97th ESA Annual Meeting (August 5 -- 10, 2012)

WK 38 - Empowering Ecology Outreach to Faith Communities: From Best Practices to a Speaker’s Bureau

Tuesday, August 7, 2012: 8:00 PM-10:00 PM
D137, Oregon Convention Center
Organizer:
Leanne Jablonski
Co-organizer:
Gregory E. Hitzhusen
ESA has begun a robust exploration and dialogue about ecology outreach to faith communities. Starting with symposia and organized oral talks and sessions sponsored by the Environmental Justice (EJ) Section over the past five years, these efforts grew to a focused series of several sessions in Austin in 2011, including a workshop designed to lay the groundwork to establish a speakers bureau. These efforts have continued to attract interest and collaborators, including the National Religious Partnership for the Environment (www.nrpe.org) whose Director, Matthew Anderson-Stembridge, presented at the 2011 ESA opening plenary of ESA 2011 in Austin. NRPE’s partner organizations reach over 90% of religious America, and represent a promising audience for ecology education outreach. This workshop will focus on efforts within ESA to develop and empower these outreach opportunities. We’re bringing together partners to launch organized outreach efforts and drawing upon the 2011 survey of ESA members to gather insight to establish an ecologists’ speakers bureau for the general public via religious organizations. We’ll feature several renowned science communicators from diverse religious traditions giving effective examples. We’ll also provide an 1) overview of ESA faith community outreach foundations (related efforts, resources, history/growth of speakers bureau idea, outreach guide, membership survey and related info) 2) reports of some outreach efforts/examples since ESAAustin2011 3) highlights of key demographic and best practices info that can guide outreach. Participants will reflect on insights from the accompanying 2012 Symposium, and be invited to share ideas and get involved in next steps.

Registration Fee: $0

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