Summary of past training workshops

Community Stewardship Organization Network

March 2005, Abacoa, Florida (Participants: 5)

Recognizing a need for a widely-applicable framework and increased capacity for evaluation, the Sonoron Institute hosted this workshop for their network of Community Stewardship Organizations. CSOs are non-profits that carry out restoration and environmental education work as part of newly-created master planned communities. Over two days, EMI worked closely with four different CSOs from across the country to help them draft their own evaluation plan.

Puget Sound Salmon Recovery

March 2005, Seattle, Washington (Participants: 103)

In collaboration with NOAA Fisheries, Shared Strategy, Washington Trout, and Seattle Public Utilities, EMI facilitated a two-day interactive workshop on adaptive management. The 4-stage EMI evaluation training was tailored specifically to help watershed planning groups and partners develop the adaptive management component of their local and regional salmon recovery plans.

Ford Foundation Community-Based Forestry Demonstration Program

November 2004, Raleigh, North Carolina (Participants: 22)

NRLI, an instructional and community service program of North Carolina Cooperative Extension at NCSU, hosted this workshop to train natural resource professionals in evaluation tools and collaboration.

Natural Resources Leadership Institute (NRLI)

October 2004, Thurmont, Maryland (Participants: 26)

This workshop was the product of conversations with colleagues in the National Park Service Chesapeake Bay Program, Maryland’s Watershed Restoration Action Strategies (WRAS) Program, and the Community-Based Collaboratives Research Consortium. The training aimed to help diverse community-based groups integrate measures of on-the-ground progress into existing watershed assessment and planning processes.

Catalina Island Conservancy and Community Groups

September 2004, Avalon, California (Participants: 37)

This half-day workshop was held to introduce evaluation concepts being used by the Conservancy (CIC) to community groups, including environmental, public service and business groups. CIC viewed the workshop as a public input process on their evaluation planning work.

Upper Potomac Watershed Groups

September 2004, Silver City, New Mexico (Participants: 43)

This evaluation training was part of a 3-day workshop on “The Many Faces of Ecological Monitoring” hosted by the Aspen Institute for Ford Foundation’s Community-Based Forestry Demonstration Program. These projects are engaged in sustainable forest management on public, private, and tribal lands in ways that build local livelihoods. EMI’s session focused on how to engage in the process of evaluation, while other parts of the workshop presented specific tools such as biodiversity indicators or monitoring techniques.

Southern Oregon Progressive Network

August 2004, Ashland, Oregon (Participants: 23)

By request from Headwaters, a RCC grantee (see above) working in the Klamath-Siskiyou Bioregion, EMI held an evaluation training for organizations in the Southern Oregon Progressive Network. This included representatives from a variety of programs, from an arts council, to the police force, to land trusts. Based on feedback from this diverse audience we found that an evaluation process designed for conservation or ecosystem-based projects was equally applicable to groups with a social or arts focus.

Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan GreenWays Initiative

April 2004, Livonia, Michigan (Participants: 32)

This one-day training was hosted by the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan GreenWays Initiative. It was designed to assist multi-stakeholder groups from urban and suburban areas measure the social, economic and ecological impacts of planned or established greenways (trails, riverside corridors, etc.). Exercises at the training also served to link neighboring community initiatives.

Resources for Community Collaboration (RCC)

November 2003, Bozeman, Montana (Participants: 23)

The Sonoran Institute sponsored this 2-day workshop for RCC grantees, a set of community-based collaboratives working to resolve natural resource conflicts in the West. The EMI training focused on tools to engage in evaluation specifically in the context of challenges faced by collaborative projects. This training led several RCC grantees to work with EMI in other evaluation trainings and more in-depth workshops.

Click here to view feedback and pictures from some of our trainings.