The 2023 Environmental Education Pathways Project grant program is closed. The program was open by invitation only to eligible members of the Sonoma Environmental Education Collaborative. If you have questions, please reach out to Elly Grogan, 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:
- Identify and pilot solutions to barriers to delivering environmental education.
- Build the capacity of each service provider to collaborate while also maintaining program delivery.
- Pilot environmental literacy pathways in selected underserved schools, tapping the strengths of participating service providers and working within the individual school capacity and culture.
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.
Grant Program Overview and Criteria
SEEC is partnering with Community Foundation Sonoma County to manage the funding for this innovative three-year project as well as support convening and collaboration across providers and other institutions involved in environmental education in Sonoma County.
In the spirit of collaboration and leveraging resources, Community Foundation Sonoma County has merged our environmental education funding with the Pathways Project. We will not be running a separate grant program for environmental education during the lifespan of this project.
Eligible SEEC members will be invited to apply each year to receive funding for their participation in the Pathways Project.
Application Timeline
Monday, February 6: Application opens; eligible applicants have been emailed a link to apply
Friday, March 3 at 5 pm: Application Closes
Monday, March 13 and Tuesday, March 14: Applicants notified of funding decisions
Week of March 27: Grants Awarded
About SEEC
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/
This grant program is by invitation only. For more information about the Environmental Education grant program, please contact:
