Capacity Building for North Carolina's Environmental Education Centers

Since 1993 179 Environmental Education Centers have been identified in North Carolina. The Centers are public, private and nonprofit and serve diverse statewide and out of state audiences totaling over 14 million visitors each year. Each Center is unique and their resources and visitor base are varied, but one need stands out for all of them, and that is the need for capacity building.

To meet this need the Environmental Education Fund will collaborate with the North Carolina Association of Environmental Education Centers to coordinate seminars and workshops on overall capacity building, minority outreach, working with people for whom English is a second language, grant seeking, growth management, hospitality, and marketing for the Environmental Education Centers' staff and volunteers. These will strengthen the infrastructure of the Centers to allow them to become a significantly stronger educational and entertaining resource for adults, families and students as well as visitors to North Carolina.

In addition, the Fund will collaborate with the Association to raise funds for display maps to be placed in each center providing directions to the other Centers in the state.

Detailed Description of Program