Growing a Network of Environmental Educators Through Community Engagement
Written by Misty Klotz, community outreach coordinator for the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station and Luciana Ranelli, ee360+ community engagement outreach coordinator, Lake Superior National Estuarine Research Reserve; Antioch University New England
Working alongside communities of any scale to create change takes “long-term initiative, requiring a commitment to relationship building and an ongoing and evolving process of engagement” (Community Engagement Guidelines Key Characteristic #5). The ee360+ team based at Antioch University New England (AUNE) centers a relational, long-term view in our work to facilitate group learning with Community Engagement: Guidelines for Excellence | eePRO and application of authentic community engagement practices. Since 2017, the AUNE team has merged our strengths in leadership development, group dynamics, facilitation, community-based education, collaborative inquiry, cultural responsiveness, curriculum design, and evaluation to contribute to the community engagement-focused goals of ee360+.
Facilitating “train the trainer” workshops with the Community Engagement: Guidelines for Excellence is a primary responsibility of the AUNE ee360+ team. As a team, internally we embrace the idea of “facilitation” instead of “training” because workshop participants are often experts in their work or experience already. In addition to these capacity-building workshops, the AUNE ee360+ team creates new learning communities centered on the resources in the Community Engagement Guidelines and provides additional opportunities for past workshop participants to connect with each other, share their stories, ask questions, and build their practice. Workshop topics expand on themes in the Guidelines, including resources on equity and belonging tailored to the environmental education field.
One example is Misty's story, which exemplifies one participant’s commitment to creating change over the past 6+ years in collaboration with AUNE’s ee360+ team. Imagine the ripple effects of this story into the future. Her story is featured below.
AUNE's e-newsletter serves as a resource for connection and community engagement with workshop participants.
Misty’s Story
In 2017 I had the honor of serving my first year on the board of directors of Michigan Alliance for Environmental and Outdoor Education (MAEOE MI). I was deeply passionate about finding ways to promote community engagement in environmental education at Kellogg Biological Station and throughout Michigan via MAEOE. It was an absolute joy to receive a travel reimbursement scholarship in 2018 from NAAEE to attend the Community Engagement: Guidelines for Excellence Train-the-Trainer Workshop in Spokane, WA. This experience not only allowed me to participate in my first annual conference with NAAEE but also provided me with valuable insights and connections with other NAAEE Affiliates nationwide. Following the workshop and conference experience, I began planning workshops with various groups, including staff, graduate students, MAEOE educators, Michigan State University Extension, and the MAEOE Board of Directors.
During the virtual 2021 NAAEE Conference, I also had the honor to participate in another AUNE ee360+ workshop focused on equity and belonging in environmental education and community engagement. The transformative impact of this workshop on equity–combined with the Spokane experience–inspired me to seek out further training opportunities in Michigan. I was fortunate to secure an ee360 grant in 2019 to have NAAEE train 20 educators in the Community Engagement Guidelines, spreading this valuable knowledge across the state. Participating educators all became a part of the NAAEE trainers bureau and provided training across the state.
To keep this team of lifelong learners and educators connected and to share the experience I had with the equity and inclusion workshop, I reached out to the AUNE ee360+ team to see if they could provide a similar workshop for this group of 20 educators in Michigan. To my surprise and delight, they said “Yes!” Through five months of connecting online, sharing ideas and experiences, discussing facilitation tips and tricks for virtual formats, and making sure to uplift the existing expertise, leadership, and dedication to EE for all amongst the participants, the Antioch ee360+ team and I co-planned an online learning series early in January and February 2024. Some of the feedback included:
“Everyone comes from a different lens and we need to take a few moments to just listen to someone else's perspective.”
“The resources in the new [Equity & Belonging] module. It was nice to have the explanation that it is an expansion of the Community Engagement and is meant to expand on it. Great resources in it and can't wait to dive deeper.”
Learning Alongside Community
Long-term commitment weaves throughout Misty’s story. That commitment is no small feat, and involves risk-taking, relationship and trust building, as well as showing up in one’s community with humility, vulnerability and openness. It takes continually leaning into new ideas and ways of learning—together. Misty chose a longer, circuitous path of learning and leading for change. This is simply one story with one person and there are all these inspiring people who we’ve learned alongside over the years. And they each have their own stories and paths of learning and leading for change–change that lifts up justice, equity, and belonging for all.
A list of authors who have contributed to the AUNE Community Engagement Guidelines blog for ee360+
This eePRO blog series, Ripple Effect, highlights stories of collaboration and impact among partners in the ee360+ Leadership and Training Collaborative. ee360+ is an ambitious multi-year initiative that connects, trains, and promotes innovative leaders dedicated to using the power of education to create a more just and sustainable future for everyone, everywhere. Led by NAAEE, ee360+ is made possible through funding and support from U.S. EPA and twenty-seven partner organizations representing universities and nonprofits across the country, as well as five federal agencies. Through this partnership, ee360+ brings together more than five decades of expertise to grow, strengthen, and diversify the environmental education field.