Staff Presents at ChangeScale

8.27.15-SFW_IMG_3117CommunityGrows staff Kelly ErnstFriedman, Melissa Tang and Cha’Shay Woldridge presented with Julia Hatton from Rising Sun Energy Center spoke at the ChangeScale August 2015 Convening: Creating a Culture of Equity and Inclusion. They reported on their work with other Bay Area organizations that made up a LEAPS (Leadership and Evaluation to Advance Program Success) cohort, funded for three years by the S.D. Bechtel Jr. Fund. The cohort of seventeen environmental literacy grantees was brought together in 2012 by LEAPS, a group founded by Learning for Action. Participating organizations share commitment to supporting high-school aged youth to develop as leaders and environmental stewards in their communities.
These seventeen LEAPS organizations were engaged in ongoing technical assistance to develop their evaluation capacity since October 2012.
During the first phase of this initiative, organization representatives attended trainings focused on foundational evaluation and learning concepts: theories of change, logic models, evaluation plans, tool development, data analysis techniques, and communicating effectiveness. They also engaged in a range of leadership capacity building activities.
In the phase that followed and with continued support from the S.D. Bechtel, Jr., Foundation, Learning for Action worked with clusters of organizations to develop shared measures around three cross-cutting areas of interest. The cluster study work arose out of an opportunity for the cohort to begin to document its collective story – which was further emerging after Phase I’s work – and the desire to advance organizations’ evaluation capacity through the hands-on, group learning experience this type of project would provide. Organizations worked together to define and form the clusters, collect data, and analyze the emerging stories. 
8.27.15-SFW_IMG_3119Here is a little more about ChangeScale. ChangeScale is working to support and advance the cohesiveness, effectiveness, and prominence of the environmental education field. Funded by the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. and Pisces Foundations, ChangeScale’s mission is to ensure that every generation is inspired with the environmental know-how to create healthy communities and a healthy planet. Formed in 2010 and comprised of Bay Area practitioners, academics, and funders, the group will create a strategic plan and road map to strengthen and build the field of environmental education, while helping to create a unified voice for the field.
Congratulations everyone for a job well done!
Here are some documents from our three years of work with the LEAPS Cohort:

LEAPS Cluster Studies Lessons Learned_06 30 15 by blwenger

LEAPS Workforce Development Cluster Study by blwenger

LEAPS Safer Spaces Cluster Study by blwenger

LEAPS Meaningful Engagement Cluster Study by blwenger