“This June and July a team of young people, working on a project called Summer of Solutions, are teaming up with local neighborhood organizations in North Minneapolis to address food security and accessibility issues as a path to social and environmental justice. The gardens and farms will feed many people in the area later in the summer and help people, “look at land in a new way,” in the words of Annie Young, an Environmental Justice organizer with the Harrison Neighborhood Association (HNA).”

This is a concept that has long been stewing in my brain, whenever I see vacant lots, large grassy yards at churches, and even boulevards I imagine them planted with veggie gardens that anyone can harvest from. The initial idea seed was planted in my brian by an amazing neighbor of mine. Richard has been planting his boulevard with lettuce and cherry tomatoes for years with a cute sign saying “please pick.” I’m thrilled to see this idea becoming a more wide spread reality.

One big topic I keep running into is a need to respect different “ways of knowing.” Right now in our culture research science and academia rule the roost in respected ways of gaining knowledge; having an advanced degree or being published are our cultural indicators of knowledge possession. However, there are other valid ways of gaining knowledge -which, when recognized, increases our culture’s knowledge as a whole.

This article , from NASA’s Earth Observatory website, is a case study of how Inuit community knowledge was incorporated into climate change scientific research resulting in greater knowledge for both groups.

From the article:

“Weatherhead and Gearheard said they are intrigued by the insights that incorporate indigenous knowledge and climate studies, but they don’t want to stop there. The new study has sparked an interest in the type of environmental knowledge other communities could provide to climate scientists, from ranchers and farmers to indigenous groups. “When you treat these perspectives as different forms of evidence or knowledge and see where that takes you, that is when exciting stuff happens,” said Gearheard.”

Green Women's Month

March is only here for a couple more days, but its not too late to celebrate Women’s History Month.

The 2009 theme is Women Taking the Lead to Save our Planet. Even though women’s history month is almost over, environmental educators can take advantage of this great theme and use it throughout the year.

From www.womenshistorymonth.gov: ”In 1987, the National Women’s History Project petitioned Congress to expand the celebration [from a week] to the entire month of March. Since then, the National Women’s History Month Resolution has been approved every year with bipartisan support in both the House and Senate.”

Here is the president’s proclamation of 2009′s women’s history month.

One thing that was identified at both symposia is a need for translators to communicate between scientists and community.The values and methods of communicating with these two groups are very different, making direct communication nearly impossible.

The role of translator between scientist and community member is a role Environmental Educators have been playing for decades: making it real to the community how environmental science effects their everyday lives.

Perhaps Environmental Educators could translate their skills to other types of science – health, psychology, etc. Additionally, they may be able to help the communication flow from the community to scientists; pass on information about the community’s needs and therefore obtain their buy-in.

This strong connection to local communities with help scientists fulfill national grant standards and foster more relevant and valuable research.

On a related note, here is an cool bit of science that would translate well to an environmental education program. Scientists have developed a software program which identifies Tigers by there strip pattern. The software is free, and could be cool in a program developed by a tech-savvy EEer.

Tiger Stripe Mapping Software

If you haven’t recently (or ever) gone through the Project Wet, Wild, and Learning Tree training I highly recommend taking them again! 

I had the opportunity to go through the training, for the third time, last week at the Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve (which is such a cool place it deserves a post of its own) and I was happily surprised at the upgrades and additions to the programs. 

New (since about three years ago went I last attended a training) is a Early Childhood supplement for Project Wild, an awesome Project Wild Aquatic book, a phenomenal time-saving book with Minnesota versions of Project Wild activities, and a newly revised Project Learning Tree guide. They have also recently added a plethora of online components.

Also, as always, the opportunity to meet new people is priceless.

If you want to attend, check out the calendar and sign up! If you have a big group you can contact the Project coordinators and see if you can arrange a private training.

“The new Neighborhood and Community Engagement Commission, a group of 16 residents will be appointed to oversee the City’s relationship with neighborhoods and community organizations. The commission’s charge is to provide direction to the next phase of NRP and be primarily responsible for the review of neighborhood plans. The commission will also make recommendations to the City Council on allocation of a variety of types of funding to neighborhoods.  Neighborhoods will have significant representation on the commission with eight residents selected by neighborhood organizations, five residents appointed by the City Council, two appointed by the Mayor, and one appointed by the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board. Through the input and work of the Neighborhood and Community Engagement Commission, residents and neighborhood organizations will play a key role in enhancing and shaping how the City engages its residents.”

Here are a few recent articles about the commission and the process of appointing members:

Neighborhood Council Fuels City Hall Debate (StarTrib)

Who Will Represent the Neighborhoods? (TCDailyPlanet or the same article on the The Bridge website)

Here’s a good example:
Family and Children’s Services is looking for volunteers to provide activities and programs for children during parenting classes. The classes are in the Camden Apartments – which are within walking distance of North Mississippi Regional Park. Interpreters from the North Miss, or from the National Park Service (since its along the Mississippi), could either go to the apartment building or could invite the class to the Interpretive Center at North Miss. It’s potentially a great way to engage a new audience with their local environment and create more stewards, but also a way to build the local community’s sense of place and pride. 

This process can grow even deeper. When I was a Ranger for the National Park Service I had the honor of establishing a Student Ranger Program. In this program, students from a local community group (The East Side Community Design Center), which had developed a relationship with the park through volunteering to restore the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary, recommended students who were interested in establishing a career in environmental science.  The NPS then hired two students (after reviewing resumes and interviewing) for the summer and provided them with a wide range of experiences which will help open the door for their careers. Giving the next generation of park rangers a healthy start. It was great for the community too because they were able to see a familiar face in the National Park Service uniform working to protect a valued community resource – the Mississippi. 

Where can you find local community  groups in need of programming? I recommend checking out the job postings page of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits and VolunteerMatch.com for a start.  If you would like help, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I would be happy to help establish new partnerships.

Are you already working in a community partnership like this? I would love to hear about it and perhaps post your story here. Please contact me.