This is an 8-week course designed to require 12-15 hours of active participation and work and is made up of 8 modules including:

• Module 1: Introduction to the Community Engagement Guidelines
• Module 2: Community Centered - Understand Your Community
• Module 3: Community Centered - Connecting EE with Community Needs
• Module 4: Sound Environmental Education Principles
• Module 5: Collaborative and Inclusive
• Module 6: Oriented Toward Capacity Building and Civic Action
• Module 7: A Long-Term Investment in Change
• Module 8: Putting it All Together - Submit a final Community Environmental Education Action Plan Proposal

Through these modules, participants will be able to:

1. Define community; describe and implement different ways to get to know communities in your geographic region; explain how environmental education efforts can be connected to community well being; determine if your proposed environmental education program would be appropriate for your chosen community; clarify what assets and resources are available in your community to complete a community environmental education project action plan; list partners and venues you may be able to work with who might not immediately come to mind when planning your community engagement work
2. Describe how environmental education practices can be built on interests, issues and setting familiar to the community; explain how to facilitate broad accessibility with respect to their environmental education practices; describe appropriate instructional strategies; describe how to select effective educational materials; identify easy to match environmental education engagement strategies to the interests and issues of your community.
3. Explain how to build coalitions and partnerships strategically; describe how to incorporate diversity, equity and inclusion; explain how to incorporate collaborative planning designs into your work; list and explain factors that will help you to learn from and resolve conflict.
4. Describe communication and social change approaches that integrate well with environmental education; list possible avenues for supporting and building community capacity; determine a variety of ways that you and your organization promote community action
5. Assess your readiness for community engagement; identify strategies to assess your organization’s readiness for community engagement; describe methods to help partners and stakeholders build their capacity for community engagement; list techniques to evaluate your CEEAP that can lead to adaptations needed for ongoing community engagement; assess needed resources for long term viability of community engagement

Although learning is self paced, there is a suggested timeline of completing half of the course by midterm. 

Supervisors interested in enrolling multiple staff can receive a discount of one free registration for every three registrations! Email Lisa Eadens at lisaeade[email protected] for more details and to receive a registration code.

Registration for Summer 2023 will be open through June 14, 2023. Coursework opens June 19 and all work must be completed by August 19, 2023.