PATHWAYS TO STEWARDSHIP
Year 1 Annual Report |
Jump to annual report details (2023-2025)| Amount | $678,711 |
| Grantee | Southern California Mountains Foundation |
| Award Year | 2022 |
| Funding Source | General Fund, Outdoor Equity Program |
| Project Type | Program Operation |
| Project Status | In Progress |
Description
Conduct the Pathways to Stewardship Program for residents near Bobby Vega Memorial Park in the City of San Bernardino. This program will include approximately 212 activity days in the community for approximately 5,300 participants and 112 trips to natural areas for approximately 3,200 participants during three years of programming.
Activities in the community will include outdoor equity education academy, and San Bernardino environmental justice eco tours.
Trips to natural areas outside of the community will include intern-led guided nature discovery exploration eco tours in the San Bernardino National Forest and science camps for elementary/middle school at nearby California State Parks.
Community Home Base Location
800-862 N. Garner Avenue, San Bernardino, CA 92411
| County | San Bernardino |
| Assembly District | AD 45 James C. Ramos (D) |
| Senate District |
SD 29 Eloise Gómez Reyes (D) |
| Congressional District | CD 33 Pete Aguilar (D) |
Program Goals
Service Learning/Career Pathway/Leadership Opportunities
100 residents will join the Southern California Mountains Foundation Urban Conservation Corps three-year program called Pathways to Stewardship through Outdoor Equity Education for a cost of $313,425. The Program is a paid internship that weaves into its programming positive youth development to train, empower and prepare at risk high school senior age youth to 1) lead guided nature, discovery and environmental justice eco tours in the City of San Bernardino and the San Bernardino National Forest and 2) lead environmental education science camps for San Bernardino elementary and middle school age youth at California State Parks. To prepare at risk youth for the internship, the program will create an Outdoor Equity Education Academy at the home base community site, the Bobby Vega Memorial Community Park to instruct, train and empower youth to become environmental leaders for their community. At the Outdoor Equity Education Academy, the education goals include 1) foster environmental stewardship knowledge and skills through the use of a California Statewide Environmental Education Science Standard Curriculum (Project Learning Tree/Pathways to Stewardship Curricula/Next Generation Science Standards), 2) develop leadership skills for outdoor adventure and education activities through hands on training to facilitate environmental education activities 3) educate youth on environmental justice disparities 4) empower interns to connect to nature and 5) foster leadership skills for presenting, teaching and engaging the community in outdoor education. The internship is approximately 6 months and working approximately 16 hours per week at minimum wage. All interns will receive a certificate from the Southern California Mountains Foundation and letters of recommendation that can be used for employment resume, as well as college admissions.
Partnerships
University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources - will provide mentors and staff for nature area activities.
UC 4-H Clubs San Bernardino – will assist with nature area activities.
San Bernardino Unified School District/ Superintendent of Schools - will assist with outreach and recruitment.
Sister We – will assist with outreach and recruitment.
Mentoring
Approximately 100 youth will be recruited to the UCC Pathways to Stewardship (through Outdoor Equity Education) Internship Program after the grant performance period. These young people will be recruited through several recruitment strategies that have been found to be successful for the past 15 years which is 1) community outreach to identify potential environmental leaders, 2) community partnership/agency referrals and 3) word of mouth from other youth (corps members) in the program. The UCC has an excellent reputation in the Community.
As part of the UCC, the interns that are hired under the Pathways to Stewardship Internship Program will also have access to all of the services within the UCC Corps member Development/ Support Services Department. This includes getting assigned a case manager/coach to assist in career pathways planning and job exploration with an emphasis on career in natural resource and environmental professions.
The interns, as part of their program will also participate in an Outdoor Equity Education Academy at the local parks to prepare to carry out guided tours for nature, discover exploration and environmental justice. One of the key educational components of this Academy is educating young people on environmental disparities that impact low-income communities of color such as San Bernardino such as heat island effects, pollution, litter, climate change, inequitable tree canopies, brown fields, etc. Further, to cultivate the intern’s involvement in community activism, interns will be encouraged to participate in the UCC Naturalist Program.
Annual Report Details
Programs may span from one year to multi-year, not to exceed four years. The specific length of the program is contained in the description above.
| Category | 2023 | 2024 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Youth Served | 1,698 | 110 | 1,808 |
| Days for Activities in the Community | 24 | 1 | 25 |
| Nature Area Trips | 3 | 0 | 3 |
List of Educational Goals Achieved
2023
The Outdoor Equity Learning Academy was a huge success. Throughout the year, Corps member educators had a variety of topics they researched and learned about including the following: Tree inequity, Co-benefits and importance of tree canopy, local government, public outreach, engagement and organizing techniques, food equity, BIPOC in green spaces, public speaking, and leading public groups.
2024
List of Formed Partnerships
2023
Our partnerships for this 2023 year includes Music Changing Lives and Huerta del Valle. Located on the corner of Electric Avenue and North 40th Street in San Bernardino, this area once held the largest dumping sites in the city – the land has been transformed into an urban garden. In addition to addressing food insecurity, the garden aims to provide a safe space where neighbors can come together to learn, exercise, eat, explore, relax and have fun.
The Corpsmember educators united with Music Changing Lives, a community based non-profit, with an urban garden to help educate the community about tree inequality, food insecurity and to bring people together to talk and address the concerns they have about their neighborhood. In addition to that, our educators also use this site as their home base or meeting place. Huerta del Valle is a community garden which serves the areas of the Inland Empire to promote food security and equitable access to healthy food. Our Corpsmember educators teamed up with Huerta to speak to our local community about the concept of food security and the importance of trees as a source of mental health and the importance and many different benefits of tree canopy. Maria, the CEO from Huerta, was present during the eco tours to guide and train Corpsmember educators through speaking to both Spanish and English speakers about equitable access to green spaces, tree canopies and healthy food access.
2024
Lessons
2023
One of the best lessons learned through program implementation is to build strong community partner relationships, even if you have fewer partners, they should be solid and have a similar goal to what your organization wishes to achieve.
We also believe in having a strong participant voice in the decision making process, because who better than them to represent the needs of the community.
Also, ensure your tracking method is one that is accessible and easy to decipher. One unforeseen challenge was that participation and activity tracking with this program was more challenging than expected since the activities can sometimes meet multiple deliverables and the type of reporting and invoicing required was different than other typical programs.
