| “We saw an opportunity to leverage the expertise in each agency.” | |
| Melinda Huntley, Ohio Sea Grant College Program | |
A conversation between colleagues in Ohio sparked the creation of a multi-organizational partnership focused on empowering citizens to take action to improve water quality in Lake Erie and the surrounding watershed. By working together, the partnering agencies are presenting a unified message that Lake Erie and the Great Lakes are important to the environment and economy of the region and nation.
“There were natural synergies between our agencies,” says Chris Riddle, grants manager for the Ohio Lake Erie Commission. “By working together, we feel like we are all focused on the same page and headed in the same direction.”
The Lake Erie Partnership for Education and Outreach is made up of Ohio’s Coastal Management Program, Old Woman Creek National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR), Ohio Sea Grant, and the Ohio Lake Erie Commission.
The idea for the partnership came from a conversation between Brenda Culler, public information officer for the Ohio Office of Coastal Management, and Melinda Huntley, tourism extension program director for the Ohio Sea Grant College Program.
“We saw an opportunity,” says Huntley, “to leverage the expertise in each agency.”
While the group already worked together, members didn’t have a good grasp of the scope, mission, and projects being undertaken by each organization. To address this, they first focused on “learning exactly what each of us was doing, how we fit together, and where there were natural opportunities or gaps that we were missing out on,” Riddle says.
The group then developed a unified strategic plan for education and outreach based on environmental indicators measured every four years by the Ohio Lake Erie Commission.
To help with messaging, the agencies developed an environmental literacy framework for Lake Erie, which they modeled on NOAA’s ocean literacy principles.
Since May 2009, the group has sought feedback from multiple stakeholders on the “Lake Erie Literacy Principles and Concepts,” and these principles are expected to be finalized this fall. The Centers for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence–Great Lakes is creating Great Lakes literacy principles that are modeled after those created
for Lake Erie.
In the coming year, the partners will be working with Ohio public television to develop video vignettes that illustrate the eight Lake Erie literacy principles by breaking down complicated science and concepts into practical real-world applications.
“We have proven repeatedly that what we accomplish together is greater than the sum of its parts,” says Heather Elmer, the coordinator of Old Woman Creek NERR’s Coastal Training Program. “Our partnership will benefit Ohioans living along the coast, the resources, and everyone in the Lake Erie Watershed.”
For additional information on the Lake Erie Partnership, go to http://ohiodnr.com/tabid/21178/Default.aspx. For additional information, contact Brenda Culler at brenda.culler@dnr.state.oh.us, Melinda Huntley at (419) 609-0399, or huntley@coastalohio.com, Heather Elmer at (419) 433-4601, or heather.elmer@dnr.state.oh.us, or Chris Riddle at (419) 245-2514, or chrisriddle@ameritech.net.
