a great need for resources for school and non-school programs, and ensures they align with teachers because few teachers receive the appropriate pre- the mission, conservation and advocacy work, of the CAS. She service training to adequately address climate change comfortably in their classrooms, access to professional development workshops about climate change is not equitable across all schools in the state, and the comfort level of teachers with the dynamic breadth of climate change as a topic is low. While progress on this project has been slow, I am working with teachers at Common Ground to develop comprehensive lesson plans that both teach students about various issues about climate change while engaging them in solutions-based activities. In the previous school year, I worked with two environmental justice teachers to develop three lesson plans for their year-long course. I had the opportunity to be present for all of the lesson plan implementations, and another fellow, Jason Davis, was able to work with this class on his Climate Stories project. I have been working with Common Ground in various capacities in the past three years. Their staff is heavily involved in the environmental education efforts in the state, and we have worked together to plan and implement two statewide works to help audiences meet their curricular and recreational environmental education conferences (2014 and 2015). I chose objectives. She has worked in conservation her entire career, Common Ground because of their dedication to providing inner starting as an avian field biologist, shifting to environmental city youth with environmental leadership opportunities in their educator, and now as a non-profit administrator. local and global communities. Common Ground is willing to try new things, and are the perfect partner to be the "test kitchen" 103 for new approaches. Their philosophy of education makes them environmental justice and biodiversity, there are social studies a tremendous educational resource. We have not been able to and biology courses where the climate change lesson plans obtain any outside funding to support this effort; CAS has been could easily fit. We want to succeed in our efforts because supporting my work with Common Ground. climate change is the most pressing issue of our time. CAS and Common Ground follow the approach best defined by the Successes  and  Best  Practices   discipline of civic ecology - people learn by doing; it is the action I have been fortunate to live near a number of my fellow that matters. If Fellows, and have been able to integrate their programs into my we can develop work with Common Ground. Jatnna Ramirez's project, a model that Sustainaware, was renewed for another year (2015) and we high school collaborated on a CT-based Sustainaware program. Three teachers can students from Common Ground participated in this week-long implement with climate justice leadership training program. Jason Davis' relative comfort Climate Stories project was one of the lesson plans we and ease, then integrated into Common Ground's environmental justice class. we believe we have a greater chance of Lessons  Learned   building climate While Common Ground is a wonderful school to work with, they literacy in our put a lot of demands on their teaching staff. Their staff state. participates in many professional development workshops and other programs; therefore their time is quite limited. The Additional  Climate  Change  Action  &  Education  Resources   slowness of progress is largely due to the very limited time they have to work with me to develop curriculum. The lesson plans • http://climatecommunication.yale.edu/about/ that we are creating are not simply content-based; they are • http://umich.edu/~snre492/cases.html largely action-oriented projects. Therefore, there is more time, • https://pangea.stanford.edu/programs/outreach/climatechan effort and focus required to properly align the project with ge/ expected skill building requirements. • http://www.climategen.org/ This is the benefit of not having funding to support our efforts; • http://www.eecapacity.net/fellows/michelle-eckman we are not beholden to a foundation or outside funder to complete our project at a certain time. On the other hand, that Keywords     probably is also contributing to the progress being so slow. Sector Keywords: Science or Nature Center – K-12 Schools – Nonformal Education Value  to  the  Community     Approach Keywords: Science Dimension – Innovation and Our mutual goal is to have a series of lesson plans that other Social Innovation – Youth Investment/Empowerment – high schools in the state can use in their various courses. While Environmental Justice – Creating a Model – Curriculum most traditional high schools do not have courses in 104 Biking  Our  Way  to  Climate  Repair  at   footprint impact that might result as we build interest and Laurel  Mountain  Elementary  School  in   momentum for bicycling to campus. We're seeing a change in attitude towards bicycling, awareness of fossil fuel "waste," and Austin,  Texas   an interest in spending more time being proactive about living a CCC  Fellow  –  Trevor  Hance   cleaner life. Finally, every grant I apply for has to include a service component, so, students who don't own a bicycle can Background   "earn" one through participation in this project, and the rest we Trevor manages a 5 acre wildspace preserve, which district will donate out to high-need communities and schools. Fifth students have converted into an outdoor learning laboratory, grade rocks, doesn't it! complete with trails, a restored prairie, a rainwater harvesting shelter that serves as a classroom and helps sustain our ponds through the Texas summers, a butterfly habitat, and game cameras to track wildlife. Using constructivist learning theory, Trevor give students an opportunity to better connect with the world around them to gain a sense of true self and place as they move into the typically challenging teenage years. Trevor does not teach his students anything, but instead gives them every opportunity to learn. The  Project   Last year, my first grade daughter wanted to bike to school. We live five miles from school, and have to cross a busy frontage road intersection for a six-lane highway. I was nervous, but we practiced on a few Sundays, and in May, started biking to school. She (and I!) loved it, but, I quickly noticed that although I work at what would be considered a successful public school in a very good location (at the end of a dead end street), we didn't have many bike riders --- but do have a 20 to 30 minute wait time in the car rider line before/after school. My daughter and I wanted to change that. I decided to work on a grant to get some used bicycles and have my students rebuild them, use them for science experiments (physics/energy stuff) primarily, art (where they design decals for our bicycles), physical education (where they'll use the bicycles to teach second grade students how to ride bicycles, and finally, math, where the students have conducted the first half of a study to determine the carbon 105 partner. Kids learn! Kids love to learn! Kids love to learn and want to learn more! I win! Managing 150 kids, 50 bicycles and a public school schedule is pretty tough. I probably wouldn't have taken on 50 bicycles in the first year, but, we're plowing through and we will meet our full distribution by the end of the school year. Another setback is that one of my fellow teachers had breast cancer in the fall so she was out for a few months, which slowed down some of the momentum for a while. The good news is she's back, and healthy, and looks great. We are blessed. First of all, it is FUN! Second, each bicycle we turn back into circulation will have touched at least ten lives (nine students working on it, plus the recipient), and there is no telling who else will wind up with the bike in the future. It's a simple, lowest level, non-political, service-oriented way to get people to make a change towards sustainability, and one that puts smiles on faces as they make the change. My first partner is EE Capacity, who provided the largest portion of the grant. I'm eternally grateful for the relationships I've developed with the organization. The other big partner is a local Project  Link   co-op called the Yellow Bike Project, whose mission is “to put University of Texas Environmental Science bicycles on the streets of Austin and Central Texas by operating Institute.http://www.esi.utexas.edu/ community bike shops, teaching bike mechanics and maintenance, and acting as a local bike advocacy group.” YBP Keywords   donated the 50 used bicycles and helped us purchase 16 tool Sector Keywords: Community Organizations – K-12 Schools – kits at a discounted price to make sure that our schoolhouse- Nonformal Education bike shop stays in business long after this first-year effort is Approach Keywords: Science Dimension – Youth Investment/ finished. Another wonderful partner is the Texas Medical Empowerment – Nature Experience or Immersion, Association and local physician, who provided a discount-and- Environmental Justice – Super Teacher / Teacher / Leader – match for us to get 100 bicycle helmets so that these bicycles Building Community Networks each have a helmet and so that our PE classes have helmets Additional Keywords: Public Schools – Bicycling – Carbon for students who learn to ride at school, this year and in the Footprint – Health – Community – Constructivist Learning future. Finally, the teachers at my campus think I'm a little crazy Theory – Project-Based Learning – Place-Based Learning – for taking on projects like this, but they are supportive, and Service Learning participate, and I include them as my "most local" community 106 Empowering Youth Theme Youth Investment and Empowerment Community Climate Change Fellow - Elizabeth Pickett and Marna Hauk “... I don’t have to talk about climate change at the dinner table for my children to know all about it... I don’t have to indoctrinate them, even if I wanted to. Climate change is in the air now. It is embedded in the culture they are growing up in. It is mentioned in movies, on television, by celebrities. Young people aren’t deniers. Youth is always the answer.” Dr. Michael Oppenheimer, Princeton Professor and Climate Scientist In classrooms, parks, zoos, through traditional, digital, and Related  Content   social media, and almost everywhere the youth of today look or Stories: visit, news of climate change or its many impacts abound. The • Biking to Climate Repair youth of today have grown up with more of a global awareness • COOL Earth Schools than any other generation in history, and this awareness and • Global Kids Organizing integrated, assumed knowing includes a powerful sense of urgency about climate change. Youth are developing an acute • Malama Kai Youth Action understanding of the plethora of attitudes, behaviors, and • Public School CC Curriculum decisions that created the conditions that have and continue to • Youth Climate Job Training lead to climate change, and are rethinking and redesigning their • Youth Co-Design decisions and priorities accordingly. The youth of today are Vignettes: being supported by educators and activists to get outside and • Youth Action garden to produce clean, local, and transportation-free food…to Articles: walk or ride bikes instead of relying on vehicles…to march on • About Co-Design Washington D.C. or in the streets of urban areas across the Resources   continent… to become the educators themselves by holding • Taking it Global (2007) – Youth and Climate Change: community events, teaching the adults and decision-makers in Taking it Global, from their own communities about climate change, local-to-global http://tig.phpwebhosting.com/guidetoaction/Climate_Guid linkages, and action solutions. Youth are finding their sense of e_to_Action_en.pdf identity and purpose through climate change action, and • UNICEF – Youth in Action on Climate Change: through the re-envisioning of energy, food, transportation, and Inspiration from Around the World (2013) community. More than half of the CCC projects involved a youth http://www.unicef.org/education/files/Publication_Youth_i dimension, through action, visioning, protest, connection, n_Action_on_Climate_Change_Inspirations_from_Aroun solution building, science learning, immersion, restoration, and d_the_World_English.pdf the arts. • Red Cross – Youth Action Today http://www.ifrc.org/en/what-we-do/youth/youth- resources/publications/ • http://www.ifrc.org/en/what-we-do/youth/youth- action/adapting-to-climate-change-and-addressing- catastrophes/ • Climate Co-Lab Youth Action on Climate Change 2014 - http://climatecolab.org/plans/-/plans/contests/2014/youth- action-on-climate-change • UN (2013) – Youth and Climate Change Report - http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/documents/youth/fact- sheets/youth-climatechange.pdf 108 Bringing  it  Home:  Galvanizing  College-­‐ The  Project   Age  Students  in  the  Big  Picture  of   Because I work at a University, it makes sense that my efforts Climate  Change   would be directed not only to the general Kentucky community through Cooperative Extension, but also to the students that we CCC  Fellow  –  Jennifer  Hubbard-­‐  Sánchez   serve on a regular basis here at our institution. Through several trainings and classes that I was asked to teach for students here Background   on campus about climate change, it became more and more Jennifer Hubbard-Sánchez serves as the State Specialist for apparent that KSU students were hungry for solutions to make Sustainable Programs and the Director for the Center of their campus more sustainable and to educate the public on Environmental Education at Kentucky State University (KSU) in climate change issues. Students started coming by my office Frankfort, KY. KSU is Kentucky's only historically black (HBCU), more frequently and asking me to support them in efforts to Land Grant institution. Jennifer holds an MS Degree in "green" our campus, and an amazing partnership was born. Environmental Studies, an MA Degree in Mexican Serendipitously, as we began our work together, the Anthropological Studies from the Universidad de las Américas in announcement for the CCC Fellowship came out and, upon Puebla, Mexico, and a BA in Spanish from Saint Michael’s urging of Kentucky State University students and colleagues, I College in Colchester, VT. Her work at KSU focuses on creating decided to apply. The focus of the KSU project was, and and implementing sustainability and environmental education for remains, to engage and empower college-age students in the diverse and multilingual audiences so that all people can have big picture of climate change and allow them to answer the access to culturally relevant ways to live greener, healthier lives, following questions for themselves and then for others: What is while appreciating and learning more about the physical climate change? What causes it? What can we do about it here environment that sustains at KSU? us. Her main environmental interest is climate change and how it Over the last couple of years, it has given me immense pleasure encompasses all other to work with the Kentucky State University (KSU) Green environmental issues we Society, KSU’s chapter of Minorities in Agriculture, Natural collectively face. Jennifer Resources, and Related Sciences (MANRRS), and other serves as Vice Chair for students to develop more awareness and action on our campus the KY Association for about climate change. Participating students at KSU have Environmental Education, received in-depth trainings on climate change basics, either in co-leader of the Kentucky their undergraduate courses I’ve been asked to guest-lecture in, Environmental Education or through workshops we’ve conducted outside of the formal Consortium, a member of classroom. Additionally, five KSU students have been trained in the leadership team of the the Project Learning Tree Southeastern Forests and Climate Southeastern Environmental Education Alliance, and is a change curriculum. Through these efforts, KSU students have member of the NOAA Climate Stewards Education Project. designed and conducted several climate literacy and awareness campaigns for the campus and Frankfort communities. Shortly 109 after receiving the fellowship (which we at KSU consider a part local community, an endeavor that our students will be able to of the institution and not just belonging to one individual), we witness for decades to come. What began as a fellowship with were contacted by a representative of the Frankfort Climate the goal of implementing climate literacy education and Action Network (CAN) to inquire about co-hosting a viewing of awareness campaigns for students on our University campus Disruption: Climate. Change. on KSU’s campus. In October, has successfully evolved into a wave of action that has 2014, students prepared and hosted a movie screening for over drastically altered our University’s footprint and heightened 50 members of the campus and Frankfort community, complete student, faculty, and staff awareness of climate change and with guest speakers and a student question and answer panel. other environmental issues. Another student-led effort involved students handing out reusable shopping bags with a logo they created featuring tips for reducing individual carbon footprint at campus welcome week, Earth Day 2015, and other campus and community events. One of our heftiest efforts was to start a fully-functioning recycling program on campus. After two years of working with KSU facilities, administration, student groups, etc., we were able to secure support for these dedicated students to purchase recycling bins for each office on campus, as well as to convince facilities to purchase recycling dumpsters that were strategically placed around campus. In the fall of 2015, after spending several early morning hours with students distributing recycle bins to offices and preparing and executing an educational campaign, KSU was finally recycling. We, the students and I, continue to monitor those efforts and work together to be sure that all parties involved are doing their part to make it a complete success. Another major effort that has resulted from this fellowship is KSU’s hosting of the 2016 ReForest Frankfort event, which was held on April 2, 2016, on our campus. In its eighth year, ReForest intends to do just that- bring together hundreds of community volunteers to plant trees in open green spaces in our city. When we were approached about this effort, I consulted with the students and they were immediately engaged and eager to host this event for the first time on a University campus. Since the summer of 2015, students have been attending all of the planning meetings and have had a voice in the execution of the event. Over 2,500 trees were planted at KSU by over 800 members of the campus and 110 Helpful  Resources   educator trainings. The campus community is also more Our community partner for the fellowship was and still is the KY involved in ameliorating environmental issues and I am quite Association for Environmental Education (KAEE). KAEE has certain that this is due to our students caring and demanding been a wonderful support for this initiative- providing students that we do better. The ongoing nature of our efforts has created with guidance and leadership throughout all of our efforts. The a new culture of environmental awareness and appreciation and Executive Director, Ashley Hoffman, has served the student I truly believe that this is in great part due to the seed planted by initiatives by reviewing materials and acting as consultant on the then CCC Fellowship. projects, as well as linking them to other opportunities. One example is through the Kentucky State Environmental Lessons  Learned   Education Consortium funded through EECapacity. The 2015- It is always a challenge to get any group of folks to be on the 16 initiative focuses on empowering and