Activity 1 approached its Year 1 goal of reaching 15 classes, with 11 classes presented to in the 2022-2023 academic year. While we did not meet all anticipated classes, we built strong connections at the schools we did serve that we will use to increase recruitment in Year 2. In-class presentations delivered prior to the field trip built a connection between the students and the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The follow-up presentations help further cement the connections, and tied in actions students could participate in to protect the sanctuary from their community.

The Activities 2 and 5 goal of reaching 6 interns was adjusted from 4 interns to ensure all participants received enough attention and mentorship. In Year 1 we successfully recruited and graduated 5 interns.

The Activities 2 and 5 goal of reaching 6 interns was adjusted from 4 interns to ensure all participants received enough attention and mentorship. Activity 3 did not meet its goals of facilitating four Sanctuary Saturdays with the City of Watsonville. As discussed in further detail in item 7, issues with staffing, management turn-over, and the demolishment of the Watsonville Nature Center prevented our ability to create meaningful activities. We did support alongside our City of Watsonville partners at the annual Latino Conservation Week event in Monterey. We have set up meetings with the partner’s leadership to ensure Year 2 reaches or exceeds anticipated goals. Activity 4 approached its Year 1 goal by providing 8 4th and 5th grade classes with field trips to the SEC. Each class included in the 3-part OEP program participated in a Wharf Oceanography field trip that includes a plankton sample collection and ocean data collection of pH, salinity, turbidity, and temperature to determine the health of the ocean. Many students described this field trip as their first trip to the beach and/or first trip to the Santa Cruz Wharf.

Activity 6’s Día de la Comunidad event brought 258 participants to the SEC to explore the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. All participating 4th and 5th grade classes received invitations to bring their family and friends for the celebration. Four free guided kayak tours filled up with participating Watsonville Families (approximately 32 people participated). All Young Adult Leadership Interns Field trip interns joined and facilitated pop-up stations exploring plankton, water quality, and marine debris. All stations, including kayaking, had at least one bilingual staff, intern, or volunteer present. This ensured a fully language-accessible experience for all families, regardless of English or Spanish fluency. Note: A key expectation of this event was the need for free transportation to reduce a perceived barrier. But, despite free shuttle buses available with bilingual guides ready to support, no participants opted to use the transportation available for Dia de la Comunidad. Upon further discussion with attendees from Watsonville who still joined for the event, the barrier to shuttle use lies in a lack of multi-generational accommodations. Many Watsonville families live multi-generationally, with elderly grandparents and children who need car seats, neither of whom are best served on a shuttle bus. In Year 2 we are exploring free parking options to alleviate cost barriers to visiting families, while still exploring transportation options for car-less families.

Through our gardening classes, community members learn about gardening 101 through hands-on experience in the garden by sowing seeds, repotting plants, cultivating soil, harvesting, and more. We demonstrate and guide through hands-on workshops, which increases the capacity to learn and retain information. Also, our nature trips and activities allow community members to explore beyond the bounds of their urban neighborhoods and learn about various ecosystems in Southern California. Educational goals achieved also include: - Collaboration with local schools through Alma's Youth Empowerment Center. -Expanding education on green spaces and the importance of maintaining, cultivating, and nurturing green/nature areas. - Additional education was provided on the nutritional value of vegetation and its cultivation.

City of Watsonville Nature Center

Unfortunately, we could not meet the requirements for our first year partnership with the City of Watsonville Nature Center. Development of a new Nature Center began earlier than expected, right at the onset of the grant, which meant the Nature Center itself was closed and we could not present as anticipated from their facility. Short-staffing on their end and a change of leadership at the Sanctuary Exploration Center resulted in diminished capacity to develop new plans for engagement.

As of November 2023, we have set up a meeting with their team to identify how to best support each other under this grant in its second year (academic year 2023-2024) and have outlined alternative ways to collaborate without the use of the Nature Center, which isn’t due for completion until 2025. Watsonville Schools: Calabasas, MacQuiddy, Radcliff, Amesti, Watsonville Charter School of Arts.

We worked with teachers at the above schools to bring multiple classes out, and to advertise for the community even Dia de la Comunidad. In the 2023-2024 school year, five teachers from three of the above schools (Radcliff, Amesti, and WCSA) have reached out to renew programming at their sites. After the first year of the grant, we are developing new methods for tracking communications with teachers to ensure sustained communication, which was a challenge.

We have established with partnerships with local community organizations such as: Costello Park Senior Center: we have established continuous gardening workshops for their seniors and are also scheduling nature area trips. Ability First, a 501(c) 3 nonprofit in Los Angeles; we have held gardening workshops to help promote life skills and wellness to adults/minors with disabilities. Soledad Enrichment Action (SEA): we have offered gardening classes and nature trips to at-risk youth.

Young Adult Leaders: We were excited to see five young adult leaders join this program in Year 1. They gained valuable experience working with students and community members, and many remarked that this was a favorite internship/job. One intern graduated this spring and used her experience to apply for and secure a part-time regular position with the Sanctuary Exploration Center.

Teacher Communications: Many teachers are excited about free programming, but struggle with limited bandwidth amidst the many expectations of their district and school administration. We recommend building in automatic reminders for teachers (i.e. schedule-sending email reminders at booking), as well as documenting a class’s booking status and updating regularly in program trackers to keep aware of which teachers may have fallen off the radar.

Transportation Barriers: We anticipated that distance to the Sanctuary Exploration Center (SEC) would be a barrier to families in Watsonville. As such, money was set aside to pay for shuttle buses to and from the SEC on the Dia de la Comunidad event day. But, many of the families who did join us drove of their own accord, because they had elderly family members or infants/toddlers who needed a car seat. In addition, many families wanted the freedom to join more than just the Center’s activities, which prompted them to drive themselves instead of taking a shuttle that had time limitations. The bigger barrier appeared to be not the physical transportation, but the cost associated with it through things like parking. We have suggested using funding for transportation in the next year to purchase and offer free parking for families. Students who participate in field trips may opt to receive one free parking pass for the community event day.

Partnership Challenges: After being awarded this multi-year grant, our community partner launched a full-scale demolition/reconstruction of their visitor center, which our planned community events revolved around. This hindered our ability to meet the original community goals we’d outlined. To avoid this in future years, we’re planning routine check-in meetings and developing a shared tracker between organizations to better identify activities and events that would meet our community goals and support our partner while they don’t have a visitor center.

· As we continued to do this work, we were reassured of the effectiveness of our approach in familiarizing ourselves with local organizations and resources that are doing similar work so we can build and collaborate in the efforts to serve our communities better. · Suggestions: Hold quarterly or yearly meetings with other CBOs who have the OEP grant to discuss best practices.