EELCORPS' ERIN SLINEY FORGES THE PATH FOR REGIONAL EE SUCCESS

Erin Sliney is not an idler. At just 30, she is well on her way to becoming an environmental education (EE) champion, not only in her home state of Kentucky but beyond. And she’s forging a path that may well be the key to broadening the reach of environmental education in Kentucky (and beyond)—developing regional networks to bolster collective impact throughout the state. As a member of the Kentucky Environmental Education Council (KEEC)’s Environmental Education Leadership Corps, Sliney has spent the past year at The Greater Clark Foundation, creating programs for Clark County’s Legacy Grove park. At the same time, she participated in KEEC’s Professional Environmental Educator Certification (PEEC) course—one of only three in the country that is nationally-accredited—and has become a certified environmental educator “enlightened to a world of dedicated environmental educators and EE organizations across the state,” she says. Inspired to apply to the EELCorps after spending time as a backcountry chainsaw crew member in Utah; hiking guide in Guatemala and Alaska; and Lead Naturalist and Outdoor Specialist at California’s Whiskeytown Environmental School (told you she’s not an idler), Sliney says the EELCorps experience, which she wrapped up today, has been more valuable than she had ever imagined. “My experience in EE at the Whiskeytown Environmental School was primarily teaching students about the plants and animals, but I now recognize that environmental education is a broad field that is integral to fostering resilient and sustainable communities,” she says. “The opportunity to share my passion and experience to help fulfill the significant need for EE in my beloved home state of Kentucky drew me to the EELCorps.” The Legacy Grove position was particularly appealing to Sliney, she says, because “the opportunity to create an EE program from scratch would allow me to develop new skills, be creative, have significant local impact, and integrate lessons learned from my graduate studies in Resilient and Sustainable Communities. I also loved that community participatory processes informed the development of both the Park and the play area.” Working at The Greater Clark Foundation office exposed Sliney to the world of high-functioning nonprofits, she says, and introduced her to key local partners, officials, community groups, and passionate residents. But she believes that perhaps the most valuable aspects of the program are the new connections she has made that led to the development of a network of environmental educators in Clark County. This new EE network became one of Sliney’s key focuses in Clark County, where she spearheaded not only program development for Legacy Grove but also coalition building and group facilitation that will leave a lasting impact in the county. After months of thorough preparation, research, and report creation, she recently led the first two meetings designed to bring together EE enthusiasts and professionals in her region. “As one EE network participant put it,” Sliney says of this kind of teamwork, “‘We are stronger together!’ We need combined and intentional efforts to provide residents with a comprehensive understanding of natural and human systems, giving them the tools and knowledge to address environmental problems, and fosters respect for the natural world.” To do this, she says, “requires more than just litter programs. This takes the coordinated work of different agencies with various resources and areas of expertise. A county-wide network can allow environmental educators to share successes and failures, combine resources, respond to the unique needs and interests of the community, and ensure that all residents have opportunities to participate in EE programs.” Having met twice as the new Clark County EE network, the group will hold several more meetings to articulate goals, action plans, group structure, and more. And they very well may serve as a prime example for other counties as they, too, bring together environmental educators—formal and nonformal, from all walks of life—to build that collective impact. ​ Learn More! EELCorps is an AmeriCorps program run by the Kentucky Environmental Education Council that seeks to increase environmental literacy throughout the state. Learn more here!

KAEE Member Feature: Josephine Sculpture Park

Years ago, a Girl Scouts troop comprised of nine- and ten-year-olds toured Frankfort’s Josephine Sculpture Park (JSP) with JSP founder and director Melanie VanHouten. Upon arriving at Aaron Dysart’s decaying sculpture, “Relic,” one of the troop members stuck her head into the large hollowed-out log and immediately called for her friends to join her in studying the dangling chrysalis she found inside. Seizing the opportunity as an educational moment, VanHouten gave the group an impromptu lesson about metamorphosis and habitat. And that impromptu lesson led to the ringleader’s epiphany: “Who knew you could learn about science at the sculpture park!?”