educating fifteen same page and stick with it. Sometimes, getting together with a students from Kentucky State University, Eastern Kentucky group of busy college students is like herding cats! It is hard to University, and Murray State University. The first weekend of reach all of the students who are interested in contributing at the February, 2016, students attended a two-day leadership retreat same time and so we have had to be very strategic in our where they met cohorts from other Universities and were trained meeting schedules, and in planning and holding events. Time is in the basics of EE, designing and marketing educational really our greatest limiting factor, as the students have so many campaigns, fundraising, leveraging networks for success, ideas about what they would like to do for each initiative, teambuilding, and more. Students from all three institutions went however, they then remember homework, jobs, exams, etc. and back to their respective campuses and planned three very have to reign in their plans a bit. We’ve had a lot of talks about different environmental literacy campaigns that were developing effective AND reasonable projects that do not take implemented throughout the fall of 2016. Opportunities like up every free moment they have. This has been a good learning these, for KSU students and others, are what allow the efforts lesson for them on how to develop better work-life balances. It started by the fellowship to grow and flourish into life-changing should be noted that enthusiasm within our group is definitely possibilities for young people who represent the future of our not lacking! field. Value  to  the  Community   Successes  and  Best  Practices   First off, at the individual level, I can attest to how rewarding it is Perhaps the most unexpected, pleasant surprise that has come to work with young people who will very soon be entering into out of the fellowship is the long-lasting engagement of students the workforce and witnessing how they celebrate successes and and the relationships that have resulted. When I started out on face defeat. Starting a recycling program (on a campus that had this journey, I was thinking that I would work with the student not recycled before 2015!) was filled with challenges, backlash, group to implement a project or two. As evident from my project and frustrations. There were times we all wanted to give up. description, the work has yet to stop. Student participants are Watching the students' resilience and drive to educate and now integrated into the field of environmental education in many empower others by taking meaningful action was by far the ways, be it by attending our state’s annual EE conference, most rewarding thing I've done in my professional career. serving on local boards like the Frankfort Solid Waste Task Seeing the change in levels of interest and engagement among Force, and signing up for Project WET, WILD, and PLT other students, faculty, and staff, has made all of this effort 111 worth it. For the community and our partners, we have been Project  Link   able to work together to support eager students who represent www.kysu.edu/ee our collective future- not only in EE, but in other sectors as well. Allowing them to make decisions and lead these efforts is beneficial on so many levels. For KAEE, our community partner, Keywords   we are working to hone the next generation of leaders of EE in Youth Investment/Empowerment – Environmental Justice – our state by providing them with the tools they need to learn and Train the Trainer– Public Education Campaigns implement projects designed by them, benefitting us all. Additional  Climate  Change  Action  &  Education  Resources   • Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network (http://cleanet.org/index.html) • North American Association for Environmental Education (https://naaee.org/) • http://kysu.edu/academics/cafsss/research- extension/cooperative-extension/environmental-education/ • http://kysu.edu/2014/08/28/ksu-selected-for-pilot-climate- change-fellowship/ • Project Learning Tree's Southeastern Forests and Climate Change secondary module • (http://sfrc.ufl.edu/extension/ee/climate/) • NOAA's Climate Stewards Education Project • (http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/climate-stewards/) • Kentucky Association for Environmental Education (www.kaee.org) • EECaacotu State Consortia • (http://www.eecapacity.net/about-us/state-consortia) ReForest Frankfurt Volunteers, 2015 112 Youth  Climate  Resilience  Job   Training  in  Baltimore   CCC  Fellow  –  Sam  Little   Background     Sam is an adopted son of Baltimore City where he manages environmental education programs at Parks & People Foundation, a locally-based nonprofit organization. Sam facilitates meaningful outdoor experiences for Baltimore youth through school-day, after-school and summer nonformal environmental education programs, including urban park field trips, installing schoolyard habitats and vacant land reuse projects. Sam is a true believer in self-powered transportation (you’ll see him riding around Baltimore on his bike) and enjoys publicly accessible open space in urban areas, looking at maps, spaces) in order to adapt and mitigate climate change-related street art, and, of course, impacts. The idea is to collaborate with Baltimore City youth, bees and trees! Sam is through a long-term process, in learning about and addressing dedicated to community- climate change and resiliency-related issues directly impacting based grassroots Baltimore City (e.g. sewage overflows, blighted vacant land, approaches for lack of healthy food, low tree canopy, etc.). Sam sees the need cultivating environments as two-fold: that bring out the best in people and encourages 1. Urban dwellers often do not have formative opportunities everyone to visit to actively engage in meaningful and positive Baltimore to explore its' experiences in their environment (in this case the term unique natural and “environment” is broadly defined to fit the urban cultural past, present and experience, i.e. urban surroundings, including both future!   natural and man-made components). In particular, the potential for young people to become passionate Origins  and  the  Need stewards and champions of the places they spend time is often missed. The project origin is about engaging people (i.e. Baltimore young adults) to understand and actively care about the outdoor 2. We are at a unique place in time when there is a places they inhabit (i.e. neighborhoods, schools and public open worldwide serious issue in climate change that needs tobe addressed. There is a need for a shift in the human 113 relationship with the environment and natural resources, report on the program in August, 2015 related to the Baltimore particularly related to the fact we are fundamentally riots in April. BRANCHES addresses two vital needs in changing the biophysical environment by burning fossil Baltimore City—the need for meaningful employment for fuels for energy. underserved youth and the need for a trained workforce of environmental stewards caring for our parks and open green spaces. Team members learn urban forestry, natural resource About  the  Project conservation and vacant lot reuse skills, including tree and Originally, Sam sought to integrate his climate change natural resource management, urban agriculture and building education project through Parks & People Foundation’s (PPF) schoolyard habitats. Recreation is also an important part of the middle and high school informal environmental education school program, and participants have the opportunity to try new programs (i.e. school-day - Nature & Cultural Field Trips on the activities including riding a zip-line, rock climbing, canoeing and Gwynns Falls Trail Program and after-school - KidsGrow!). tent camping. Since then, in order to delve deeper than permitted by structural limitations of school-based programming, the project has All the work at PPF, from creating and sustaining green spaces evolved to be an integral component in the BRANCHES to providing recreational opportunities for youth, is integral to program. BRANCHES is a year-round green jobs training building resilient communities facing a changing climate – program for youth ages 14 to 21 where there is a unique particularly the economically and environmentally opportunity for a long-term project; working with a small group of disadvantaged facing greater health risks. The program goals dedicated young people. WBAL TV presented a short news are to: 1. Engage 14 Baltimore City young people (2 teams of 7) in paid employment for 8-25 hours/week, 9 months/year for 1-4 years, in order to: a. Earn an income b. Learn essential job skills c. Positively contribute to improving environmental conditions d. Build social capital in stressed communities 2. Equip the next generation of environmental stewards with the necessary knowledge, skills, attitudes and values - starting at the local level of West Baltimore communities through hands-on projects such as raised bed gardening, nature play space construction, vacant land reuse and urban natural resource conservation. 114 Specific to climate change, BRANCHES team members are component in Sam’s project by providing a place to learn and learning the necessary skills to implement projects that build practice key skills needed to build community resilience. The resilience within their own communities (e.g. schools and space will eventually be a key component of the Baltimore’s neighborhoods), such as: green network in West Baltimore and contribute to improving the surrounding communities. 1. Preparing and responding to natural disasters 2. Utilizing vacant land to be community assets, rather than The biggest thing that went really well thus far was the blights, in ways that contribute to climate change opportunity to build relationships with the young people adaptation and mitigation. For example, using vacant participating in BRANCHES while simultaneously meeting land as storm water mitigation facilities, community several big needs in Baltimore (e.g. environmental issues and managed open spaces and food production. lack of jobs). Many of the BRANCHES team members were new 3. Planting and maintaining trees in order to learn urban to the program at the end of 2015 and in just a short few months forestry skills and contribute the TreeBaltimore goal of they grew an incredible amount in terms of both the job skills as reaching 40 % urban tree canopy. well as in developing as young adults. The program presents a 4. Designing and constructing nature play spaces for youth unique opportunity to work intensively with a small community of of all ages to play and learn in. young people over a relatively long period of time; resulting in deeper impacts at the human scale. The key is to provide a Helpful  Resources  and  Community  Partners structure that works for the given community and to strive for the Sam’s community partner (and employer), PPF, has provided best. the necessary support and resources to implement his project through the BRANCHES program. The ability to integrate Parks & People’s mission is undoubtedly connected to taking climate change issues into his work has allowed Sam to action on climate change but, as of yet, the organization does leverage efforts otherwise impossible. PPF has a 30 year not directly address climate change issues in Baltimore City. history of revitalizing neighborhoods through hands–on cleaning One of the biggest challenges is intentionally thinking about and greening. This history includes strong partnerships with activities in terms of taking action on addressing climate change government agencies and communities, which enable the and how to use all given projects (e.g. tree plantings, rain organization to better sustain green spaces, and programs that gardens, etc.) as a climate change-related educational help children to learn, grow, and explore their natural opportunity while also being able to do this work, based on environment. Additionally, PPF provided funding opportunities specific funding streams, in the time at hand. The intentional enable Sam to do his community climate change project with integration of climate change education into what is currently BRANCHES. He works closely with the PPF development team being done at PPF (e.g. community greening, youth to incorporate essential program elements into funding development, providing volunteer opportunities) has also been proposals, which are implemented with the BRANCHES teams quite challenging. Finally, coming up with creative ways to on a daily basis. Finally, PPF recently moved in to its’ new address both climate change and pressing community needs in campus on a restored portion of Druid Hill Park, including a Baltimore is a challenge as well. Making climate change LEED Platinum certified headquarters, historical buildings and relevant and meaningful while living in a city with so many more 9-nine acres of park space. This space has been a crucial seemingly unrelated and more pressing issues, such as crime, 115 obesity, corruption, budget cuts, inefficient transportation, an people-foundation-campus-helps-anchor-mondawmin- aging population, and so on. The connections, while not area apparent on the surface, can be made but it will often take a http://www.wbaltv.com/news/parks-people-to-open- little longer than expected. space-across-mondawmin-mall/34426862 Value  to  the  Community Keywords   Hopefully, Sam’s community climate change work with Sector Keywords: Community Organizations – After-School BRANCHES will contribute to the body of knowledge available Programs – Nonformal Education on working with youth from stressed urban communities on Approach Keywords: Innovation and Social Innovation – Youth environmental education-based projects. Best practices for Investment/Empowerment – Environmental Justice – Train the doing so is becoming increasingly important with the majority of Trainer – Creating a Model – Building Community Networks – the world population moving to urban areas and the impacts of Gardening – Watersheds – Resource Management – Urban climate change becoming more and more common place Environmental Education – Green Jobs – Urban Vacant Land occurrences rather than rare things. Reuse Additional  Climate  Change  Action  &  Education  Resources   • http://www.beslter.org/frame5-page_4.html • http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/Atmosphere/urban_ heat.html&edu=high • http://blaustein.eps.jhu.edu/~zaitchik/bmorecool.html • http://baltimoretreetrust.org/treekeepers • http://www.baltimoresustainability.org/projects/growing- green-initiative/ • http://www.baltimoresustainability.org/projects/green- schools-initiative/ Project  Links   http://www.parksandpeople.org/learn/nature-field-trips- on-the-gwyn/ http://www.parksandpeople.org/learn/after-school- programs2/kidsgrow/ http://www.parksandpeople.org/learn/branches-or- summer-jobs/ http://www.wbaltv.com/education/program-teaches-city- youth-green-job-skills/34930264 http://www.baltimoremagazine.net/2016/4/28/new-parks- 116 Empowering  Public  School  Climate   needed to understand it. After learning that humans are the main cause of climate change, the 4th and 5th graders look at Change  Curriculum  in  Santa  Cruz   different aspects of their life in order to reduce the carbon they CCC  Fellow  –  Stew  Jenkins   are putting in the atmosphere. I use a curriculum called, "Journey for the Planet" put out by the Empowerment Institute. For older grades we might explore solar panels or the building Background   small power-generating systems to power small motors, radios Stew Jenkins is the Director of Monterey Bay Center for and water pumps. Environmental Literacy (MBEL) in Santa Cruz, CA. He teaches Pre-K to 12th grade students the skills and knowledge to I have been teaching environmental education for 20 years. I become environmentally literate. To be environmentally literate have worked for a wide variety of non-profit organizations including the Monterey Bay Aquarium, an outdoor science camp called Koinonia in Corralitos, California, LifeLab Science Program, and the Coastal Watershed Council. I have a teaching credential and a master's degree in multicultural education. Empowering students of all ages to make earth-friendly decisions is what gets me really excited. Helpful  Resources  and  Community  Partners   The Public Works Department of Santa Cruz County expressed an interest in teaching students about climate change. I put together a curriculum that included PowerPoint presentations, a carbon footprint tool, and the Journey for the Planet Activity Book (put out by the Empowerment Institute). Later, I developed a set of climate change information cards to allow students to become experts in different parts of climate change and teach one another. Eventually, I expanded to middle schools and high schools. In middle school, students looked at how their families would need to adapt to the changes in the intensity of weather. means to be educated and empowered to make decisions and take action in support of the health of all earth's systems. Successes  and  Best  Practices   About  the  Project   I was able to teach more than 700 students about climate I teach 4th-12th grade students about climate change using change. I developed a wide variety of teaching tools and age-appropriate curriculum. I have taught many students the curricula that helped younger students digest smaller "bites" causes of climate change and the concepts and vocabulary about climate change and then put these parts together to 117 understand the whole better. I exposed a diverse group of Value  to  the  Community   students to useful information and powerful tools. Reaching the children is like planting redwood seeds and watering them; if you do it right, these students can grow into Lessons  Learned   very tall, very long-lived advocates for the earth and in support I wish I had encouraged the students and their teachers to put of human actions that benefit rather than harm life on earth. The on an event to pass their knowledge on to the parents and youngest students will be living through the most dramatic families. I did not include enough follow-up lessons that would changes of climate change. Students are open to hearing the allow students to take their new-found knowledge and spread it truth and they WANT to take action, once they know how they around to their communities. can help. Additional  Climate  Change  Action  &  Education  Resources   • http://www.greenninja.org/carboncommand/ is a game about greenhouse gases for 3rd-5th graders • http://www.climateparents.org/ is a group of parents advocating for climate action • https://acespace.org/ The Alliance for Climate Education (ACE) is a wonderful program that works with middle and (especially) high school students • The EPA has a valuable site focused on CC: https://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/ including a site for kids. • http://www.cde.ca.gov/pd/ca/sc/environliteracyblueprint.asp - This is California's new Blueprint for Environmental Literacy Keywords   Sector Keywords: K-12 Schools – Nonformal Education Approach Keywords: Youth Investment/ Empowerment – Public Education Campaigns – Carbon Mitigation – Adaptation – Education Followed by Action 118 Mass  Audubon  Community  Climate   Prior to stepping into her statewide role, Kris spent 14 years as the Education Manager for Mass Audubon’s Drumlin Farm Change  Initiatives   Wildlife Sanctuary where she oversaw on and off-site CCC  Fellow  –  Kris  Scopinich   educational programs at the sanctuary and in local communities. In her work with colleagues and partners, Kris was part of developing programs such as Lowell Leaders in Background   Stewardship, Digital Environmental Education Project, As the Director of Education at Mass Audubon, Kris Scopinich RiverSchools Network, and Leaders in Environmental Access works with educators, directors, and scientists at Mass Audubon for All. In partnership with colleagues in science education, she nature centers and wildlife sanctuaries across the state to has developed original curricula for both formal and informal develop, coordinate, and evaluate programs and curricula for a learning environments that address science education through variety of audiences—preschool-aged children, families, K-12 inquiry-based learning and community-based field investigations schools, adults, and community-based organizations. She is of local habitats. responsible for curriculum guidelines and evaluation as well as the on-going professional development of Mass Audubon Her interest is in developing engaging learning environments educators. that encourage people of all ages to explore their connection to Kris the natural world as well as the role they can play in its represents conservation. Mass Audubon's goals and Project  Description   objectives by Mass Audubon developed a four-part climate change program actively that is results oriented and suits our organizational focus on participating in advocacy, education and conservation. It includes: statewide initiatives and 1. Leading by Example to reduce our carbon footprint and advisory showing others how they can, too. committees 2. Advocating for mitigation of and adaptation to climate with respect to change on a policy level. increasing 3. Creating a culture of climate literacy and community- environmental based action through our education and outreach and climate programs. literacy in 4. Revising both the ecological management of our Massachusett sanctuaries and our land protection plans through the s. In her role, she oversees Mass Audubon’s work in Climate prism of climate change. Literacy and Outreach, in partnership with the Advocacy Department. 