The 2023-2024 Environmental Education Pathways grant program will open on July 3rd by invitation for eligible members of the Sonoma Environmental Education Collaborative. Please contact Elly Grogan with any questions: egrogan@sonomacf.org.
The Environmental Education Pathways Project (Pathways Project) is a new three-year initiative of the Sonoma Environmental Education Collaborative (SEEC) and Community Foundation Sonoma County. The Pathways Project builds on SEEC’s network of providers to coordinate a cohesive countywide effort whose focus is: To significantly elevate the impact of outdoor environmental education across Sonoma County, increasing depth and breadth, and the extent to which we reach and create change in underserved communities.
The heart of the Pathways Project is to create a collaborative learning pathway that connects and grows environmental understanding throughout a student’s elementary school years (K-6). Each year’s curriculum will build on the previous year, scaffolding students’ environmental education learning with a capstone experience in the final elementary school year. An essential element of the Pathways Project is outdoor experiential learning, where students engage in hands-on science, and develop feelings of belonging and connection—a sense of comfort and confidence in and from the outdoors.
The primary goals for the project are to:
To accomplish this, the Pathways Project will work at three levels: (1) on the ground supporting the delivery of outdoor environmental education to Title 1 schools; (2) within schools to build stronger relationships with teachers, school administrators and diverse environmental education providers, and; (3) across institutions to bring resources, and diverse experiences and perspectives to create sustainability.
Environmental education providers are invited to apply for funding for their programs for the 2023-2024 academic year if they meet the following criteria:
Monday, July 3: Application opens; eligible applicants have been emailed a link to apply
Friday, July 28 at 5 pm: Application Closes
Wednesday, August 9 through Friday, August 11: Applicants notified of funding decisions
Week of August 28: Grants Awarded
SEEC’s mission is to increase environmental literacy in Sonoma County residents. SEEC identifies and addresses regional needs for environmental education beyond the scope of individual organizations. SEEC believes that together we are more effective and more efficient in increasing the depth and breadth of environmental education in the County. As a regional consortium, SEEC brings together almost all local and regional environmental education professionals from organizations, agencies, networks, and school districts.
SEEC is an all-volunteer organization coming together since 2008 to facilitate collective impact for environmental education in the County. SEEC meets monthly and is managed by a Steering Committee of six organizations. Collectively, these six organizations reach over 65,818 (duplicated) students annually with a combined budget of well over $2M. The County had a total of 66,450 public school students in the 2020-21 school year.
To learn more, visit https://sonomacountyee.org/