Public Service Projects

Raissa Kirk
Public Service Vice-Chair
Rkirk@crowncentral.com

The Committee is pleased to be moving forward with our exciting community service project with an organization called Earth Force, whose purpose is to help young people discover and implement lasting solutions to environmental problems in their communities. Our first partnership city is Indianapolis, Indiana! We have commitments to fund the project at $5,000 in Indianapolis from Eli Lilly, the law firm of Krieg DeVault, and the law firm of Harrison & Moberly. We thank all three of these dedicated organizations for helping us kick off this project during the 2003 school year. The Indianapolis “team” is in the process of identifying a waterbody to study, a school ready to take on the project, coordinating with the local nonprofit partner – Hoosier Riverwatch – and soon will begin corporate/law firm mentor training.

We still are hopeful to start a second project soon in one of the following cities: Lansing, Michigan; Detroit; Spring Hill, Tennessee; Shreveport, Louisiana; Baltimore; Houston; Austin, Texas; Philadelphia; Erie, Pennsylvania; Pittsburgh; Tampa/St. Pete, Florida; Charleston, South Carolina; Portland, Oregon; and Lordstown, Ohio. If your company is interested in committing all or part of the $5,000 needed to start a project in one of these cities, let me know at rkirk@crowncentral.com or 410/659-4835. Our Committee is enthusiastic about this effort with Earth Force! A few details about the project follow.

A) What is Earth Force?
Earth Force is a national non-profit organization created in 1994 by The Pew Charitable Trusts in recognition of two emerging national trends: young people’s desire to act on behalf of the environment and their desire to help their communities through voluntary service. Earth Force serves 35,000 youth a year through eleven offices across the country. A visit to one of their Web sites – <http://www.earthforce.org> or <http://www.green.org> – will illustrate exactly how young people and adult volunteers can improve their communities by participating in Earth Force programs.

B) The GREEN Program
The Global Rivers Environmental Education Network (GREEN), founded in 1984 by Dr. William Stapp of the University of Michigan, became an Earth Force program in 1999. This award-winning program matches middle and high school science students with private sector sponsors to study and improve water quality in their community. The program is implemented from start to finish during a school year. GREEN builds essential academic skills including critical thinking, teamwork, problem solving and decision making; teaches students how to assess watershed health with the proper tools; and encourages youth to undertake projects to improve environmental quality based on their findings. The students and their teacher begin by doing a watershed assessment that includes physical, chemical and biological monitoring. Using this data and other resources, they identify a problem they would like to address. Students research the problem in a balanced fashion, review applicable legal or community considerations and decide on their preferred solution. They then design and implement their action plan to address the problem. They then reflect on what they learned.

C) Corporate, Law Firm and Organization Roles
Earth Force matches the private sector sponsors such as law firms, corporations and associations with a school class in their area. Earth Force also identifies and involves a local watershed group in the project. Sponsors from the private sector fund the students’ water monitoring and testing equipment, which are kits pre-assembled by Earth Force. The cost of sponsoring the necessary training, manuals, kits and support for a GREEN school is $5,000. We hope to pool sponsors within a geographic area to reach the $5,000 level to move forward. Professionals from the private sector sponsor also act as mentors to the students in the program and as resources for their teachers, by assisting in monitoring events, attending a class session and being available by phone to give advice to the group. This is often an excellent opportunity to meet other corporate leaders and gain public recognition for your organization. There is no steadfast time commitment. Mentors can provide just a few hours of their time or more routine support to their host schools. General Motors has been a GREEN sponsor for over 10 years.