119 My involvement in Mass Audubon’s climate chance program is emissions in Massachusetts. To date, we have directly inspired focused on creating a culture of climate literacy and community- over 700 members to switch to green energy through this based action through three core efforts: Building staff and program. program capacity for integrating climate change messages across Mass Audubon; Promoting climate science and green This effort, combined with our programs that integrate climate energy literacy in K-12 schools in Massachusetts; and messages, inspired us to create a concept of Mass Audubon Supporting Mass Audubon Wildlife Sanctuaries/Nature Centers Climate Action Centers, which will leverage our core strengths as Climate Change Action Centers. For my Community Climate as an organization. Mass Audubon Climate Action Centers will Change Action Project, I decided to concentrate on the afford our staff at our nature centers and wildlife sanctuaries the community-based effort to support Mass Audubon Wildlife training and resources to connect climate change to local Sanctuaries/Nature Centers to develop plans to engage visitors, communities and compel program participants and members to members, and program participants in building climate literacy positive action. To ensure our attention to these critical steps to and moving to action. Our wildlife sanctuaries and nature increasing climate literacy in Massachusetts, we have created centers are living laboratories for how our changing climate is and raised funds to support a Climate Change Program affecting the nature of Massachusetts. They also provide Coordinator at Mass Audubon. This key staff supports our work engaging demonstrations of individual and community-scale at our nature centers and wildlife sanctuaries, working with ways for reducing carbon emissions through energy efficiency environmental educators to design curriculum informed by and green energy. research and best practices as well as develop resources for programs, online, and across Mass Audubon communications. A core component of our work in increasing climate literacy and action among our members and program participants is to My fellowship project was just the beginning of what has now develop a suite of programs that effectively integrate climate become a core component of the work in the Education change messages and action steps for general visitors and Department at Mass Audubon-- to increase environmental and program participants. We also needed to build staff capacity climate literacy in Massachusetts. through ongoing professional development in climate change science and communications. As part of my project, I have consulted with a variety of community partners. We worked with Union of Concerned As part of our efforts, we developed and launched the “Make the Scientists to support staff professional development as well as Switch” campaign. This campaign provides Mass Audubon to identify effective actions to share with members and program members and supporters an easy and effective way to reduce participants. We also worked with Mass Energy Consumers carbon emissions and support the development of green Alliance to develop our "Make the Switch" campaign. We even energy. Based on our own carbon reduction experience, we met with researchers at Yale Project of Climate Communication partnered with Mass Energy Consumers Alliance, a non-profit to learn more in depth how we might change our own dedicated to growing green energy in New England. We utilized organization communication and outreach practices to become 21 Mass Audubon Wildlife Sanctuaries/Nature Centers, media, more effective. As part of this project and the work that has and a series of “green” special events to build support and followed, I have found colleagues in this effort to be extremely momentum for this important effort to reduce greenhouse gas generous with ideas and resources. We are all in this together 120 and we will make progress as we collaborate and work together our work as a conservation organization. Being able to message to make an impact. this to our constituents -- both internal and external has been key to our success. Thinking through what "addressing climate Staff at Mass Audubon were thankful and continue to appreciate change" means to your own organization is a critical component resources we are providing with regards to integrating climate to ensuring the development of an effective plan. I would say to change messages into programs as well as supports for any organization that is interested in addressing climate change, inspiring and even compelling our members, visitors, and that it is critical to first look internally at one's own organization, program participants to take action. It seems almost a relief that staff, way of "doing business". Addressing any challenges within they are not alone in thinking about how to include climate your own shop will help you become more successful and change as part of our work. For many it is difficult to teach empathetic as you reach out to your constituents. climate change, its effects on local ecosystems, and appropriate/effective actions into programs. As such, it was often avoided, but discussion and sharing circles with colleagues have provided support and collaborative opportunities for program development and sharing best practices with colleagues across our statewide network of sanctuaries. Our staff also realize that integrating climate change affords unique opportunities to build networks with new partners in the communities they serve. For the component of my project that was to design and implement the "Make the Switch" campaign as an accessible way to make a real difference in taking climate action, I learned Project  Link   that there is a learning curve working with environmental http://www.massaudubon.org/our-conservation- educators to include community-based advocacy as part of their work/climate-change work/programs. Not all of our staff were comfortable communicating about the campaign so we needed to offer more Keywords   professional development and training than we originally expected. We also have/had a number of environmental Sector Keywords: Museum – University – Science or Nature educators that did not feel compelled to integrate climate Center – Community Organizations – K-12 Schools change into their programs. I was not prepared, initially, to have Approach Keywords: Science Dimension – Culture Creation – educators that were not interested in teaching climate change to Communication Models – Creating a Model – Building our program participants. Community Networks – Public Education Campaigns As an organization, we are moving in a positive direction with regards to embracing climate change as a core component of 121 Community Climate Change Education Vignettes A M O S A I C o f a p p r o a c h e s Introduction  to  the  Vignettes:  Inviting  Creativity,  Engaging  the  Heart,  and  Nurturing  Supportive   Relationships  for  Collective  Impact   Over thirty themes emerged from the reports, story- sharing, and evaluative synthesis of the three-year long experience of the Community Climate Change Fellowship. Something important and unique grew and flourished during this time of mutual support, learning, and collegial collaboration. These vignettes share snapshots of emergent experience and highlight the process dimension of the fellowship. They indicate ways in which future programs and your own climate change initiatives and communities of practice can be catalyzed to support growth and sustain important community climate resilience organizing and education. Creating opportunities for mutual learning and support via vibrant networking can prevent burnout, inspire, and create cultures. The vignettes highlight the importance of building professional capacities, including fundraising, along with generating spaces for storytelling can empower community and youth action. These sixty vignettes reveal how the process of organizing effective community climate change for collective impact requires and invites creativity, engaging the heart, and nurturing supportive relationships. 123 Preventing Burnout Vignettes    An  Invaluable  Network   Rejuvenation  Through  Shared   Learning   Michelle  Eckman   New  Knowledge  CCC  Fellows  Workshop   Evaluation  Report,  p.  3   First and foremost, the network and Facebook site provides me with wider access to climate change resources than I would have otherwise. This is Those who shared feeling disheartened during the invaluable to me, as I imagine it is for everyone of us interviews reported feeling reinvigorated at the who face the challenge of very limited time and Workshop. This was further underscored by the multiple demands on that time. closing farewells, where expressions of gratitude were emotional for all present, stories of amusing transgressions were shared, and the levity and light- Keywords: networking - professional development heartedness were fully joined. The Fellows mentioned the security and safety they felt in terms of the Workshop’s design, implementation, content, and process. Keywords: emotional support - reinvigoration - security - process Photo by Karen Temple-Beamish 125 The  Will  To  Keep  Going:   Recognizing  That  Change  Does  Not      Coping  with  Burnout   Happen  Overnight   Stew  Jenkins   Elizabeth  Pickett   I have learned to find balance between work and When I mentioned that I have two full time jobs and rejuvenation. I have become overwhelmed several I’m feeling my energy begin to wane/deplete, there times in the past 15 years at the enormity of this and was an overwhelming response by the fellows that I many other environmental problems and the lack of need to restructure so that I don’t burn out. While response from teachers, parents and students. I feel this was not related to my project, it did wake me up as if we are now experiencing the “tragedy of the and inspire me to restructure my working situation a commons” on a global scale. I’ve realized that bit. The first was to redesign my project so that it change in people’s behavior is slow. And I’ve wasn’t just for my students and our community, but discovered that when I become an emotionally dry also something I would enjoy along the way (hence sponge that I crack and yell at principals (yep I did the addition of climate change related art and dance this in about 2007) and alienate others with whom into our community event). It was valuable to have I’m trying to work. Unluckily, my work on climate so many people who are passionate and change is only about 30% of my job. So there are experienced enough to have insight on how we can other tasks I have to spend my time on if I want to best achieve our work and keep ourselves healthy keep my job. It is very difficult to be aware of this along the way. slow motion disaster and to feel that I cannot stop it from happening. Keywords: self-care - burnout - network - knowledge exchange Keywords: self-care - resilience - rejuvenation 126 Educators  Nurturing  Emotional   Needs  of  Learners  Foster  Hope  for   the  Future   Marna  Hauk   I have specifically structured educational and collaborative learning contexts to proactively attend to the emotional and learning needs of the groups I facilitate. When I teach climate change as the topic of an academic course, or as a community-based activist program, I have had great experiences. Students dive into Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone's book on Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We're in Without Going Crazy (2012), which has a four-part model for helping metabolize teachers' and students experiences engaging with this topic. Their model includes experiential writing and activities for learners and learning groups using the Spiral of the Work that Reconnects. This includes narratives of our time and a reframing around what Macy calls The Great Turning. These practices include Coming from Gratitude and Honoring Our Pain for the World to build a framing around The Great Turning, then Seeing with New Eyes, and Going Forth, in the second and third Photo by Elizabeth Pickett sections of the book. I also use Joanna Macy's online video about the Shambhala Warrior Myth and the need for both insight and compassion in this critical work of our time. Keywords: emotional learning - experiential education - reframing 127 Youth Action Vignettes    Neve  r  Too  Young:  Mutual  Learning   Accelerating  CCE  Planning  Through   Dynamic  Intergenerational   Research  Networks   Nadine  Lefort   Trevor  Hance   At the recent People’s Climate March hosted in Sydney, NS, I facilitated a children’s workshop while Through the fellowship, I have been able to gain adults met to discuss climate change actions in our momentum for my work in the GK-12 program, and region. I love working with kids, but I was open doors with various research groups who are disappointed to miss the creative and dynamic willing to visit with my students. My approach is conversations that I knew would be happening. I largely based on expanding student understanding wasn’t expecting the same depth with the 4-11 year of the systems of the world and how those might olds. change, so any additional positive exposure that involves professionals from the natural or geologic After my initial introduction to the workshop, in which sciences provides both deeper and broader learning I explained that we were going to be talking about all experiences for these students. The greatest benefit the things we do that are good for the earth, a 5 year of the fellowship was helping me focus on this old piped up, “Probably the best thing we can do for school year and integrating the GK-12 program into the earth is climb trees, because I think it makes our classroom ahead of my normal planning trees happy, and trees need love too.” schedule. Such a simple statement, but it reminded me that this movement is about networking and collaborative Keywords: researcher - student connections - brain-storming and planning, but it is also about professional development - broadening student’s loving our earth and taking time to enjoy it. Such perspectives - networking - accelerating planning wise words! I need to remember to weave that into my project and into all of my work. Keywords: preK - youth engagement - nature appreciation - multigenerational 129 Students  Lead  the  Way   Igniting  Activism  and  Connectivity   Among  Youth  Climate  Change   Jatanna  Ramirez   Leaders   The institute and their participation in the People’s Michelle  Eckman   Climate March was the first phase of the march. The second phase of the Fellowship will be their work on the Climate Education Campaign. The fellows will I will never forget the day I spent with 20 Common continue to develop their organizing and leadership Ground High School students, some of their families, skills, as well as their commitment to the climate and members of the teaching staff at the People’s justice movement by working on the Climate Climate March in NYC. The students expressed an Education Campaign that Global Kids leaders understanding of why the speed of change in our developed this year. This campaign calls for the climate is such a threat to us locally and globally, Department of Education to mandate all New York and truly understood the meaning of their actions public schools, grades K-12, to incorporate climate and participation. Being around these young people change science and solutions in their curriculum. was so inspiring, so reassuring. I got to see their This student-led campaign will help the students faces, their expressions and responses to their leading it to further develop their leadership skills surroundings. To have that experience with my CCC and it will break through one of the greatest barriers Fellowship partner at this point in time in our work, in of the climate justice movement, an uninformed my fellowship, in our place in history….well, it’s hard citizenry. The students have already gained the to put into words. But it was perfect, just, and fitting. support of two City Councilmembers who introduced their campaign demand as a resolution. Keywords: inspiration - global consciousness- activism Keywords: youth engagement - youth leadership - advocacy - climate justice 130 Professional Capacities Vignettes Cultivating  Climate  Change  Program   Development  and  Management   Skills  Among  Citizens   Karen  Temple-­‐Beamish   The Desert Oasis Teaching (DOT) Garden’s mission is to teach ecological restoration and food production gardening; implement and evaluate desert-adapted agriculture; unify the power of innovative technologies with the strength of New Mexico's diverse cultural heritage; and demonstrate respect and reverence for nature and humanity. As drought, soil erosion and food insecurity continue to grip the desert southwest, the DOT garden will help our community meet the Keywords: networking - professional development challenges we face The fellowship has provided me with the professional feeding our families, now and in the future. development that has launched me from a hopeful, classroom teacher with a good idea into a capable and confident director of an ambitious, multi- purposed project. We have worked on our mission statement, created a development team strategy, refined our messaging, and learned how to better communicate to our community about our project. Especially helpful were the sessions provided in west Virginia, the follow up webinars and the networking with other professionals in my field. The encouragement and can-do attitude of everyone involved has been a wonderful salve to lagging energy and spirit. Keywords: food security - professional development - inspiration Photo by Karen Temple-Beamish 132 Best  Practices  Create  Refined   Program  Design  and  Development   Strategic  Communications:  The   Power  of  Engaging  Speaking  Skills   Laura  Mack   The professional development training I've received Kris  Scopinich   through the CCC fellowship has been invaluable in shaping the design and development of this project As I have shared above, I have found the tools from (and I have no doubt, will play a significant role in its Spitfire to be incredibly useful. I am