In that moment, she says, Melanie knew the park was serving exactly the purpose she had hoped it would: using art as a means of connecting children and families to the environment.

Kentucky’s only sculpture park, JSP opened to the public in 2009 on the land once owned by VanHouten’s grandparents and where she spent much of her childhood. That land, and all that “land” entails, are integral to the park.

“We are a place for outdoor exploration, free play, a picnic, and inspiration,” says JSP program coordinator Jeri Howell. “The art is here and can be integrated in various ways, but so can all of the natural elements you can find in a park dedicated to conserving Kentucky’s native, rural landscape.”

Just like environmental education, Howell says, arts education is cross-curricular, and with this in mind, JSP strives not only to increase children’s access to arts, culture, and outdoor experiences but also to teach those children—and their families, teachers, and broader communities—how art and nature are intertwined.

“We connect, or sometimes reconnect, people with themselves, each other, and nature through art, environmental programming, and creative community experiences,” Howell says. “It motivates and inspires us every day to see this in action at Josephine Sculpture Park.”

And they do, in fact, see it in action every day. One way is through the guided field trips the park leads for public and private school classes and student camps.

“This summer, the Shelby County Migrant Education Summer Program (grades K-12) visited JSP for an all-day arts and environmental education workshop that also incorporated math and reading and writing,” Howell says. “Students rotated in groups by grade level between three main activities: introduction to tree identification and nature journaling; sculpture making with woven natural materials lead by JSP Summer Artist in Residence, Justin Roberts; and a sculpture scavenger hunt that allowed students to explore the park’s 30 acres of native meadow, young forest, and more than 70 interactive public art installations.”

This type of hands-on, interdisciplinary field trip is offered year-round at JSP, and their environmental educational programs like that arranged for the Shelby County Migrant Education Summer Program align with Kentucky Academic Standards in science and arts; they often integrate state reading and writing and math standards, as well.

“School visits to JSP are incredibly flexible to each school’s needs and resources,” Howell says. “You can visit for free any day of the year from dawn to dusk to explore the sculptures, do a self-guided tour or sculpture scavenger hunt, or have a picnic. Or you can engage with our experienced staff of professional artists and an environmental educator to develop a paid program that is right for you, your students, and your budget.”

The team at JSP not only strives to expose visitors to the interplay between art and environment but also to ensure that everyone has access to this kind of visit and learning experience. As they prepare to celebrate the park’s tenth anniversary this September, they are encouraged by the visible enthusiasm shown by students participating in field trips at the park and also by the ways in which they are making their space accessible to everyone.

“JSP is proud to have been committed to celebrating diversity and social justice from the beginning,” Howell says. “JSP’s residency program hosts artists from Kentucky and around the world, many of whom are women and artists of color. Over the past ten years, JSP has been recognized for our commitment to diversity with financial support from the Kentucky Foundation for Women and the National Endowment for the Arts. We received the Community Service award from the Franklin County Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). And this year, JSP was accepted into Welcoming America’s ‘Welcoming Network,’ an international network of governments and organizations committed to creating inclusive communities where everyone—including immigrants and refugees—can thrive.”

At their September 8 Fall Arts Festival, this emphasis on diversity and inclusion will take center stage.

“The festival is always an exciting time for people of all ages and abilities to engage with art in a very hands-on, exploratory way,” VanHouten says. “This year, we are particularly looking forward to our emphasis on diversity and inclusion with our featured guest artists, Heather Hart and Sherwin Rio, and our music stage, which features artists from a variety of genres and cultures.”

The festival includes more than 20 free hands-on art workshops; advanced paid art workshops like glassblowing and blacksmithing; live music; hot air balloon rides; face painting; food and drink; and much more.

