Community Education
When the Community is the Classroom

Chair: Elaine Andrews, North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE)

Public education is often required for environmental management activities, but little thought is given to how to implement it, leaving educators and others with sparse guidance as to how to use their resources effectively. Education for a sustainable and secure future implies implementation of an education process that can lead to long-term or structural change. This session will focus on how to build systems and networks that will expand community capacity to improve environmental quality while integrating environmental management goals with other community development activities.

To be successful, community-based education must be a collaborative process where community members are involved in setting goals, gathering information, and implementing effective outreach strategies. The "community" may be a community of place, a community of identity, or a community of interest. In each situation, the intent is to build the skills of citizens to gather, analyze, and apply information for the purpose of making environmental management decisions. To help generate a thoughtful response, participants will consider one or more community-based education models and analyze several case studies from a social marketing perspective. Participants will then make recommendations about when a community-based education model might be most effective; how to ensure authentic commitment to participate by government agencies, business, and non-government organizations; and how to ensure that leaders and participating organizations have the training they need to implement this process.

New Tools for Environmental Protection: Education, Information and Voluntary Measures, 2002, National Research Council
A Model of Community-Based Education, Chapter 10
National Academies Press

Resources:

WEB BASED RESOURCES
http://www.uwex.edu/erc/epacoopext.html
See links to the following fact sheets:

** Building Capacity - Educating for Community Action, No. 6 **
An introduction to Community Based Environmental Education (CBEE) for US EPA and Cooperative Extension staff, emphasizing its four fundamentals: it is local, collaborative, informed, and active. Describes how agency professionals can link their skills to CBEE and identifies needed tools and resources. 4 pp.

** Building Capacity - From Transferring to Transforming, No. 7 **
This pamphlet discusses Community-Based Environmental Education (CBEE) as a tool to promote change. It briefly summarizes the elements of successful environmental education programs and shows how to apply CBEE to an existing program. 4 pp.

** Building Capacity - Community-Based Environmental Education in Practice, No. 8 **
Reports on four programs which effectively used Community-Based Environmental Education (CBEE) emphasizing how they employed the four critical CBEE components. Addresses programs on: urban environmental health and public health, wetland resource management, county-wide groundwater quality, and youth-oriented lake water quality. 4 pp.

PUBLICATIONS

Gerald Gardner and Paul Stern. 1996. Environmental Problems and Human Behavior. Allyn & Bacon, A Simon & Schuster Company.

Susan Hill MacKenzie. 1996. Integrated Resource Planning and Management -- The Ecosystem Approach in the Great Lakes Basin. Island Press.

National Research Council. 1999. New Strategies for America's Watersheds. National Academy Press. (www.nap.edu)

National Research Council. 2002. New Tools for Environmental Protection -- Education, Information, and Voluntary Measures. T. Dietz and P.C. Stern, eds. National Academy Press. (www.nap.edu)

• Discussion and Attendees
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