very interested successful implementation). For example, best in receiving more professional development in the practices in EE that I was formally exposed to for the area of strategic communications. The importance of first time at the June 2014 NCTC workshop -- from effective communication with regards to any strategic communications and program evaluation, environmental issue and specifically climate change to community engagement and use of technology, to cannot be overstated. I also have to point out how fundraising -- greatly helped me to refine my incredibly inspiring and impactful Keya Chatterjee’s approach to the project, and craft (I hope) talk was. It has not left me. It has inspired my work compelling grant proposals to support this work. In and intense focus on integrating more green energy- addition, it has been extremely helpful to learn from focused programming and interpretation at our the work of the EECapacity / NAAEE project team nature centers. It has also inspired me to personally and other fellows; to receive feedback from the team support green energy with more effort in my own and peers; and to be connected with many terrific household. resources that I was previously unfamiliar with. Keywords: Keya Chatterjee – inspiration Keywords: best practices - professional development - networking 133 The  Power  of  Distributed   Momentum   Marna  Hauk   Composing a web page in the first months for my project catalyzed creation of a website and moved my own project thinking forward. I leveraged the Many people avoid the topic of climate change. And project status reports and applications to dig into they can really want to avoid the topic of climate project details and dream the project forward into justice. And many people don’t know what to make being. Meeting others with a rich diversity of project of interdisciplinary projects that don’t fit in the boxes approaches and sharing our enthusiasms, of traditional activism, environmental education, or interweaving approaches and successes has been community action, organizing, or engagement. An very life-giving and deeply rewarding. We had small educational program that doesn’t charge tuition? A shared initiatives, ways we nurtured each other. I program intentionally inclusive of queer community knew the fellows were there, and that helped sustain power? For women? What is a social incubator? All my interest and taking the next steps. The depth of of these things were conspiring to make and sustain mutual caring has helped me keep my momentum. momentum toward innovating a social incubator for women for climate resilience action projects a tough Just as I might dive under another wave of other process. demands on my time, it would have been easy to “bag it” and call it a day. Instead, by attending If I think about a dimension of the CCC project that conference calls, interacting one-on-one in support helped me tremendously it was about the power of calls, and through attendance at conferences, distributed momentum. We are all engaged with lots hearing updates on social media and email, I was of projects in addition to the ones that the culture sustained in attending to my project. Now, for my counts as “work.” As an emerging academic and a project, instead of an idea on paper, we are about to nonprofit director, it can be easier to focus attention have another meeting of the six projects in the on the fires others are also watching (or making). ecosocial incubator here in Oregon while the winter The CCC Fellowship nurtured my ongoing rains fall. These projects spinning up are a true engagement with my emergent project, in spite of all testimony to cultural creativity when given some the barriers I described. In the fellowship, in addition space to grow and evolve. to tool-sharing, we have been generating our own cultural momentum: enthusiasm as much as Keywords: mutual learning – caring – community – accountability for the fellows with each other. momentum 134 Change  Starts  at  the  Inclusive   Community  Level   Community  Input  Toward  Effective   Reframing   New  Knowledge  CCC  Fellows  Workshop   Evaluation  Report,  p.2   New  Knowledge  CCC  Fellows  Post-­‐Project     Evaluation  Report,  p.3   This constellation of Fellows are highly motivated, achievement oriented, see themselves as leaders, They had gone beyond establishing a potential value mentors, and shepherds. They conceptualize - that is, they had built considerable shared community in varied ways – operationally, knowledge capital and had made changes in their structurally, functionally – but all see it as a primary respective practices to an extent that would have source and locus of change, and themselves as been unimaginable without the input and support of agents of change. the community of Fellows. All final interviewees pointed to performance improvements, even those Keywords: community - changemakers   whose projects remained less fully fleshed out or in earlier stages of development than others. A number of those interviewed highlighted both in their own work and in the work of others, how much reframing had occurred, how actively engaged they had found themselves in rethinking and revamping markers for success, broadening and simplifying these definitions for their own work, the work of their projects, and the active engagement of partners and their mutual constituents. Keywords: shared knowledge - reframing - strategy - collective input Photo by Karen Temple-Beamish 135 Fundraising Vignettes Collaborative  Fundraising  Efforts  to   Personal  Epiphanies  in  Fund   Support  Climate  Change  Programs   Development  Strategies   Karen  Temple-­‐Beamish   Marna  Hauk   Andy Robinson’s thesis that fundraising should be considered a team effort – and to have a strategy is I think one of the moments that stays with me was in of paramount importance. We are now incorporating the funding training, during the activity of having this into our development strategy and are poised to someone ask five times, “Why should I fund your make a big difference – the school’s development organization?”, I realized that I myself in an earlier officer has offered us carte blanche to write our DOT part of my own life arc had received an informal garden into his campaign document that will soon be version of the program I am designing (mentoring, published to the school’s potential donors. This empowerment, skills building, and resource sharing; could not have been accomplished without a team for women’s empowerment generally not climate approach and strategy. change), and this has deepened my self-understanding and how I pitch the work. It is more authentic feeling and genuine to want to give back Keywords: fundraising – teamwork rather than just “I want to help this disenfranchised group.” This epiphany that I myself had benefitted from the types of experiences I am inspired to create definitely stays with me. Keywords: fundraising - self-realization - donor cultivation 137 How  to  Make  a  Pitch  to  a  Funder   This instantly brought me back to the role-play that Andy Robinson had performed for us an hour or so Maria  L.  Talero   earlier, in which he acted out a conversation with a potential funder. What I remember is the way he Susan Chung and I were working together in a paused and centered himself before he began to breakout session of Andy Robinson's fundraising speak. And that he had explained this as being presentation at the NCTC. We were sitting on the almost more important than the words you choose to back steps of the building in the fresh air and make your pitch. Back on the back steps in the sunshine. Susan launched in to her fundraising pitch sunshine with Susan, I saw myself in her shoes, while I listened, and then responded as "myself," talking to someone about my organization and trying telling her as honestly as I could how I perceived her to make a pitch, and I realized that - especially since message and her organization. Then we both had a my organization is unusual - I need to put the moment of shock as we realized that her pitch had emotional connection with my listener first, and make left me with an entirely incorrect impression of her a real effort to center myself and understand where organization, and that the work they actually do is they're coming from and how they might be listening very different and interests me a great deal. In the to me as I make my pitch. My pitches have improved conversation that followed, as we tried to figure out dramatically since this session and since the NCTC how the signals had gotten crossed in her message, training as a whole, and I think I have graduated to a I learned in a flash how much it matters that you whole new level of ability in bringing people "inside" understand out where your listener is coming from the work I am doing and helping them understand and the kinds of trigger words that shape their my real goals in a short space of time. impressions.   Keywords: fundraising - problem solving - knowing your audience 138 Elements  Which  Support  Longer   Term  Project  Sustainability   New  Knowledge  CCC  Fellows  Workshop   Evaluation  Report,  p.  5   Longer-term trajectory in Fellows’ thinking around CCC work was also seen in the sessions they most appreciated (fundraising, communication, and evaluation) and the additional support they needed (channels for communication, financial resources, and evaluation strategies). These are critical to ensure the long-term success of their projects and the sustainability of the emerging CoP. Keywords: sustainability - fundraising - communication - evaluation - strategy Photo by Rocio Lozano-Knowlton 139 From that point onwards, I noted the same effect: Fundraising  Becomes  Easier  After   every time I pitched the project to someone, and Validation  From  Your  First  Victory   used these magic words, "we received a grant," it was like a door would open up in their mind and they instantly viewed us as legitimate. It is a little bit sad to see that our society doesn't have much regard for Maria  Talero   the efforts of true grassroots community groups, but mostly, it was so helpful to be able to use these So I can bear witness to the truly magical effect that words that unlocked the minds of our listeners and took place when I returned from the Kettering made them feel that we should be taken seriously. Foundation research exchange conference in Dayton, Ohio (to which I was invited through the People need hope, and in this case, hope came from CCC Fellowship, and where I received the news that hearing the news that a big funder like the EPA I had been awarded the mini-grant) to report back to (don't worry, I repeatedly clarified that it wasn't direct my Climate Courage Resilience Circle members that EPA funding, but people got excited anyway) cares we got the grant. It was touching and inspiring to see enough to support a community-based climate the excitement in their faces and to hear that they change initiative. Hope came from the sense that were thrilled and ready to jump on board with the something new was afoot, and that there was a new project. The news that a funding agency had kind of cultural and social "hub" forming, and that it recognized our group's existence and was ready to was all due to a grant that was awarded to a 'mere' support our efforts was a source of real pride for community group. I have been moved to tears them (to the point where it has been difficult to frame watching my volunteer team stand proud and tall at this report in terms of "my project" since from then our events and seeing how much the recognition until today, I have truly experienced this as "our from this granting project has made them feel project," a true collective achievement based on our validated in their efforts. group's mutual friendship, trust and goodwill). Keywords: fundraising - legitimacy - grants - recognition - hope 140 Networking Vignettes The  Importance  of  Networking   Prioritizing  People:  A  Connected   Kris  Scopinich   Community  is  the  Most  Important   Resource   Generally, it has been very helpful and supportive to have a network of other environmental educators on Jatnna  Ramirez   the same path in many different locations, working on meaningful projects in each of their communities. Specifically, Jennifer Hubbard-Sánchez, likely The most meaningful lesson I have gained from the unbeknownst to her, has been very helpful through fellowship is the importance of having a community the number of resources she has shared over our that can inspire and support our work. The Facebook community. community of environmental educators that the Community Climate Change Action Fellowship has created has enabled me to develop and implement Keywords: social media - network - community the project and to improve in other aspects of my work. Moreover, this fellowship reinforced in me the idea that people is the most vital resource of all. I also see this reflect in my project as I see my students connecting and building long lasting friendships. Without this fellowship, I wouldn’t have had the idea to purposefully create a platform for the students to build their own leadership community, which I think is essential for their leadership development and for creating effective change. Keywords: community- knowledge exchange - support 142 Collective  Capacity  and  Collective   Impact   Climate  Fellows  Appreciated  In-­‐ Person  Time  Together   Margie  Simon  de  Ortiz   New  Knowledge  CCC  Fellows  Post-­‐Project   It was very inspiring for me to interact with this group Evaluation  Report,  p.  4   of wonderful people (in a beautiful place) who all share the same concern for the future of our planet and the desire to actively contribute to its There was an appreciation of the large amount of conservation and sustainability. All of our collective content the Leadership Team had made available to challenges are difficult; ranging from, the most the Fellowship, and the recognition that striking a common - finding economic resources, to the most balance could be difficult. There appeared to have complex; interacting with contradictory social and been a general consensus, however, that this group political interests to have our ‘alternative’ ideas could have benefited from more time spent in accepted and embraced. Getting to know this group working task groups, topic and focus groups, increases my resolve to achieve the goals of this informal gatherings, and assignments for dyads and specific project as well as the general mission of small groups. A heavier emphasis on time for CICEANA. In general, my interaction with NAAEE dialogue and social intercourse would have served encourages me to not loose sight of these and my to further solidify the desired sense of community personal goals when I interact with so many and inter-reliance. individuals doing so many good things. Keywords: dialogue - social intercourse - community Keywords: inspiration - collective - resolve – courage 143 A  Beautiful  Web   • Jatnna Ramirez and I partnered on a CT-based Sustainaware project where we trained ten high school students in environmental and climate justice leadership. Michelle  Eckman   • Jason Davis worked with Common Ground in spring 2015 on his Climate Stories project. He Whenever I think of networking, I think of a spider spent a day in the classroom teaching students web with each spindle being a line of communication interviewing skills, and then connected them in connecting individuals at each corner. In this another session with students in Shishmaref, particular case, the strength of the web is Alaska - a community suffering tremendously contributed not by just one spider, but all of the from climate change impacts. individuals in each corner. The web of Community Climate Change Fellows is the strongest web in On a personal level, I have developed deeply which I have ever helped build. This building of this meaningful friendships with many of the fellows. I am web has spun into many incredible relationships that so grateful this fellowship brought these people into have beneficial to me as an individual and my life; they bring me such joy. professional. I have had the change to visit with many of them As a professional, I have worked with three Fellows across the country and plan to visit some more. on the following projects: • Kris Scopinich and I have partnered on not one, I consider the whole group to be a family to me. but two federal grants. We were awarded an While we all have varying levels of closeness and EPA Environmental Literacy grant in 2015; we compatibility, I believe we are all ultimately very began our work on our Building Climate Action supportive of one another. Communities project this January! We are awaiting word from NOAA on another high school climate education project we proposed Keywords: partnering – emotional support – this winter. possible future collaborations 144 Seeing  the  Bigger  Picture:  Fellows   Provided  Diverse  Perspectives   Marna  Hauk   Another pivotal moment during the training week was during the pitch sessions at the end. I received a lot of support and novel ideas for how to frame my project to others. That kind of synthesizing, multi- perspective feedback was phenomenally helpful. Because I am inside of the subculture with whom I am wanting to develop services/projects, I really gained valuable perspective on how I might also frame my project as economic development, job training, and queer empowerment in addition to its relevance as a women’s and climate action project. I also received phenomenal help making novel connections about how to pitch it particularly in an Oregon- and Portland context due to one rotating visitor who knows the Portland context. Photo by Elizabeth Pickett Keywords: support - network - fellowship - multi- perspective feedback 145 Mutual Learning Vignettes Uncovering  Solutions  Through   Fellowship  Collaboration   The  Fellowship  Accelerated  Design   and  Implementation   Luis  Morales   Marna  Hauk   The CCC fellows and NAAEE-EECapacity team sparked the courage and inspiration and provided invaluable advice on how to promote and negotiate There are several ways the fellowship training access to the land by envisioning multiple win-win opportunities and network have improved and tuned scenarios and solutions that would be possible if my fellowship project. First, it supported me developing this project. developing a project plan on six axes of action for next steps. The press release push put me in motion Some CCC fellows have expressed their interest in and accelerated my early project articulation: I partnering and to participate from their own prototyped an initial website and set up PayPal backgrounds and fields of expertise. donation infrastructure. I have also accelerated mentor recruitment and prospective learning circle recruitment. I have sought help to hold an initial Having the opportunity of collaborating and having survey and focus group to develop personas for the insight of such an amazing and inspiring program recruitment and programming advisors (the fellows and the NAAEE- EECapacity development. team) has encouraged me to go on and take a bigger challenge (Selva Escuela Project). The training in Virginia was amazing. The interactive exercises grounded the emergent learning. I It has also allowed and inspired me to reinforce appreciated the trainings on community-based existing partnerships and create new ones (in organizing, climate change information, funding, and particular with fellow Rocio Lozano´s Merito the culminating pitch sessions with feedback. I Foundation and an NGO we work with based in San enjoyed beginning to get to know other participants. Diego called Ocean Connectors). Keywords: networking - inspiring Keywords: courage - inspiration - knowledge exchange- partnerships – collaboration 147 Collaborative  Co-­‐Design  Through   Reflection  and  Connection   Sam’s  Story:  Diversity  and   Susan  Chung   Community  Environmental   Engagement   The