Partners on Waste Education & Reduction
Solid Waste Management Coordinating Board
January 2014 /
Sustainability Follow-Up Report
Round 11 – 2011-2012Grantees
Prepared by LG Consulting, LLC
Laurie Gustafson
The information in this report was gathered from follow-up interviews with Round 11grantees whose projects ended in August of 2012. Follow-up was conducted with sixof the 13grant projects including:Fishing for Life, Minnesota African Women’s Association, NE Seniors for Better Living, Union Park District Council, Project Pride in Living and Laura Jeffrey Academy.
Of those organizations who are not part of this report, three reported departures of key staff members and four did not respond to requests for an interview.
The purpose of the follow-up interviews is to determine the lasting impact of the grant on the organization. The results are similar to findings from follow-ups with groups from the 10 previous years. As previously found, a high number of groups continue to offer some waste reduction education beyond the end of their contract with SWMCB.
Replicable products or programs
Of the groups interviewed, most of them had products or programs that could be used by others. A product or programis something that is developed as part of a grant project that can be accessed and implemented by a different community group with little or no cost. These products will continue to be included, when possible, on the organization page of individual grant projects:
For example, at Project Pride in Living, they created a green cleaner bucket, which they give to new residents. The bucket includes a Healthy Home Guide, developed through the grant, which contains a green housekeeping checklist.
Curriculum and lesson plan created by Laura Jeffrey Academy through the grant is aligned with State of Minnesota education standards and is available from Lizzie Forshee, LJA teacher, upon request.
Tom Goodrich at Fishing for Life created what he calls a “stewardship bag,” which allows you to pick up wet garbage from shorelines and wet places and drains water off. This is something he created after the grant period and wasn’t originally reported in the final results.
NE Seniors for Better Living staff created a home safety checklist, which is posted on their project web page. They use the checklist to do one-on-one home waste and toxicity reduction audits with seniors.
Continue Waste Reduction Programming
100% of groups interviewed continued to offer waste reduction information and/or programming past the grant period.As in past years, all the groups interviewed continue to educate and engage their audiences in waste and toxicity reduction after their grant ends. Round 11 grantees report actively engaging 1,154 people and reaching an additional2,600 new people with waste reduction messages.
Examples
At Project Pride in Living, recycling at multi-family buildings has continued. When operations began at a new building, they experienced a paradigm shift in how staff approached recycling, toxicity and waste. A recycling program was set up and staff gave a green cleaner workshop to new residents. In addition, they have continued to give out green cleaner welcome buckets to new residents.
The Girls Go Green, an after school class at Laura Jeffrey Academy continues. The small group of girls are working on green initiatives within the building and at home. Macalester College students lead the class.
At special events like the Sports Show and Muskie Expo, Fishing for Life volunteers educate kids about composting with worms.
Union Park District Council continues to feature composting and recycling information in newsletters on residential composting. Their composting workshop was part of an annual summer event.
NE Seniors for Better Living use the home safety checklist they developed during home toxicity reduction and waste reduction audits for seniors.
Through their AGILE program, the Minnesota Women’s African Association continues to educate women and girls about making nontoxic cleaners and recycling. Executive Director, Melissa Nambangi, reports that the girls continue to push their families to recycle at home. A few girls have gotten their apartment buildings to pay better attention to recycling.
Internal Waste Management
Waste reduction and internal waste management practices became a larger priority for most of the interviewed grantees. Many grantees report that waste reduction became a larger priority for their organization after participating in the grant. Most groups made changes to reduce waste in their office or building. Common changes include recycling and reusing moreand taking on more environmental actions.
Examples
Audubon of the Northwoods is the authorizer for charter school, Laura Jeffrey Academy. The Community POWER grant helped LJA reach goals which already existed in the mission. In addition, employees are more focused on other environmental issues such as energy reduction, hosting green events, more recycling and their food-to-hogs program.
Fishing for Life is a small nonprofit where most activities take place at events, and they don’t have much waste as an organization. However, waste reduction has been built into the Reel Them In program, which focuses on rebuilding used rods and reels. As an organization, environmental issues have become a greater focus as demonstrated through involvement in lake clean up efforts at Powerhorn and Bald Eagle Lakes.
Union Park District Council is a small organization without much waste, but the grant helped to develop capacity to help answer questions from residents in their neighborhood about composting and recycling.
Staff at NE Seniors for Better Living have made several changes as a result of being involved in Community POWER such as arranging carpools for seniors to events, working toward a paper-free office, recycling, using sustainable products, and shutting down computers when not in use.
At the Minnesota African Women’s Association, they throw very little away, instead find ways to reuse and recycle all that they can.
Require Additional Funding & Barriers
Four of the six groups interviewed required additional funding to continue their projects. Several groups used their own operating budgets to continue their projects, while others have sought and received resources from other funders. Some groups report they would need additional funds for materials to continue their projects while others mentioned that they need more staff capacity to continue pieces of their projects. The following are additional barriers experienced by grantees to continuing their projects:
Project Pride in Living has engaged volunteers who have helped to pay for materials and given their time to assemble the green cleaning buckets. They have had challenges with staffing because of changes to the federal Americorps program. Americorps volunteer time was heavily used during the grant period. PPL has had a difficult time replacing that lost resource. Staff want to continue distributing the green cleaner buckets and residents report wanting to recycle more.
