Promoting North Carolina's Environmental Education Centers

Click Here to enjoy a description of how ten of North Carolina's 190 Environmental Education Centers collaborated to educate almost a half million people about preventing polluted runoff into our lakes, ponds, streams, and rivers.

One hundred twenty-one of North Carolina's 174 Environmental Education Centers have joined together to form the North Carolina Association of Environmental Education Centers (NCAEEC) so they can share ideas, network, and plan for future growth. Because of the Centers' value as both local and statewide resources, the Environmental Education Fund will assist the Environmental Education Centers in promoting themselves and promoting each other.

To further one of the Environmental Education Fund's major goals to "begin and sustain a public environmental education program," Centers applying for grants would be asked to collaborate on the common environmental education theme of "Discover Your Ecological Address" and targeted issues such as polluted runoff. They would also be encouraged to help direct visitors to other Centers. For example: a Center might highlight special habitats for carnivorous plants and the effects of polluted runoff. Tying that ecological resource into the larger picture of the great biodiversity represented at other Environmental Education Centers promotes the network of Centers and raises public awareness that we all have very unique "Ecological Address" and that our individual activities all have environmental consequences affecting these natural systems.

The grants will serve as a sound mechanism to implement this concept by adding synergy and a continuum to the promotional and educational programs the public will experience at each Center.

Detailed Description of Program