fellowship experience was meaningful on a personal level because I had the opportunity to meet Sam  Little   with other environmental educators who inspired me. When I arrived at the NCTC, I was surrounded by nature and given a space and time to reflect on The Community EE guidelines are particularly useful my co-design practice. This personal reflection to my work, as Parks & People’s primary audiences interspersed with communal activity assisted me in are the underserved, low-income and minority gaining the insight and courage to create changes in communities in Baltimore. I also find great value in the way I implement the co-design outreach in hearing the approaches my fellow fellows are using Vancouver. The reflection was very valuable: The to address climate change in similar situations to conversations I had in the evenings with those myself (i.e. urban environmental education). unexpected fireflies lighting up the night; the Though, the diversity of fellowship action projects speakers who inspired me to keep fighting the fight; taking place across the continent are astounding; the strategies for networking and fundraising that there are just so many unique and amazing ways to opened my eyes to the possibilities. Many of my address such a wicked problem – it’s inspiring! colleagues reported to me that I had new strength upon returning from West Virginia. Keywords: knowledge exchange - communicating climate change Keywords: self-care - reflection 148 Broadened  Perspectives  Supporting   Future  Work  of  Fellows   Finding  One’s  People  and  the   Significance  of  Social  Learning   New  Knowledge  CCC  Fellows  Workshop   Evaluation  Report,  p.  5   New  Knowledge  CCC  Fellows  Workshop   Evaluation  Report,  p.  2   The End-of-Workshop Evaluation Survey validated that the group had not only expanded their knowledge base but had also been exposed to a rich An interest in a close-knit community of CC Fellows array of ideas and perspectives they anticipated was expressed. Either implicitly or explicitly, they would enrich their work. conveyed the following needs: • Being part of a community; • Feeling one with others sharing similar values; • Identifying with one another’s passions, Keywords: perspective - enriching - continued goals, and visions; and • A kind of union, with impact promise of reunion. One Fellow described these sentiments as follows: “Really interested in the fact that there was going to be a supportive context inside of a really collaborative model, which I really like – I am a social learner as well, and I like working in collaborative contexts where people can spark ideas off one another and have mutual nurturing for supports.” Keywords: community - longevity - value alignment - supportive Photo by Karen Temple-Beamish 149 A  Sense  of  Community   with zoos, aquariums and science centers, but I found myself around a table with an elementary school teacher, a musician and storyteller, and an Adam  Ratner   educator with a National Park (among many others). Hearing the real-world experiences of how climate change intersected all these different sectors of At first when contemplating whether to apply for the society was amazing and the unique approaches Community Climate Change Fellowship I was torn. I being used provided a wonderful resource that I had already recently gotten involved in another could bring back to my own audiences within the national collaborative related to climate change (the marine and animal-centric fields. National Network for Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation) and needed to identify the best uses of my limited time that I could commit to climate After just one week together, it was clear that this change. At The Marine Mammal Center, a nonprofit group would be an invaluable resource not only for marine mammal hospital and education facility in not only educational resources and support as I Sausalito, climate change is unfortunately something move forward on my climate change initiatives, but that we see directly affecting our marine mammal also for the sense of community and inspiration I patients, but until recently we hadn’t tackled head-on took from the group. As the week came to a close, with a concerted effort due to limited time and we all wrote postcards to ourselves with words of resources (the typical story for many non-profits). In wisdom and even two years later, those same words the end, I decided that the Community Climate ring true: Change Fellowship could provide a new layer to our climate change work and I dove in headfirst. Don’t forget to take advantage of the tools and network now available! Keep asking questions and From the first minutes together as a group in West evaluating! Remember the experience, the Virginia, I knew I had made the right decision. I knowledge, the setting, the ideas, the people and the found myself surrounded by 25 amazing fellows, all inspiration. bringing incredible backgrounds and skill sets to the table. My network over the past seven years had Keywords: inspiration – resources – community – focused primarily on the animal and marine world new perspectives 150 Story Telling Vignettes Identifying  Platforms  for  Common   Expanding  an  Inclusive  Storytelling   Ground  to  Connect  with  Climate   Network  for  a  Climate  Change   Change  Non-­‐Believers   Leader   Carlos  M.  Velazquez   Jason  Davis   Recently I met with a local falconer who has noticed that when he hunts with his hawks they are coming I have been fortunate to interview about half of the back with smaller and skinnier mice and ground CCC fellows for Climate Stories Project. Some squirrels. Many of the smaller prey they feed on are fellows have been very helpful in connecting me with gone from the fields because of the hottest summer others to interview, especially native and First Nation in NC. This gave me the opportunity to speak to a community members who have first-hand North Carolinian nonbeliever about climate change observations of climate-driven changes to their local without an argument. environments and communities. I have also been exposed to a great deal of valuable resources and Keywords: conversation - citizen science - organizations through my participation in the CCC connection Facebook page and in conversations with other fellows. I have been very impressed by the willingness of the other fellows to participate in the project and give me feedback and suggestions. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to be a CCC Fellow and the chance to develop my project much more than would have been possible on my own. Keywords: networking - knowledge exchange - inclusivity Photo by Karen Temple-Beamish 152 Building  Leadership  Capacity  for   Climate  Justice   Jatnna  Ramirez   Synthesizing  the  Significance  of   Language  and  Emotional  Messaging   The Community Climate Change Fellowship has had a great impact in my professional life. When I was first selected to participate in this fellowship, I had New  Knowledge  CCC  Fellows  Workshop   great passion for environmental and climate education but I did not have a lot of experience in Evaluation  Report,  pp.  2-­‐3   the field. Being part of this fellowship has increased my capacity as an environmental educator There is recognition that the nuance of language, tremendously. I now have access and know of tools voice, and message are inextricably bound. For this and resources that prior to this fellowship I did not reason, sensitivity and thoughtfulness in its know about. These tools have strengthened my construction and use in what is considered an capacity to deliver high quality environmental and environmental justice movement is deemed critical, climate justice programs. One of the most warranting deep thought and consideration. There is meaningful experiences to date that I have had a clearly emerging appreciation that movement will thanks to my participation in this fellowship is the occur through the winning of hearts and minds, the opportunity to connect with a fellow to carry out a reaching out and inclusion of others. Science component of a global environmental sustainability learning is deemed invaluable, but there is a viable initiative that I have led at Global Kids for two years. sense that emotional learning is central in the Together we provided a five-day environmental consideration of many, and articulated by most. sustainability training with a focus on the global climate movement for 10 high school students from Keywords: language - messaging - emotional Connecticut in New York City. learning Keywords: capacity - tools - collaboration - leadership - climate justice 153 Building  the  Individual  Leader  to   For NAAEE and E E Capacity, it’s not about favoring Connect  Necessary  Sectors   the closest friends, pleasing a specific political agenda or politician, scientific endeavor or complying with a grant. It is about empowering the people behind grass-root movements with a local or regional Rocio  Lozano-­‐Knowlton   impact and abut global vision. My little regional battles mean so much more now knowing there are This fellowship was exactly what I needed in this other CCC Fellows who feel, think and fight the time of my professional life. The application arrived same or similar ways for what we believe in. It is in my inbox one day out of the blue, as if the good for our blue planet, and NAAEE and EE universe had sent it, and I am so thankful. For 10 Capacity is there for us. years I worked as a consultant for a Federal government agency dear to my heart. I tried to Keywords: professional support - tools - knowledge – institutionalize ocean and Earth conservation courage education in the region’s public school system, and was very discouraged for lack of sustainability and long-term investment from across public agencies. The fellowship came to me at a time when I needed to grow from an individual’s effort to deliver environmental education content and experiences to underserved communities, to an environmental NGO with multiple programs and partners. EECapacity gave me tools, training, knowledge and courage to grow and have a larger impact, and to envision, design and launch a new program titled EECCOA that is having tangible impacts. Photo of CCC Fellow Elvia Rodriquez Ochoa 154 Culture Creation Vignettes Creating  an  Effective,  Replicable   Citizen  Action  Can  Mean  More  Than   Module  for  Communicating  Climate   a  Reduced  Carbon  Footprint   Change   Adam  Ratner   Maria  Talero   My project builds upon the system of the National My goal is to help counter the perception that the Network of Ocean and Climate Change "average person" is more or less powerless to do Interpretation which provides staff and volunteers at much about climate change beyond reducing their respected, highly trafficked environmental individual carbon footprint, by providing a context in organizations with climate change science and which people can discover and invent ways of taking scientifically-tested communication strategies from action by teaming up with other "average people" in social psychologists, to guide visitors toward their own communities, discovering as they do so strategies to reduce their fossil fuel use. This “train that no one is truly "average" or "powerless" and that the trainers” program will reach hundreds of everyone has a unique set of resources and abilities thousands of people each year and is easily to contribute to the fight against climate change. replicable by other organizations, using the tools created from this program. The program will Keywords: empowering - community – innovation empower individuals and communities with the science of climate change and solutions to reduce their fossil fuel use. Bringing together experts from different fields of science, communication, and social psychology allows us to build messages that are powerful and relatable, leading to stewardship in our communities, while being consistent across numerous organizations around the country. Keywords: climate change communication - messaging - educator training Photo by Karen Temple-Beamish 156 Grasping  the  Human  Dimensions  of   Climate  Change   Another student wanted to do a pizza fundraiser where people paid a certain amount to receive a ticket. Tickets would be coded for how much pizza one would get and people could get two slices each, Jennifer  Hubbard-­‐Sánchez   one slice each, half a slice, a slice to share with two people, etc. He wanted to illustrate the changes in In a meeting this week with the Climate Change access to food that are predicted due to a changing Committee of the MANRRS group, we were climate and how they would vary around the world. brainstorming our projects ideas and the many paths The fact that the MANRRS students are thinking down which our educational campaign can go. about climate change at this level and about the Students were bouncing ideas off of each other and creative ways they want to showcase their project to two of them illustrated to me the impact the project is the community are so meaningful to me, both having on their thinking and on how they are really personally and professionally. grasping the human dimension of climate change, something I view as extremely important. One Keywords: human dimension - food security - student suggested having a “cowpea soup” agriculture - civic action - college student dinner/fundraiser for MANRRS where we could feed folks and give them an overview of climate change and link the idea that green beans are starting to underperform in KY soils, mainly due to climate change, making the point that cowpeas are the next up-and-coming crop suitable for our changing conditions here. Photo by Maria Talero 157 Schools  Reduce  Their  Carbon   Footprints   Rocio  Lozano-­‐Knowlton   Students will be immersed in climate science and the engineering practices of energy management to deeply understand and consciously address climate change. Students will assess their school’s carbon footprint in teams of 4 to 5 students per class and present their findings of energy audits in Kilowatt Photo by Azucena Yzquierdo units. Their findings will show energy consumptions per activity and/or processes over time. They will By working primarily with Title 1 schools, we will research energy saving methods and practices. target mainly economically disadvantaged and School’s energy diet solutions may include among Hispanic students who are severely other: methods for further reducing, reusing, underrepresented in STEM careers. Students will recycling, and composting waste products; changing have pride and ownership over their project the school’s landscape to native and drought outcomes while learning and using the most up to tolerant vegetation; changing cafeteria materials to date climate and environmental science. Partnering reusable or compostable plates and utensils, and organizations include EPA, NOAA weather service, cost-effective solar energy options. Students will NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, Jean- present their findings to their peers during an end-of Michael Cousteau Ocean Futures Society, CREEC, year science fair, then the best projects of each Ventura County Office of Education and CSU school will be presented to school district Channel Islands. administrators, Science Fairs, Sanctuary Advisory Meetings, and/or City Council meetings   Keywords: energy - partnerships - personal impact - carbon footprint 158 . Inspired  to  Add  Art  and  Music  to   the  Science!   Elizabeth  Pickett   Upon becoming a CCC Fellow, I was thrilled to be While in West Virginia, many of the CCC Fellows invited to participate and yet wondered if it was wise were kind enough to provide valuable feedback on of me to add one more commitment and project to both my project plan and my personal/professional my otherwise two-fulltime-job list of projects and quandary about 'how do I maintain both full-time jobs tasks needing my attention. Originally, I proposed and still make room for art and music in my own life something that I knew I could pull off within the with no time for anything extra?' context of my existing programming- a climate change- focused student-led event within our Thanks to the ideas and brainstorming of many community. My initial thinking was that students within our cohort, I worked to incorporate music and would be introduced to some extra material related art into our community climate change event. to climate change and then supported to share Students not only learned the science behind climate about climate change with adult audiences within change, but created art and poetry to supplement our town and county. their slide presentations on causes, impacts, and solutions to climate change. We invited professional Indeed, my project did remain fairly true to this artists and poets to perform at the event, practiced original concept, except it expanded in ways that not and performed original songs related to the only benefitted the students and the community landscape and waters of our island and state (we live event they led, but also allowed me to incorporate in Hawai’i and I was able to compose some music for additional life-giving aspects for me personally. This the children to sing to), and provided local was something inspired as a result of the fellowship, organizations the opportunity to invite the audience and something I didn't expect to be a result of to join their environmental working within this group. 