Orange County
Region 9b

For Providers

Click on the links below to go directly to the information you are seeking.

Wolf Spider carries her egg sac. Courtesy of Trude Hurd.

• Children's Water Education Festival
• Education and the Environment Initiative
• Grants & Fundraising
• Workshops and Classes
• Conferences and Symposia
• Provider Resources
• Program Evaluation/Assessment and Research
• Publicize Volunteer and Service-Learning Opportunities
• Notes from Nuts and Bolts of Service-Learning Workshop, March 10, 2006
• Places to Volunteer
• California Standardized Testing

Children's Water Education Festival

• CWEF Presenter Letter
• CWEF Presenter Guidelines
• CWEF Presenter App. Sample
• CWEF 2009 Presenter Application

Grants & Fundraising

• EPA's EE Grants Program

  Postmark Deadline: December 18, 2008
  Application Information: http://www.epa.gov/enviroed/grants.html

  The Fiscal Year 2009 Solicitation Notice for EPA's EE Grants Program is now available online. Please visit the site to review details about how to apply for an EE grant and to download the 2009 Solicitation Notice, Application, and Budget Form. EPA prefers that you submit your application on paper in the mail, but you may also apply electronically if you prefer to do so.
  Please note: At this time, funding for EPA's Environmental Education Program is uncertain because the federal budget for FY 2009 is not yet final. Since EPA cannot be certain of the funding to be appropriated by Congress, potential applicants should be aware of the possibility that funding will not become available for these grants.

• California State Parks Foundation Competitive Grants Program

  Deadline: Rolling
  http://www.calparks.org/programs/competitive-grant/
  Information: Alisha: 916-442-2119 or alisha@calparks.org
  

  CSPF offers competitive grants (usually ranging from $200-$6,000) to benefit our State Parks System and to support the Department's mission. Qualified non-profit groups, as well as California state park units and park agencies, are encouraged to apply. In general (and as funds permit), CSPF grants are targeted in four main areas: Volunteer Efforts and Recognition; Education and Interpretation; Natural and Cultural Resource Protection; and Capacity Building for cooperating associations. The Foundation also makes a number of discretionary grants each year that may fall outside the main target areas.

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Provider Resources

• The California Roundtable on Recreation, Parks and Tourism was founded in 1998 to encourage cooperation between public and private entities involved and interested in outdoor recreation, public lands and tourism in California: http://www.calroundtable.org/cobor.htm
• Article about German "forest kindergartens" - kids in the woods! http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB120813155330311577-lMyQjAxMDI4MDI4NjEyMzYxWj.html
• "No Child Left Inside" Video: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wRR1feHqZPY

Program Evaluation/Assessment and Research

Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education also provides information on Outdoor and Environmental Education Research

The following three documents are from Community Resources for Science

Impact of EE on Academic Achievement

Impact of EE on Academic Achievement Appendices

Pre- and Post- Visit Materials: CRS Presentation (Note: These are the notes for a presentation they did to present their findings.)

Elevate the Value of Your Programs

NAAEE's Resource Reviews will help you elevate the value of your programs. Demonstrate your commitment to excellence in EE by submitting your materials for an independent peer review. Then educators will easily find your reviewed resources in NAAEE's National EE Directory, flagged with the symbol that shows your role in developing a "culture of quality" in the EE field.

Evaluation of Environmental and Marine Education Programs

Learn how to create and see samples of program evaluation plans and an environmental education literature review. There are also tools and techniques for evaluation, examples of objectives and goals, an evaluation glossary, and an online resource guide to evaluation.

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Publicize Volunteer and Service-Learning Opportunities

Bette Weinberg, the Director of Volunteer Services at the Volunteer Center of Orange County (VCOC), would like to include your volunteer programs and service-learning projects on the VCOC website. VCOC constantly receives inquiries from people of all ages looking for places to volunteer, and teachers interested in service-learning projects. Providing your program and project information to Bette for posting on the VCOC website will increase your organization's visibility.

Please fill out the two following forms and email them to Bette at: bweinberg@volunteercenter.org

1. VCOC Partner Registration
2. VCOC Project Registration

If you have questions about this, please call Bette at 714-953-5757 ext. 135.

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Looking for Places to Volunteer? Click on the link to find out how you can become involved.

OC-CREEC Offers Providers Free Publicity

• Online Calendar: Please go to Calendar to enter your upcoming events in the Orange County CREEC calendar.
• Click on the Region 9b Resource Directory on the left. Do a search for your program and resources. If something is incorrect, or missing, please follow the instructions to update information or add your program.
• E-Newsletter: Email Helen with upcoming events, teacher training opportunities, grant funding, or other valuable information.
• Need Volunteers? Email Helen to add your information to the Places to Volunteer web page.

Do you need standards and assessment information? Click on California Standardized Testing.