Laura Jeffrey Academy received a second Community POWER grant to expand efforts started with the first project. In addition, they have fundraised money through an old cell phone collection. They have a challenge funding the food-to-hogs program. Staffing is a challenge to help keep environmental issues a focus. However, teachers and administrators have asked the girls to build a green float for parades to help publicize their green efforts. They are also possibly interested in becoming an organics collection site.
Fishing for Life has found volunteers through Hands on Twin Cities and from fishing related organizations such as Graybill and Johnson Outdoors. Lack of staff and funding continue to be a challenge. But, there’s been some desire among staff and volunteers to expand environmental efforts.
Union Park District Council has received another Community POWER grant to focus on business education focused on composting and recycling. Adequate staffing is a barrier to providing more support to community members. In addition, they receive many phone calls from residents on these issues asking for help and resources.
NE Seniors for Better Living have been able to incorporate grant-developed activities into their operations. They have experienced a change in staff, which has caused some disruption.
Minnesota African Women’s Association has received a Green Partners grant through Hennepin County. However, this grant only benefits activities in Hennepin County. Staffing and funding are issues facing MAWA. But, the youth and women ask for these activities, as they are popular.
Feedback on Community POWER Program
When asked what was most helpful about the way Community POWER is structured (in terms of what helps the grantees to be successful in their projects), the former grantees reported that the resource materials were most valuable, followed by funding, grantee meetings, technical support and networking.
Interviewed grantees offered their thoughts on what they wished they would have known at the start of their project and any activities they were not able to do as a part of the project.
Sarah Koschinska, Project Pride in Living, stated that there was an interesting dynamic working with Hennepin and Ramsey Counties for each had different approaches to e-waste, green cleaners and recycling bags. They would have built in more time for coordination but appreciated the ability to adjust the budget.
They were not able to complete the e-waste portion of their project the way they wanted or in a way that would be successful for their population, and as a result the participation numbers were low for this part. They ended up using a van to take residents to Best Buy to drop off e-waste. County-sponsored drop off locations don’t work well for people without cars.
At Laura Jeffrey Academy, they had wanted to install a hydration station using grant funds. They were able accomplish this goal with a second grant.
Tom Goodrich reported that he did not have a good experience working with his grant writer. The execution of the grant was not as efficient as a result.
Union Park District Council has experience significant staff changes, so training has been hard and it has taken time to get new staff up to speed.
Melissa Nambangi said that if she had consulted the community before her project, she would have understood how much need there is for this information. She would have worked to get information translated into different languages. She said there’s a need to find different ways to communicate when community members don’t speak English.
RethinkRecycling and County Resources
Grantees were asked which resources from the counties and the Solid Waste Management Coordinating BoardResponses they continue to use and which have been most helpful.
Project Pride in Living has used the spray bottles with the pre-printed nontoxic recipe and when they ran out of the county-provided bottles, they printed more. They are still using the Ramsey and Hennepin County recycling bags. In addition to the green cleaner welcome buckets, they use recycling games and a lesson on how to make nontoxic cleaners.
Laura Jeffrey Academy uses information from Rethink Recycling and some of the activities it. They use the reusable totes and Get Less! boxes.
Fishing for Life staff are using a slide show developed as apart of the grant, which they used information from Rethink Recycling and county posters.
At Union Park District Council, they are using the Ramsey County Going Green booklet and medicine disposal fact sheet in addition to other county resources.
NE Seniors for Better Living staff found the RethinkRecycling.com website and the posters on medicine disposal useful.
Minnesota African Women’s Association staff are using materials from Hennepin and Ramsey Counties such as flyers, samples, education trunks. The trunks that contain many pictures are most useful for those who can’t read English but can recognize an item from a picture.
More Environmental Behavior Changes
Community POWER serves as a catalyst for additional beneficial environmental changes. Often, once a person or organization begins to make changes to benefit the environment, like instituting waste reduction and recycling, other changes follow.
Four of the six organizations interviewed have instituted things like energy and water conservation measures as a result of being involved with the Community POWER program.
In addition, all of the responding project managers stated that they have made personal changes in their own life, such as increasing waste reduction, recycling, composting, and other measures as a direct result of involvement in Community POWER.
Proud Moments
Those interviewed were asked what makes them most proud of the activities that have continued. Below are their responses.
Sarah Koschinska, Project Pride in Living: The recycling went from being work to how they just operate. We have shifted from an initiative to this is how we do business.
Lizzie Forshee, Laura Jeffrey Academy: Girls want to make projects from recyclable materials. In the classroom, they pay particular attention to the materials that are being used in the STEM and art classes. It’s a behavior change to notice that habits can change.
Tom Goodrich, Fishing for Life: I’m proud of the increased focus on the stewardship of lakes; awareness and clean up. Reusing rods and reels, rebuilding and recycling has become a strong part of our ministry.
Bernadette Chlebeck, Union Park District Council: With a complete staff turnover, I’m proud that we still are continuing our efforts.
Rosemary Wallace, NE Seniors Living at Home: I’m proud of the fact that we have been able to incorporate the grant activities into ongoing activities. It’s really helpful. The medication disposal information is really valuable.
Melissa Nambangi, Minnesota African Women’s Association: The girls and women are into recycling. They have enthusiasm and enjoy it. They know how to make less toxic cleaners. They are sharing other toxicity reduction ideas with each other. Some are interested to start composting, those who are gardeners.
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January 2014