159 conservation, restoration, or garden efforts. What started as a simple presentation idea led to an event that brought together diverse individuals and entities within our community and allowed for lots of creativity from our staff, partners, and the students themselves (and me)! In the end, our event was a success, and the result of finding a way to keep my own climate change related environmental education work energy-providing instead of tiring is a testament to the knowledge, experience, insight, and encouraging nature of the CCC Fellows. Keywords: youth empowerment – inspirations 160 Inspiration Vignettes Leadership  in  Event  Facilitation   Inspiring  Budding  Role  Models   Tara  Hostnik   As a young professional, I have had many mentors and role models to look up to in the field of environmental education. For the first time in my career, I feel like I am becoming the person I have always wanted to be in this field! I have a similar feeling with my participation in this Fellowship. I feel empowered and privileged to be a part of something so incredible. Many people approached me during and after the Festival with positive feedback about this event. The executive director told me this was the single biggest event during his over 30-year career with the Parks. Dr. Story Musgrave, one of the astronaut speakers and lead mechanic for the Hubble Space Telescope, gave me not only an autographed copy of his book, but a hug and encouragement that I was doing good things. I felt incredibly accomplished and I will carry this positive experience with me throughout my future. I learned, through this Festival, how important it is to take Photo by Karen Temple-Beamish initiative, form positive relationships with partners, volunteers, members, staff and our audience and to sometimes step back and delegate jobs rather than try to accomplish everything on my own. Keywords: inspiration - partnerships 162 Long  Lasting  Climate  Change   Advocacy  Emerges  from  Genuine   Community  Oneness   Marna  Hauk   Start wherever you are, with whomever you are working with, be it a neighborhood group, your family, or your school. Adopt a collaborative, bottoms-up approach so that everyone can engage Photo by Karen Temple-Beamish together in emergent, solutionary explorations and community-building experiments that are right for your context and place. If the actions and ideas are "Our dreams and visions for the future are essential sourced emergently from the group, the level of for navigating through life because they give us a commitment and meaning-making will be very deep. direction to move in....Moreover, moving toward a We are all in this together. Catalyzing climate destination that’s excited and inspires us energizes change visionary-activists who are emboldened to our journey, puts wind in our sails, and strengthens collaborate with others and nurture community our determination to overcome obstacles. The ability thriving is much more effective than transmitting to 'catch' an inspiring vision is therefore key to science facts. Kindle the creativity of othersothers' staying motivated. When we're moved by a vision creativity to engage with this opportunity for re- that we share with others, we become part of a culturing and solidarity. community with a common purpose." (Macy & Johnstone, 2012, p. 163). We are never alone. Keywords: solutions based - visionary - solidarity - collaborative – grassroots 163 When  the  Framing  of  Facts  Can   You  Are  Not  Alone:  Finding   Make  a  Difference   Strength  in  Shared  Vision  Toward   Change   Rocio  Lozano-­‐Knowlton   Ray  Jantzen   Ms. Chatterjee shared strong tangible justifications during her presentation, and her decisiveness and The time spent with the cohort in Shepardstown was perseverance was contagious. After conversations inspiring. Living in the north and in a primarily with some of NOAA ONMS education staff during resource based government town, I find there is little which I shared some of the learned facts, and most interest in environmental issues. Yet I am very importantly ‘The framing of the facts’, my colleagues concerned. I find I often have few others to discuss at ONMS are now supportive of the ‘My School’s these issues with. The other Fellows provided the Energy Diet’ project, and ONMS will be providing reminder that there are many people doing great letters of support and access to NOAA content, work that hold the same concerns and passions as I curriculum, media and databases to the project do. participants. Keywords: inspiration - networking - professional Keywords: climate conversations - communicating development climate change 164 Any  Means  Necessary   Life  Altering  Program  Creating   Lifelong  Partnerships   Trevor  Hance   New  Knowledge  CCC  Fellows  Post-­‐Project   As a classroom teacher in an extraction-economy Evaluation  Report,  p.  5   state that started the whole “standards movement”, I have to be particularly careful in structuring these Numerous Fellows reported this program as having learning opportunities. Very candidly, most teachers been one of prem   ier opportunities for them in their I know would never reach as far outside of the career, both for professional and personal reasons. required curriculum as I do to engage students and They reported life-altering impacts and deeply excite them towards their future. I believe I have an affecting changes in hopes, aspirations, and obligation to help them realize their potential by any direction. Some indicate having forged deeply means necessary, and work hard to find valued relationships they anticipate maintaining far opportunities like the one provided through this into the future. fellowship that help me stay on this path by giving me a community of supportive “ears.” Keywords: professional development - personal development - emotional learning - long term Keywords: K-12 - student engagement - youth relationship building engagement - overcoming obstacles 165 The  Musician   time together they have supported each other in new more ways than one as they developed their community climate change projects, hoping to learn Tara  Hostnik   resources, fundraising, marketing and other lessons. One of the most valuable aspects of the fellowship however, was meeting 25 other inspiring and Spirits were high and bellies full as the dancers motivated individuals and gaining their general trust migrated toward the dance floor. The musicians and support. Through formal and informal transitioned from one song to the next with ease, conversations, group discussions, phone updates filling the warm San Diego air with Latin beats. Tiki and webinars, meals, traveling and playing together, torches were aflame creating a nice ambiance as this group learned each other's projects but also nature lovers from around North America walked became friends. On this particular night, one of their around in their fun, flashy evening wear to celebrate own was on stage performing a solo alongside the a week of networking, learning, sharing and band. In this perfect moment in San Diego, just as connecting at the NAAEE conference. One group in they had always done since they first met, this group particular had their eyes glued to the stage with was now cheering on and supporting their colleague, smiles so large their cheeks hurt. but most importantly, their friend, as he shared his passion and talent with the world. The Community Climate Change Fellows have now spent three weeks together, once during a private Keywords: partnering, emotional support, mutual workshop and twice at this conference. During their learning, self-care, inspirations, friendship 166 Community Climate Change Education Articles A M O S A I C o f a p p r o a c h e s Article:  “Cast  your  minds  into  the  future...”  –  About  the  Co-­‐Design  Approach  of   Emergent  Illustration   Susan  Chung   Framing   Co-design is an award-winning method of design participation invented by Canadian architect Stanley King where citizens gather with an artist to collaboratively draw their future. The goal is to capture a citizen's round of life and desired environment in the form of drawings. We ask: “Cast your minds forward into the future and imagine that all the design is done, and done entirely to your satisfaction...What would you be doing?” As people talk, we draw, and a picture emerges of their complex web of social interaction that must be supported by future design. The drawings become design criteria for planning. Co-design has helped over 300 communities collaboratively design their future space. Susan Chung is an experienced co-design artist facilitator who has practiced co-design for 24 years. She adapted co-design for Environmental Education and was recognized with an Advocate for Architecture Award by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. Recently, she conducted co-design training in University of Boulder, Colorado, Los Angeles Congress of Neighborhoods, and San Diego. Resources More information on Susan here: http://youthmanual.blogspot.ca/p/susan-chung.html Co-design Group Website: http://co-designgroup.ca/ And for latest news, our blog: http://youthmanual.blogspot.ca/ 168 Article:  How  Open  Space  Technology  Ignited  Environmental  Learning   and  Action  in  L.A.   Laura  Mack   Framing   How many times have you ever been to a meeting where the agenda was a completely blank wall? If you have, and the resulting meeting was declared by your group as both your most fun and most productive meeting ever, it just might have been an “Open Space Technology” meeting! Thanks to the CCC fellowship, I got to sample this meeting in how simple it is -- and strangely, says Owen, “how it always approach at our 2014 fellows’ retreat. It stuck in my mind as seems to work to address issues and enhance group capacity.” much for the lively, rich conversations it generated among our group (none of us wanted the session to end!), as for the Open Space uses two very simple mechanisms -- a Community infectious advocacy for the technique by our facilitator. Bulletin Board (aka the blank wall you start with), and a Village Marketplace. Fast forward two years. My nonprofit, the Neighborhood Council Sustainability Alliance (NCSA), and I needed to create a space Let’s start with the Bulletin Board. At my community workshop, for community leaders from across Los Angeles to: come some 50 diverse participants, all new to Open Space (and together, learn about, and act on timely neighborhood and curious!), were invited to write on a sheet of paper any issue for citywide environmental sustainability issues; produce clear which they had personal passion and were willing to convene a proceedings and prioritized plans with action commitments; and discussion on, related to our theme of fostering environmental achieve all of this on a shoestring budget and within the span of sustainable communities in LA. (Additionally, as recommended a three hour workshop. by Owen, conveners were “invited, begged, and urged - though never commanded - to ensure that a reasonable record of their We also wanted to use a meeting structure that would foster group’s discussion was prepared.”) collaboration, creativity, and self-agency. Based on my single, rewarding CCC experience with Open Space, the NCSA and I Eighteen attendees walked into the center of the circle of took a leap of faith and designed a workshop using this method. attendees to read aloud their topic, then fixed their session sheets to the wall. Open Space is not a new approach. According to creator Harrison Owen, it has been used with great results for 30 years, Once all issues of interest were displayed -- ranging from how to all over the world and with all size groups. Part of its beauty lies achieve 100% clean energy in LA, to dealing with urban coyotes, to assuring tree survival during chronic drought, to 169 addressing environmental justice issues and more -- we opened Resources   our Village Marketplace. Everybody was then invited to come to A concise, humorous resource for hosting your own Open the wall and sign up for the issues they wanted to learn more Space session is Harrison Owen’s “User Guide” website. Link: about or support. From there on out, the space buzzed with http://www.openspaceworld.com/users_guide.htm energy. Discussion groups dove right to the heart of their issues, creative ideas bubbled up, commitments to action were cheerfully offered and documented, and each participant took Owens’ book Open Space Technology: A User's Guide offers a charge of their own learning and contributions. Neither Tibetan deeper dive on the method. bells nor loud clapping were up to the task of pulling people away from their small groups and back to the larger circle for Open Space, as well as numerous other powerful meeting closing reflections! structures, are described in The Surprising Power of Liberating Structures: Simple Rules to Unleash A Culture of Innovation, by While our Open Space session brought out our community Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless, and at the leaders’ best thoughts around the environmental issues and accompanying “Liberating Structures” website. (Thanks to CCC opportunities they care most about, a completely unexpected fellow Maria Talero for recommending this terrific resource!) and unprecedented benefit was that the afternoon workshop Link: http://www.liberatingstructures.com/ catalyzed three self-directed, volunteer led working groups (on trees, energy issues, and leaf blower pollution) that are yielding impressive outcomes like environmental education campaigns, policy initiatives, and community action projects for our city. By all accounts, our Open Space session was transformative. It galvanized peer learning, collaboration, and commitments to action on pressing community environmental issues more effectively than any other (of many) educational or facilitation format previously used by the NCSA. Many thanks to the NAAEE and the CCC fellowship for making such breakthrough learning and outcomes possible! 170 Article:  Community  Climate  Change  Fellows  Evolution  as  a  Community  of  Practice   Anne  Umali  Ferguson   In 2014, twenty-six fellows from a diverse set of communities The fellows quickly formed a strong bond with each other, across the U.S., Canada and Mexico were selected based on supporting each other’s projects through feedback and advice, key criteria including leadership potential, experience in and oftentimes by visiting fellows across the country and getting environmental education and community development, and to know their work directly. Fellows sought technical as well as ideas for innovative climate change solutions. The fellowship emotional support from their cohort, sharing the difficulties and program was originally designed to be a leadership and challenges of doing this kind of work. At the end of 2015 they professional development program, where participants came decided they would pursue a collaborative writing project, “A together to share ideas on how to best address climate change Mosaic of Approaches” that would illustrate the spectrum of at the community level. Each fellow began their fellowship with approaches to addressing climate change in their work and also their own project. Projects ranged from a Climate Change 101 highlight their personal experiences in the fellowship and how course for college-aged students in Frankfort, KY to a K-12 they came to grow as a CoP. climate education outreach program Hot Science – Cool Talks, in Austin, TX to a community dialogue series, “Climate Courage Wenger (1998) defined a Community of Practice (CoP) as is a Workshops” where scientific evidence can be heard from a place of learning where practice is developed and pursued, place of social connectedness, strength, and courage, in meaning and enterprise are negotiated among members, and Denver, CO. membership roles are developed through various forms of engagement and participation. The fellows had a 5-day leadership training in the summer of 2014, and they took the next several months to exchange ideas with each other and enhance their climate change projects. By Where  are  Communities  of  Practice  found  within  EE?   the time they came back together at the NAAEE Conference in Communities of practice can be used as a framework of Ottawa later that year, they decided that they wanted to learning in environmental education characterized by the continue their work beyond the original scope of their 8-month development of joint enterprise (through a common negotiated fellowship. In that timespan, the goals of the fellowship meaning/goal), mutual engagement (sustained interaction of expanded from the original goals of professional development people within a community of practice and the roles and and individual climate change projects to also include the relationships that arise from this interaction), and shared creation of a collaborative legacy product and a shared common repertoire/language (signs, symbols, tools, and language that identify around their work and their experience in this fellowship, are used as resources and have meaning specific to the all elements of a fledgling Community of Practice. community. CoP is both a process and product (Aguilar, 2010). 171 Article:  An  Ongoing  Digital  Community  of  Practice:  EEPro’s  Climate  Change   Education  Nexus   Adam  Ratner   Framing   When environmentalist Paul Hawken is asked if he feels pessimistic or optimistic about the future, his reply is always the same: "If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren't pessimistic, you don't understand data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore the earth and you aren't optimistic, you haven't got a pulse." Teaching about climate change can new posts almost every day, there is a and should be an inspiring and wealth of opportunities for professional positive experience. However, even development and support for educators the most seasoned experts can feel of all backgrounds and experience. For overwhelmed and without hope at me, beyond the resources that sites like times. There are strategies though to EEPro provide, I find the most powerful teach, inspire and maintain positivity in component is bridging the national the face of great challenge. One of the community of environmental educators most important elements is to utilize and providing a safe space to the resources and support of the larger communicate and share both successes community of environmental and struggles around climate change educators. EEPro, a hub for communication. Similar to the feeling I environmental education professional get when I leave a professional development through the North development conference, knowing the American Association of vast and diverse work taking place Environmental Education, provides a brings such a sense of optimism and space to communicate with other educators through blog posts hope to my work and reenergizes me to take on the next and forums. Whether you are looking for new climate resources, challenge around climate change that presents itself around such as lesson plans from the World Wildlife Fund, or have a climate change. As the famous African proverb goes, “If you question for the community around tips for addressing climate want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” For change within the humanities and English Language Arts, me, the climate change forum on EEPro helps us go far. EEPro can be one of your most powerful tools. With a growing community of over 135 individuals involved in the Climate Keywords: EEPro - community of practice - forum - discussion - Change Education group alone, a discussion forum, and with resources 172 Article:  Surfacing  Unheard  Voices:  Catalyzing  Collaborative  Writing  for  Climate  Change   Marna  Hauk  with  Elizabeth  Pickett   Framing   Two Community Climate Change Fellows share facilitation approaches and creative methods for surfacing unheard voices. These tools open up creative, “brave” spaces, unleashing creativity by writing from visual and poetic prompts, and facilitating collaborative writing. We describe the use of multimedia and social media for sharing what is generated. Introduction   • Lead by Stepping Back - Image Prompts and Collaborative This article provides a briefing on models and practices for Poems organizing multiple people in a united writing effort about climate • Generating Brave Spaces - Collaborative Scripting change. The two authors catalyzed collaborative writing with the • Reframe Pain as Connection - Letters from the Future Community Climate Change fellows to generate this Mosaic of Beings Approaches book, a web-based climate change education resource being launched at the conference. We also presented Practice  One:  Self-­‐Process-­‐Noticing  and  Self-­‐Compassion  +   these ideas at the North American Association of Environmental Education 2016 Conference in Madison, Wisconsin for Affirmation  Wall   practitioners of environmental education. Resonant with Often it is helpful to start encounters about sensitive topics by leadership and capacity building, we will share resources as creating a space for self-compassion and affirmation. Macy and well as model, practice, and offer hands-on strategies for Johnstone (2012) refer to this as starting from strength and diversifying and strengthening the field of EE by surfacing often- gratitude. For facilitators and those wanting to create generative unheard voices. These strategies of grassroots creativity can discussion spaces across difference, affirmations can help set a gain reach through support social media publishing, to bring space of positive generativity. By providing a larger context for community climate change engagement to life. emotionally supportive exploration, the space helps invite more robust self-holding, more acute self-awareness, and more skillful self-containment. In other words, these practices of self- Concept  with  Application/Practice   process-noticing can be used to avoid either self-suppression or • Self-Compassion - Co-Generating an Affirmation Wall the sharing of self-experience that overtakes the listening to • Upwelling from the Larger Quiet - Multi-Voiced and Self- another’s experience. We become freed up to listen because we Facilitated Space Setting within Silence can hold our own experiences without them taking the • Deep Listening - Poem-Making foreground. This can be tremendously useful in charged conversations about oppression. These practices allow us to 173 flexibly notice our own and others’ processes without moving interact the same way as we might. This practice supports into reactivity. This ability to reflect on our reflections is called multiple ways of communicating and multiple ways of knowing. reflexivity. It also assists in listening beyond the human realm into the naturecultural and biocultural dimensions: how to not interrupt Practice idea: Create an affirmation wall. Step 1: Pass out 4-5 the thoughtfulness of things. We facilitate from a respectful quiet sticky notes per person and invite each person to generate a and spaciousness. few affirmations in the form of first person singular or first person plural, and present tense. For example, “I move from a Practice  idea     place of strength and am amply resourced to listen deeply,” or Practitioners of Poetic Medicine (Fox, 1997) have generated a “We create space welcoming all voices.” Step 2: Participants series of prompts that they print on a piece of paper and cut into place their sticky notes on a wall, at first sticking them up and small paper slips (Hauk, Edera, & Dwyer, 2013). These slips are then allowing all to move them towards clusters of similar arranged on a central table with a bell. Participants sit in a circle affirmations. The group interacts and collaborates to move the and each one selects one of the slips of paper to read out loud, affirmations towards these dynamic and emergent clusters. Step and after speaking the slip of paper (surrounded by silence), 3: Participants read out loud different clusters of affirmations. they ring a bell. When the bell sound completely ends in silence, This “Affirmation Wall” then becomes a resource for the rest of the shared writing time. Additionally, facilitators initiate an invitation and model examples of self-process-noticing. Resources   Margo Adair; Joanna Macy; Marilyn Taylor; Margaret Wheatley Practice  Two:  Upwelling  from  the  Larger  Quiet  +  Space   Setting  with  Bell   The idea of this practice is to generate a larger container of deep inner stillness and quiet from which sharing can arise. The context image is that the conversation is happening inside of a larger, encompassing silence. This practice helps avoid social cultures of interruption, opening up reflective space between sharing. Silence has matter - we don not have to fill the silence; it is not an empty spot to be filled. This practice is resonant with Bohmian dialogue and Quaker cultural practices. We cultivate waiting for those who might share, whether from cognitive or Photo by Elizabeth Pickett cultural diversity. We adopt an attitude of not expecting others to 174 the next person in the circle selects one of the phrases to read. Each person only speaks once before everyone has shared. This whole process precedes poem-making activities in order to This helps us honor and generate our spacious, sacred time invite a non-judgmental creative space. together. Activity Resources Self-Facilitated Poem-Making Cards (Hauk, Edera, & Dwyer, John Fox, 1997; Institute for Poetic Medicine Website 2013) (poeticmedicine.org); Marna Hauk, Peg Edera, and Birch Dwyer, 2013 We gather together in a container of silence and the poems arise. Practice  Three:  Deep  Listening  +  Poem-­‐Making  and   Collective  Line  Sharing   We pause and let the sharer take in and hear what was spoken. Deep listening describes a process of vibrant presence, listening for what the world and nature are offering to the This is a time for deep listening. attention. Drafting notes or sketches in a process of open awareness allows the subtle and nuanced perception to open up and widen. Poem-making is one creativity that can support We gather together connecting from the generative depths. this activity of deep listening. When a person shares their writing, we often ask them, after a pause, to share it again. The listeners have the sacred task of Activity:  Poem-­‐Making   listening deeply and, as the time arises, echoing lines back. This Show the poem video “Dear Matafele Peinem” (Link: is not a time for commentary or analysis or styling. It is not https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJuRjy9k7GA). Then have about evaluation or response. We enter a different mode of people read a line in a go-round circle from such a climate reflective listening. change poem. Let the participants who wish echo out loud a favorite line from that poem. Turn one of the lines into a poem- making prompt. Allow five or ten minutes for each person to The poem is alive. As if the poem were a living person, we listen write a part of a poem. If time allows, invite participants to share for its wisdom. (Just as we wouldn't tell a person who they are, their poems or poem-fragments. Participants can echo back we don't tell a poem who it is.) lines that resonated or moved them. And/or, create a group poem by starting with the prompt and then inviting each Speak from the "I" participant to share one line from their poem, in the sequence that feels spontaneously flowing, spoken into the circle. An A bell is available. Anyone can ring the bell at any time. When alternative is to have each person write their selected line down we hear the bell we pause and awaken to the spacious silent and then place it while speaking into the center of the circle, presence available right here and right now. Our senses dilate face down. At the end, this pile represents a group-authored and we touch in on the heart of our time together, our breath, poem which can be tweeted or blogged. our aliveness. 175 Biomimicry - Flowering Insight and Open Awareness requires enacting step up/step back practices across dimensions of organizational structure and culture. “To remove the blocks of habits of thought, we can take a lesson from the way a wildflower grows. For example, we can One activity that invites stepping up and stepping back is the create times when we draw back (contraction in the plant) from fishbowl style process sharing. With the goal of eliciting climate a train of thought, since by keeping a continuous focus we often change stories, we invited participants to select a vibrant image get cramped and confined by the pathway we have taken. If we from a stack of mid-motion, dynamic, and multi-raced and pull back and shift into a mode of open awareness of what may gender-spectrum photos. These photos also included humans in come, we heighten our receptivity. This is akin to the practice relationship with the more than human world. For the climate of… ‘sauntering with the eyes.’ In this context the emphasis is change related topic, we selected images that were in one way on the letting go and waiting to see what may come - we create or another related to climate change and climate resilience while the inner space for new perceptions that can appear to the avoiding cultural memes on the topic. mind’s eye” (p. 86). The group arranged the images in a circle, with a piece of paper Resources as a writing station next to each image. The facilitators rang the John Fox (2006), on Deep Listening; Felstiner (2009) - Can bell every minute, timed. The participants would shift from Poetry Save the Earth?; Goldberg - Wild Mind; Holdrege (2013) picture station to picture station, adding a poetic line, stanza, or Thinking Like a Plant: A Living Science for Life. Example of the a couple of sentences to the unfolding poem or prose response value of brief haiku and sketches is the entire IPCC findings to that image. After completing the circuit, participants read translated into haiku: Climate Change Science, 2013, Gregory through the piece. They encountered the polyvocal responses to Johnson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0McGUF9hc0 or the image, reflecting the diversities of perception, framing, and http://www.sightline.org/2013/12/16/the-entire-ipcc-report-in-19- insight, as well as the building of collaborative emergent illustrated-haiku/ themes. Variations, with more time, include passing the images and having each author compose inspired by the passing Practice  Four:  Lead  with  Step  Up/  Step  Back  and   images. With more time, participants can also work further to refine, edit, and re-sequence collaborative pieces. Collaborative  Writing  Circle  Sparked  by  Catalytic  Images   “Step up/Step back” was a practice that was introduced on the first day of the Community Climate Change Fellowship in 2014 Resources in West Virginia. This practice was designed to encourage those Collaborative Writing, Fishbowl Techniques - Including who are from positions of privilege (who might be more fluent Homogenous Fishbowls; Read about One Step Up / One Step and comfortable in high-sharing and “stepping up”) to step back Back in Brave Spaces article; Starhawk - Facilitating Diversity, and make space for others, especially marginalized individuals.. and a Chapter from her book on the topic, The Empowerment It is an invitation for those whose voices have not been Manual, with the Five-Fold Path of Productive Meetings as well welcomed or who have been actively suppressed to feel as the Poetic Medicine resources mentioned in Practice 3. welcomed and have their voices heard. The practice of leading by stepping back involves more than conversational patterns. It 176 Practice  Five:  Generating  Brave  Spaces  +  Collaborative   tension and conflict, allowing deeper conversations and Scripting  on  Climate  Ethics  and  Distributive  Justice     dynamics to erupt or come to life. Brave space practices nurture spaces of deep social justice conversations by not caving in to demands from those in Resources positions of power and privilege to avoid uncomfortable feelings. Arao & Clemens article on Brave Spaces- Those in positions of privilege can tend to conflate safety with https://styluspub.presswarehouse.com/resrcs/chapters/1579229 avoiding feelings of discomfort. Brave space practices mitigate 743_otherchap.pdf. Also see Mohanty (2003) on solidarity against the phenomena of white fragility and white resistance approaches to surfacing unheard voices, Article on which can otherwise attempt to control or suppress difficult Intergenerational Climate Ethics and “The Perfect Moral Storm” conversations through deflection, discounting, defensiveness, or (Gardner, 2006) - defeatedness. Brave space practices aiming for honest, http://ww.hettingern.people.cofc.edu/Environmental_Philosophy sensitive, and respectful conversation also increase resilience _Sp_09/Gardner_Perfect_Moral_Storm.pdf for all discussion participants as a fuller range of topics and experiences is liberated and discussed. The authors of this Practice  Six:  Reframe  Pain  as  Connection  +  Letters  from   resource also describe the “One Step Forward/One Step Backward” activity that is related to Practice 4. Discussing the  Future  Beings   ground rules becomes an opening for engaging in brave The final practice we explored in our Surfacing Unheard Voices conversations, troubling common ground rules and exploring Workshop related to Joanna Macy’s The Work That how ideas such as controversy with civility, owning your Reconnects, and focused on reframing pain as connection. The intentions and your impact, increasing awareness about how pain, fear, and grief we sometimes experience when thinking agent group membership affects decisions to contribute, as well about climate change are really just evidence of our capacity for as expanded expressions of respect and understandings of healthy empathy and our vibrant existence embedded within kinds of attack. “We believe facilitators of social justice and as part of the planetary system (Joanna Macy with Chris education have a responsibility to foster a learning environment Johnstone, 2012 in Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re that supports participants in the challenging work of authentic In Without Going Crazy). Another dimension of connection Macy engagement with regard to issues of identity, oppression, explores in her work is that of intergenerational connection. She power, and privilege.” (Arao & Clemens, 2013, pp. 138-139). sees deep time as a powerful source of sustaining hope for climate change activists. She invites imaginal conversations and dialogues between the ancestors, the current generation, and For our work, we support brave space work through the those two hundred years in the future. The past and the future, facilitation strategies themselves, and also by inviting as well as the intergenerational nature of climate ethics (see collaborative scripting and role-playing of troubled climate Gardner, 2006, “Perfect Moral Storm”), are also unheard voices scenarios. One possibility is to have actors or actor teams related to climate change. represent continental or other alliances in regard to climate justice or carbon limits, or local environmental justice conflicts, in relation to distributive justice. Through writing and/or We applied the concept of reframing pain as connection by improvisational acting, teams use creativity to surface topics of inviting participants to write letters from the future. First, we shared Macy’s piece entitled “Prayer to Future Beings.” 177 Prayer  to  Future  Beings  -­‐  Joanna  Macy   satisfying conclusion to the writing experiences, re-aiming our You live inside us, beings of the future. gaze across the stretches of deep time. In the spiral ribbons of our cells, you are here. In our rage for Resources the burning forests, the poisoned fields, the oil-drowned Joanna Macy - with Molly Brown - Coming Back to Life; The seals, you are here. You beat in our hearts through late-night Work That Reconnects (http://workthatreconnects.org/); and meetings. You accompany us to clear-cuts and toxic dumps with Chris Johnstone - Active hope: How to live in this messed and the halls of the lawmakers. It is you who drive our up world without going crazy- http://www.activehope.info/ - Also dogged labors to save what is left. check out the Shambhala Warrior Myth Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fVqrFNIRAc O you who will walk this Earth when we are gone, stir us awake. Behold through our eyes the beauty of this world. Let At the close of the workshop, we invited folks to consider how us feel your breath in our lungs, your cry in our throat. Let us they could collaboratively publish what they generate, via see you in the poor, the homeless, the sick. Haunt us with community networks, including on Prezi visual flows, youtube your hunger, hound us with your claims, that we may honour videos, Storify visual narrative platform, as well as via FB, the life that links us. tweets, or on index cards shared at community boards. We value the importance of surfacing these unheard voices, in You have as yet no faces we can see, no names we can generative groundswells of continuing inspiration, insight, and say. But we need only hold you in our mind, and you teach action. us patience. You attune us to measures of time where healing can happen, where soil and souls can mend. You reveal courage within us we had not suspected, love we had not owned. O you who come after, help us remember: we are your ancestors. Fill us with gladness for the work that must be done. Then we invite participants to imagine they are those future beings. Macy has noted how those future beings already know what must be done in this time to generate a world of flourishing that they inhabit; it is historical fact for them. So we reach across, with our writing, words, and intention, to receive guidance and affirmation. We invite participants to write as if from those future beings, writing a letter of support and encouragement to us in this time. This activity brings a Photo by Elizabeth Pickett 178 Article:  Original  Research  on  Nurturing  Community  Climate  Change  Educators,   Effective  Communication  Strategies,  and  Avoiding  Burnout   Jennifer  Hubbard-­‐Sánchez,  Adam  Ratner,  Michelle  Eckman,  Kris  Scopinich,  Travor  Hance,  Tara  Hostnik,  and   Marna  Hauk     Framing   This research was designed to examine the experiences of the climate change communication and education community across the United States to better understand common obstacles and challenges that arise for individuals working within the field. Apart from identifying common problem areas, the aim was to glean strategies for overcoming issues that arise when teaching about climate change, as well as to learn from educators about how newcomers to the field can best prepare themselves to communicate successfully on the topic. Lastly, the aim was to investigate the most common resources that members of the climate change community utilize in their efforts to educate in classrooms, community settings, and elsewhere with the public. Word Cloud of Research Findings from the Climate Change Educators Survey 179 What  inspired  the  research/the  question/the  intention   who share resources, ideas, stories, and strategies, within an As members of the EECapacity Community Climate Change electronic platform. The survey was sent to the CLEAN network, Fellowship, we have learned that there are many obstacles to as well as to our own personal networks of individuals who may successfully implementing climate change education and that, not participate on the CLEAN forum. while some strategies work in some geographic areas of the country, they may not work in others. Through myriad Who  responded?   