After conducting a robust solicitation and interview process in early 2012 the Alliance for New Jersey Environmental Education was pleased to hire a team of two highly qualified formal and non-formal education consultants, Bruce Taterka and Tanya Sulikowski, to lead New Jersey’s environmental literacy plan efforts. Bruce and Tanya, both ANJEE members, are currently working with a team of ANJEE leaders and partners to finalize the draft NJ environmental literacy plan (Environmental Literacy in New Jersey: A Call to Action). 

The purpose of Environmental Literacy in New Jersey: A Call to Action is to cultivate an environmentally literate citizenry. This revised New Jersey environmental education master plan is intended for use by environmental education professionals as a five-year planning and action plan, with a timeframe for delivery between 2010 through 2015. Its targeted audiences are New Jersey’s environmental education providers and practitioners and the ultimate benefactors of A Call to Action are New Jersey adults, families and youth of all ages. A Call to Action provides direction and recommends specific state-level actions that would improve the state’s capacity to support the delivery of environmental education throughout New Jersey for all citizens.

This plan is focused on four goal areas:

1. Know and Understand how Ecological Systems Work;
2. Care for Ecological Systems;
3. Keep the Environment and People Healthy;
4. Plan for Today and Tomorrow’s Quality of Life

A Call to Action provides direction and recommended actions for locally-based environmental education providers and large-scale coalitions, networks, and organizations that deliver environmental education programs, services and resources. This plan also calls for state environmental education leaders and affiliates to strengthen New Jersey’s existing capacity to support environmental education by improving upon the infrastructure already in place. While the recommended actions in A Call to Action include some new tasks to help achieve this, they primarily depend upon existing services and resources already being provided by the commission and work group, or support made available by the State Departments of Environmental Protection, Education, the Alliance for New Jersey Environmental Education, and other affiliate organizations. When combined, both sets of actions work together to help unify and coordinate, increase, improve, promote, inform, recognize and track environmental education efforts throughout the state. This strengthening of structure and support should, over the next five years, help align and improve environmental education and increase the public’s participation in these activities throughout the state.