November 2011 - Parks & Recreation - 95

one of our parks. The student submitted
and received a grant application from an
area foundation to plant trees at an area
park. The student then partnered with
BREC and an area nonprofit tree advocacy group to acquire and organize a volunteer effort to plant the native trees. BREC
provided support by having a landscape
architect find the appropriate location for
the trees and get construction crews to
dig the holes for the large trees prior to
the planting.
The second project involved a high
school student who wanted to raise funds
to assist organizations rehabilitating wildlife impacted by the 2010 BP oil spill. Staff
worked with the student to instruct her in
fundraising and provided her with a venue at one of our conservation areas to host
a fundraiser for the project. Her fundraiser, " Walk 4 Wildlife, " raised over $1,500
to benefit the Louisiana Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Rescue Program and
Wings of Hope Wildlife Sanctuary. BREC
has been fortunate to partner with the
Wings of Hope Wildlife Sanctuary for
years and they have supported our programs and conservation efforts.
In June of 2011, BREC partnered with
a local nonprofit (City Year) and a local
youth leadership group (the Hugh O'Brian
Youth Leadership Program) to implement
a stewardship project that cleaned up two
lakes that are adjacent to BREC parks.
This project was part of the Global Youth
Service Day (GYSD) that included service
projects around the world. The local nonprofit group solicited supplies from various groups including American Rivers,
which donated garbage bags and advertised the cleanup on their 2011 National
River Cleanup website; local restaurants
which donated food and drinks; Louisiana State University which donated garage grabbers; a local adventure outfitter
which donated canoes, kayaks, paddles,
and PFDs for the day; and the local Keep
Baton Rouge Beautiful organization, which
donated gloves. Hundreds of participants,
mainly local youth, picked up garbage to
clean up the lakes.
While BREC does not currently incorporate specific formal career orientation to guide youth to " green " job

photographs and stories) have been supported in the post-event marketing of almost all of our stewardship projects.

Creating a Culture of Conservation
in Youth

opportunities, we do have programs
such as the Bluebonnet Bird Monitoring
program that does actively recruit university students as volunteers and teaches them contemporary bird monitoring
techniques in order to prepare the next
generation of informed conservationists
and wildlife biologists. This program also
provides extensive hands on outreach opportunities for K-12 students to learn from
and interact with captured birds and the
young college-aged biologists who teach
them about avian ecology, wildlife biology, and conservation and provide great
role models for the youth.

Funding
The programs are funded in a variety of
ways. Many of the projects are funded
primarily through our partners, but also
out of current operating budgets with existing staff. In some cases, the program
is supported through donations of supplies and materials from businesses. Staff
works with the youth to develop their understanding of necessary funding to complete a project and educate them about
how to solicit funds for their project. This
is an important part of the development of
leadership skills in youth, and it helps to
ensure success of projects.

Social Media Utilized
Social media and mobile technology
(Facebook, Twitter, and various postings
on webpages) were effective in soliciting
volunteers for the GYSD project. Social
media and mobile technology (posting

w w w . N R P A . O R G / c on s e r v a t i on

We have had the most success instilling a
dedication to conservation in young people in our summer camp program. In this
program, we have the time to work with
participants to delve deeply into conservation issues and develop environmental
stewardship leaders. We typically have
these young people for 40-50 hours each
week (7:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.) during the
summer, and many of them come back for
years after. During our summer camp, we
explore various issues in great depth and
provide young people hands-on opportunities for environmental stewardship.
Youths that participate in this program
develop an appreciation for the environment and an understanding of the value of nature, making it easy to motivate
them to identify actions that they can take
to conserve the environment. Research
has supported findings that such experiences are where environmental stewardship and a culture of conservation will be
developed.

Goals Set, Results Evaluated
In each case where we partner with an
organization, we try to establish measurable goals for specific projects. Each
project is different. Tree-planting projects
can measure the number of trees planted.
Garbage or recycling projects can measure the amount and types of garbage or
recyclables picked up over a given period of time. Sometimes in working with
partners, particularly young partners, the
learning experience involves evaluating
the outcome as part of a project after action review. It also may involve discussing why we met, didn't meet, or exceeded
our projected outcomes.
For more information on how the Recreation and Park Commission of East
Baton Rouge Parish (BREC) creates partnerships to foster stewardship and conservation, contact: Greg Grandy, ggrandy@
brec.org, 225.273.6405, 6201 Florida Boulevard, Baton Rouge, LA 70806.

november 2011

Parks & Recreation

November 2011 - Parks & Recreation

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