conversations among our group, it became apparent that a Respondents to the survey included: Formal Classroom survey of the greater climate education community was Teachers (38.1%); University Faculty and Staff (21.4%); warranted to glean from others what issues they have when Nonformal Educators (14.3%); Non-Profit Agencies (9.5%); teaching about climate change and their strategies for Community Climate Change Fellows (9.5%); and Government overcoming them. Likewise, it was important to ask more Agencies (7.1%). seasoned climate change communicators about the things they look back on and wish they had known when they started down this path in order to better prepare newcomers to the field. Resources   The word cloud in this section was generated from all participant How  did  we  recruit  participants     responses. Practitioner Handouts with summaries of findings coded along six themes, and a sheet of resources for teaching Each of us has an extensive network of colleagues, friends, and climate science and communicating climate change follow. co-workers in this field. The one common overlap for the entire group was the Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network (CLEAN), an engaging online community of 555 participants 180 Communicating About Climate Change: Strategies to Teach, Inspire, and Maintain Positivity in the Face of Great Challenge Teaching about climate change can and should be an inspiring and positive experience. However, even the most seasoned experts can feel overwhelmed and without hope. Whether it is a politically charged audience, varying levels of experience and information among participants, or just feeling like you are teaching a topic that can sometimes be too daunting to solve, all climate communicators experience hard times within their work. This fact sheet has been created using feedback from the climate communication and education community across the United States. The ideas and tips included come from survey responses given in a summer, 2016 survey. The focus is on the positive strategies used to overcome the challenges of teaching and talking about climate change, as experienced by the larger climate communication community. CHALLENGE Communication about Climate Science is Complex and Intimidating SOLUTIONS n Know as much as you can about who is in your audience: their age, educational background, experiences, economics, etc.. n Know your science: teach what you know and don’t bite off more than you can chew. n Know your place: provide as many relevant, local examples of impact as possible. n Let them build it, and they will come: hands-on learning is best and people love to play with stuff. n It’s so easy, a fifth grade caveman can do it: speleothems and sandcastles. CHALLENGE Conflicting Attitudes and a Charged Political Environment Make It Difficult to Teach about Climate Science SOLUTIONS n Start with natural climate change before anthropogenic and use pertinent local and concrete facts. n Understand that most people are very open and willing to listen. n Set boundaries before your conversation and create a “safe” space for dialogue, using sensitive language. n Remain politically neutral and maintain that what you are presenting is based on science, not politics. n Spend some time familiarizing yourselves with climate denial and counterarguments so you feel more comfort teaching the subject in the face of skepticism or tougher audiences. CHALLENGE Knowing What Material to Present to Which Audience is Difficult SOLUTIONS n Know your audience so that you may customize the program for different ages, interests, and backgrounds (this can be done through questioning, visitor use surveys, etc.). n Use simple, polite, and universal language and communication strategies such as active listening and dialogue. n Make your program relevant to your audience by using personalized impacts of climate change, as well as personalized actions (i.e. carbon footprint calculators). n Use positive examples of action at multiple scales – both personal and community resilience actions. n Construct a thematic, experiential learning opportunity for your audience. CHALLENGE Sometimes it Feels Like We’re Swimming Upstream and Alone SOLUTIONS n Develop learning networks with other educators- you are not alone! Michelle Eckman n Map actions you take as individuals to demonstrate collective impact The Connecticut Audubon Society n Create a green team at work to create impact and optimism n Find new ideas and inspiration in NAAEE forums, CLEAN listserv, or start a new social Trevor Hance, JD, MA network in your community Round Rock ISD, Concordia University Texas n Go beyond the usual suspects– find community climate champions (Planners, Architects, Green Businesses, etc.) Marna Hauk, Ph.D. Institute for Earth Regenerative Studies and CHALLENGE Prescott College Teaching about Climate Change Can Be Personally Frustrating and Exhausting SOLUTIONS Tara Hostnik n Create programs oriented around hope and action to strengthen and regenerate the Sequoia Parks Conservancy organizers- whether youth empowerment, solutionary focus, or building community strengths. n Take time in nature to recharge. Jennifer Hubbard-Sánchez n Maintain your work/life balance. Kentucky State University n Nurture and build networks of peers and connections with others teaching climate change. Wyvette Williams, Designer n Thread together emotional resilience building and experientially engaging resources. Kentucky State University Adam Ratner The Marine Mammal Center CHALLENGE Knowing Which Resources to Use Can Be Challenging, As There Are So Many Out There Kris Scopinich SOLUTIONS Massachusetts Audubon Society n Start with just a few key resources to get your grounding and begin feeling comfortable with the science and communication tactics. n The issue of climate change is incredibly interdisciplinary so you can teach it through many different lenses that might resonate best with your audiences (i.e. air quality, money savings, economic independence, ocean health, etc.). This fact sheet was developed under Assistant Agreement n There are resources available with lesson plans, presentations, and more through No. NT-83497401 awarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It has not been formally databases such as the CLEAN network, EPA, NOAA, and NASA. reviewed by EPA. The views expressed are solely those of n Collaboratives such as EEPro on NAAEE, NOAA Climate Stewards, Earth to Sky, and the authors and EPA does not endorse any products or the National Network of Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation (NNOCCI) not only commercial services mentioned. provide great resources but allow you to have a community of support which is really KYSU-ESS-FAC-0004, October 2016 helpful for both cognitive and emotional support. Climate Change Educational Resources There are many Climate Change Science resources available for educators to utilize that NASA: Global Climate Change and Climate Kids can help communicate http://climate.nasa.gov/ and http://climatekids.nasa.gov/ climate change to your audiences. EPA: Climate Change Basics and a Student’s Guide to Global Climate Change https://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/basics and https://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/kids These are some of our favorites! National Climate Assessment http://nca2014.globalchange.gov/ National Geographic: Climate Change http://nationalgeographic.org/topics/climate-change/ NAAEE Community Climate Change Climate Change Communication Fellows: Climate Change Professional Online Learning Community Alliance Michelle Eckman Connecticut Audubon http://www.naaee.net/climatechange-POLCA Society Trevor Hance Climate Communication Laurel Mountain https://www.climatecommunication.org/ Elementary Marna Hauk Frameworks Institute: Climate Change Interpretation Institute for Earth Regenerative Studies/ http://frameworksinstitute.org/climate-change-and-the-ocean.html Prescott College CLEAN Network Tara Hostnik Sequoia Parks http://cleanet.org/clean/community/index.html Conservancy Jenny Hubbard- NOAA Climate Stewards Sanchez http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/climate-stewards/ Kentucky State University Adam Ratner Yale Program on Climate Change Communication The Marine Mammal Center http://climatecommunication.yale.edu/ Kristin Scopinich Center for Research on Environmental Decisions: Psychology of Climate Change Mass Audubon http://guide.cred.columbia.edu/ 184 TOPIC  INDEX After  School   Marine  Environment   Arts  in  Visioning  and  Public  Education   Nature  Immersion  and  Experience   As  an  Organization   Nonprofits   Climate  Change  Communication   Practitioners  Collaborating   Communities  of  Practice   Preventing  Burnout  &  Nurturing  Educators   Conservation  and  Natural  Resources   Public  Engagement   Consultative  Approaches   Public  Schools   Environmental  Justice  and  Climate  Justice   Science  Dimensions   Faith-­‐Based  Approaches   Social  Innovation   Gardens  and  Greening   Storytelling  and  Digital  Media   Higher  Education   Teachers  as  Leaders   Indigenous  Approaches   Train  the  Trainers   K-­‐12   Youth  Investment  and  Empowerment   Leadership After  School   Arts  in  Visioning  and  Public   As an Organization See  Also:  K-­‐12   Education   Theme  Pages   Project  Stories   Teachers and Trainers Theme  Pages   CCEd in Aboriginal Youth Investment Art and Public Communities Project  Stories   Education Climate Courage Biking to Climate Repair Storytelling & Digital Climate Stories Project Bringing it Home Media COOL Earth Schools Kentucky Dark Sky Festival Project  Stories   Desert Oasis Garden Faith in Place in Climate Courage Experiential Marine Chicago Dark Skies Festival Science Experiential Marine LA Neighborhoods Global Kids Organizing Science Malama Kai Youth Malama Kai Youth Global Kids Organizing Action Action Inuit Collaborations Women’s Ecosocial Open Lands CC LA Neighborhoods Incubator Gardens Malama Kai Youth Youth Co-Design Youth Climate Job Action Training Vignettes   Marine Mammal Youth Co-Design   Culture Creation Volunteers Vignettes   Inspiration Mass Audubon Storytelling Storytelling Initiatives Youth Action Youth Action Open Lands CC Articles   Gardens Article   Research on About Co-Design Public School CC Surfacing Unheard Curriculum CC Educators Voices Women's Ecosocial Incubator Youth Climate Job Training Youth Co-Design Vignettes   Culture Creation Inspiration Mutual Learning Networking Storytelling Climate  Change  Communication   Communities  of  Practice   Conservation  and  Natural  Resources   Theme  Page   Project  Stories   Theme  Page   CC Communication Climate Courage Conservation & Natural Project  Stories   Marine Mammal Resources Bird Observatory Volunteers Project  Stories     Project Women’s Ecosocial Bird Observatory Climate Courage Incubator Project Climate Stories Project Vignettes   CCEd in Aboriginal Dark Sky Festival Inspiration Communities Digital Travel in Canada Mutual Learning Dark Sky Festival Faith In Place in Networking Desert Oasis Garden Chicago Preventing Burnout Digital Travel in Canada Global Kids Organizing Professional Capacities Experiential Marine LA Neighborhoods Articles   Science Marine Mammal Communities of LA Neighborhoods Volunteers Practice Malama Kai Youth Mass Audubon Initiative EEPro as Digital Action Science on the Sphere   Community Marine Mammal Vignettes   Open Space Volunteers Culture Creation Technology Mass Audubon Inspiration Research on CC Initiatives Mutual Learning Educators Youth Climate Job Networking Surfacing Unheard Training Professional Capacities Voices Vignettes   Storytelling Storytelling Youth Action Articles   About Co-Design Communities of Practice EEPro as Digital Community Surfacing Unheard Voices Consultative  Approaches   Environmental  Justice  and  Climate   Faith-­‐Based  Approaches   Justice   Theme  Page   Project  Stories   Consultative Theme  Page   Faith in Place in Approaches Climate Justice Chicago Project  Stories     Bird Observatory Project  Stories Vignettes  Networking Project Bird Observatory Project Storytelling Climate Courage Climate Resilient Food Bringing it Home Systems Kentucky Gardens  and  Greening   Climate Stories Project CCEd in Aboriginal Inuit Collaborations Communities Theme  Page   LA Neighborhoods Climate Resilient Food Gardens & Greening Women’s Ecosocial Systems Incubator Climate Stories Project Project  Stories    Community Food Vignettes   Bringing it Home Networks Fundraising Kentucky Faith in Place in Mutual Learning Climate Resilient Food Chicago Networking Systems Global Kids Organizing Professional Capacities Community Food Inuit Collaborations Storytelling Networks Malama Kai Youth Articles   Desert Garden Oasis Action Open Space Faith in Place in Open Lands CC Technology Chicago Research on CC Gardens Open Lands CC Educators Public School CC Gardens Surfacing Unheard Curriculum Youth Climate Job Voices Women’s Ecosocial Training Incubator Youth Climate Job Training Vignette   Preventing Burnout Article Surfacing Unheard Voices Higher  Education   K-­‐12   Leadership   See  Also:  After  School,  Youth  Investment   See  Also:  Communities  of  Practice,  Practitioners   Project  Stories Theme  Pages   Collaborating,  Teacher  as  Leader,  Train  the  Trainer Bringing it Home Teachers and Trainers Theme  Pages   Kentucky Youth Investment Social Innovation Climate Resilient Food Project  Stories   Teachers and Trainers Systems Biking to Climate Repair Youth Investment Women’s Ecosocial Incubator CCEd in Aboriginal Project  Stories  Communities Vignettes Bringing it Home COOL Earth Schools Inspiration Kentucky Desert Oasis Garden Mutual Learning CCEd in Aboriginal Global Kids Organizing Networking Communities Public School CC Professional Capacities Climate Courage Curriculum Climate Resilient Food Articles Youth Climate Job Systems Communities of Training Faith in Place in Practice Vignette   Chicago EEPro as Digital Youth Action Global Kids Organizing Community Article   Malama Kai Youth Research on CC Research on CC Action Educators Educators Marine Mammal Volunteers Indigenous  Approaches   Open Lands CC Gardens Women's Ecosocial Theme  Page   Incubator Indigenous Approaches Youth Climate Job Project  Stories Training CCEd in Aboriginal Youth Co-Design Communities Vignettes Inuit Collaborations Fundraising Malama Kai Youth Inspiration Action Mutual Learning Vignettes Networking Culture Creation Professional Capacities Inspiration Articles Mutual Learning Communities of Storytelling Practice Article Open Space Surfacing Unheard Technology Voices Research on CC Educators Marine  Environment   Nonprofits   Practitioners  Collaborating   Theme  Page   Project  Stories   Project  Stories Marine Environment Experiential Marine Climate Courage Project  Stories     Science Climate Resilient Food Experiential Marine Faith in Place in Systems Science Chicago Faith in Place in Malama Kai Youth Malama Kai Youth Chicago Action Action Inuit Collaborations Marine Mammal Marine Mammal Women's Ecosocial Volunteers Volunteers Incubator Mass Audubon Vignettes Initiatives Nature  Immersion  and  Experience   Culture Creation Open Lands CC Inspiration Gardens Mutual Learning Theme  Page   Science on the Sphere Networking Women's Ecosocial Nature Immersion Preventing Burnout Incubator Project  Stories     Storytelling Vignettes Bird Observatory Articles Culture Creation Project EEPro as Digital Fundraising Dark Sky Festival Community Inspiration Experiential Marine Research on CC Mutual Learning Science Educators Networking Malama Kai Youth Surfacing Unheard Professional Capacities Action Voices Articles Communities of Practice EEPro as Digital Community Open Space Technology Surfacing Unheard Voices Preventing  Burnout  &  Nurturing   Public  Engagement   Science  Dimensions   Educators   Theme  Page   Theme  Pages   Project  Stories Public Engagement Climate & Science Climate Courage Project  Stories Conservation & Natural Faith in Place Chicago Bringing it Home Resources Women’s Ecosocial Kentucky Marine Environment Incubator CCEd in Aboriginal Project  Stories     Vignettes Communities Biking to Climate Repair Culture Creation Climate Courage Bird Observatory Fundraising Dark Sky Festival Project Inspiration Digital Travel in Canada Bring it Home Mutual Learning Faith in Place Chicago Kentucky Networking Global Kids Organizing Climate Courage Preventing Burnout LA Neighborhoods COOL Earth Schools Storytelling Mass Audubon Experiential Marine Initiatives Science Articles Open Lands CC Garden Malama Kai Youth Research on CC Women’s Ecosocial Action Educators Incubator Marine Mammal Surfacing Unheard Youth Co-Design Volunteers Voices Vignettes Mass Audubon Culture Creation Initiatives Fundraising Science on the Sphere Networking Storytelling Articles   About Co-Design Open Space Technology Surfacing Unheard Voices Public  Schools   See Also: After School and K-12 Social  Innovation   Storytelling  and  Digital  Media   Teachers  as  Leaders   Theme  Page   Theme  Pages   Theme Page Social Innovation Social Innovation Teachers and Trainers Project  Stories Storytelling & Digital Project  Stories Biking to Climate Repair Media Biking to Climate Repair Climate Courage Project  Stories COOL Earth Schools Climate Resilient Food Climate Courage Desert Oasis Garden Systems Climate Stories Project Public School CC Climate Stories Project Digital Travel in Canada Curriculum Community Food Marine Mammal Vignettes Networks Volunteers Networking COOL Earth Schools Science on the Sphere Preventing Burnout Women’s Ecosocial Youth Co-Design Professional Capacities Incubator Vignettes Storytelling Youth Co-Design Culture Creation Articles Vignettes Inspiration Communities of Culture Creation Professional Capacities Practice Fundraising Storytelling EEPro as Digital Inspiration Articles Community Mutual Learning Communities of Research on CC Networking Practice Educators Professional Capacities EEPro as Digital Surfacing Unheard Storytelling Community Voices Articles Surfacing Unheard Communities of Voices Practice EEPro as Digital Community Open Space Technology Surfacing Unheard Voices Train  the  Trainers   Youth  Investment  and   Empowerment   Theme  Page   See Also: Leadership, K-12, After School Teachers and Trainers Theme  Pages   Project  Stories Social Innovation Climate Courage Youth Investment Climate Resilient Food Systems Project  Stories Climate Stories Project Biking to Climate Repair COOL Earth Schools Bird Observatory Experiential Marine Project Science Bringing it Home Marine Mammal Kentucky Volunteers COOL Earth Schools Women’s Ecosocial Experiential Marine Incubator Science Youth Co-Design Global Kids Organizing Malama Kai Youth Vignettes Action Inspiration Open Lands CC Preventing Burnout Gardens Professional Capacities Public School CC Storytelling Curriculum Youth Action Youth Climate Job Articles Training Research on CC Youth Co-Design Educators Vignettes Surfacing Unheard Fundraising Voices Inspiration Networking Storytelling Youth Action Article Surfacing Unheard Voices Contributors   Foreword - Marianne E. Krasny Environmental Education kysu.edu/ee Professor and Director Washington, DC jennifer.sanchez@kysu.edu Civic Ecology Lab Department of naaee.org Natural Resources Nicole R. Jackson Cornell University Trevor Hance Natural Leader Ithaca, New York Teacher Children and Nature Network Round Rock ISD / Laurel Mountain Columbus, Ohio Prelude - Judy Braus Elementary www.childrenandnature.org Executive Director, NAAEE Austin, Texas Co-Founder of the Community www.esi.utexas.edu/k-12-a-the- Roy Jantzen Climate Change Fellowship Program community/gk-12-program Professor Washington, DC Capilano University Marna Hauk Vancouver, Canada Susan Chung Director www.capilanou.ca/wilderness/bios/Roy- Co-Design Artist Women Empowering Climate Action Jantzen-bio Co-Design Group Network (WE-CAN) www.activevancouver.ca Vancouver, Canada Institute for Earth Regenerative Studies youthmanual.blogspot.ca Portland, Oregon Stew Jenkins earthregenerative.org Director Jason Davis Monterey Bay Center for Environmental Director Tara Hostnik Literacy (MBEL) Climate Stories Project Sequoia Field Institute Manager Santa Cruz, California Montreal, Canada Sequoia Parks Conservancy www.mbel.center www.climatestoriesproject.org Three Rivers, California listewj7@gmail.com sequoiaparks.org Michelle Eckman Veronica Kyle Director of Education Jennifer Hubbard-Sánchez Congregational Outreach Director Connecticut Audubon Society State Specialist for Sustainable Faith in Place Fairfield, Connecticut Systems/Director Chicago, Illinois www.ctaudubon.org Center for Environmental Education www.faithinplace.org Kentucky State University, College of Anne Umali Ferguson Agriculture, Project Manager, ee360 Food Science, and Sustainable North American Association for Systems Frankfort, Kentucky Nadine Lefort Poultney, Vermont Margie Simon de Ortiz Mi'kmaq Environmental Learning Centre www.greenmtn.edu/parkj.aspx Director Eskasoni, Nova Scotia, Canada Centro de Información y Comunicación www.melcentre.ca/ Elizabeth Pickett Ambiental de Norte América (CICEANA) Hawaii Wildfire Management Mexico City, Mexico Sam Little Organizations ciceana.org.mx Environmental Education Manager And Malama Kai Foundation Parks and People Foundation Kamuela, Hawaii Maria L. Talero Baltimore, Maryland www.HawaiiWildfire.org Educator and Professor www.parksandpeople.org Climate Courage Jatnna Ramirez Denver, Colorado Rocio Lozano-Knowlton Senior Trainer and Human Rights climatecourage.cc Director, Multicultural Education for Specialist Resource Issues Threatening Oceans Global Kids Karen Temple-Beamish Programs New York, New York Sustainability Director and Science Merito Foundation globalkids.org Teacher Ventura, California The Desert Oasis Teaching Garden meritofoundation.org Adam Ratner Albuquerque, New Mexico Guest Experience Manager www.thedotgarden.org Laura Mack The Marine Mammal Center www.facebook.com/TheDesertOasisTea Director Sausalito, California chingGarden Neighborhood Council Sustainability www.MarineMammalCenter.org Beamish@aa.edu Alliance ratnera@tmmc.org Los Angeles, California Carlos Velazquez ncsa.nationbuilder.com Elvia Rodriguez Ochoa Environmental Educators of NC and Director of Neighborhood Programs Raleigh Parks Luis Morales Openlands and Cultural Resources Director and Founder Chicago, Illinois Garner, North Carolina San Pancho Bird Observatory openlands.org San Francisco, (San Pancho), Nayarit, Mexico Kris Scopinich www.birdingsanpancho.org/ Director of Education Mass Audubon Jacob Park Lincoln, Massachusetts Professor of Business Strategy & www.massaudubon.org Sustainability Green Mountain College 196