At the festival, Hart will facilitate an interactive community art project that will inform her upcoming “Porch Project” installation at JSP, designed to engage community conversations around race and gender. Participants at Rio’s workshop will share stories from their respective cultures, and then create a miniature clay monument reflective of their story. This activity is inspired by his sculpture at JSP, which Rio shares “asks viewers to imagine a more inclusive, dignified, and reciprocative future achieved through the acknowledgement of and respect for immigrants, refugees, Indigenous, and people of color in a dominantly white historical narrative.” Rio’s workshop is part of JSP’s participation in Welcoming Week, described on the Welcoming Network’s website as “a movement among communities across the globe to bring together immigrants and those born within their countries in a spirit of unity to build strong connections and affirm that being a welcoming community for all makes us stronger economically, socially, and culturally.”

For the 10th Fall Arts Festival, the park is also expanding its environmental partnerships, hosting ten Kentucky environmental organizations, each with an arts and/or environmental activity, to inform festival goers of regional ecology and civic engagement opportunities. Additionally, JSP is partnering with Franklin County Solid Waste Management to make the festival a zero-waste event, which means all waste generated from this festival will go to its proper waste stream: reuse, recycle, compost, or landfill.

With ten years behind them, the JSP team has grand plans for the next ten years at the park.

“In the past year, we purchased an additional ten acres adjacent to the park that would have otherwise been developed,” VanHouten says. “On that ten acres, we are in the process of installing a native meadow and rehabilitating a tobacco barn to create more classroom, exhibit, and event space. This new expansion is another big way we can engage more people in our mission.”

In addition, they plan to expand their educational programming to include more summer and school break camps and develop financial partners in hopes of being able to offer school field trip stipends and program and camp scholarships for individuals.

“Knowing this is a place for the community to be exposed to new ways of making art and connecting with nature, as well as meeting people engaged in creative professions they never knew existed” inspires the team, Howell says. “Small surprising moments of collective joy and beauty in nature can remind us how similar we all are, despite our differences.”

Learn more

​Josephine Sculpture Park, an organizational member of the Kentucky Association for Environmental Education, is located in Frankfort, Kentucky. To learn more about the park and the upcoming Fall Arts Festival, check out their website here!

KAEE Announces New Strategic Plan

This July, the Board of the Kentucky Association for Environmental Education approved the organization’s new Strategic Plan, a plan that focuses on one overarching question: “What would it take for us to truly achieve our vision?”

“Embarking on a new strategic plan has come at an opportune time for KAEE,” writes KAEE Executive Director in the plan’s Executive Summary. “Throughout the past few years we have made great strides to strengthen the organization and move toward becoming a thriving, resilient nonprofit. With this significant growth has come the chance to reflect and focus on ways we can better meet the needs of our education community and succeed in achieving our mission.”

The mission? To “increase environmental knowledge and community engagement in Kentucky through the power of environmental education.”

And the vision? “A sustainable world where environmental and social responsibility drive individual and institutional choices.”

The newly adopted Strategic Plan explains that “environmental education (EE) provides the skills necessary for people of all ages to make intelligent, informed decisions about the environment and how they can take care of it. EE builds human capacity, influences attitudes, and can lead to action. Most importantly, it can help people make informed decisions about the environment that lead to lifelong stewardship and a more sustainable society.”

With this definition and the new mission and vision in mind, the plan lays out goals and strategies in key areas including “Advancing Environmental Literacy,” “Building Our Audience,” and “Cultivating Collective Impact.”

With clearly defined desired outcomes, the plan includes strategies for success in all three areas. KAEE will continue—and strive to broaden—the work the organization has long been doing in the realm of promoting professional development and best practices in EE. They will with great intentionality work to increase public support for and investment in the field of EE, reach broader audiences, and better tell the story not only of what they are doing but why EE is so crucial for the future of Kentucky. And they will determinedly strive to bring people together to create a stronger and more inclusive EE movement.

​“Taking a systems-thinking approach to this work has helped us understand that we have a huge opportunity to increase our impact,” Hoffman explains. “We recognize that a significant part of our role is to support the ‘boots on the ground’—the educators who do this work every day. Our new plan emphasizes the important role we play as a backbone organization, supporting and enhancing that community-level work where real change is happening. We truly believe that this is how we will achieve an environmentally knowledgeable society.”