Collaborating with municipal agencies yields environmental and program gains
Abstract
This 1997 case study from the Elkhart EnviroCorps in Indiana presents one program's successful partnership with a local agency that increases training resources, enhances training quality, and provides ways to manage member tasks. Elkhart, Indiana, sits at the junction of the St. Joseph and Elkhart Rivers, just south of the Michigan border. A highly industrialized city, Elkhart has a history of environmental challenges, including polluted air and water. It has, however, been confronting those challenges in strategic and innovative ways.
Issue
As environmental challenges continue to grow, collaborative efforts to deal with these issues can help programs make headway faster and more efficiently, and over a greater geographic area.
Action
Through its collaboration with the City of Elkhart and the Department of Public Works and Utilities, EnviroCorps addresses many of the long-standing environmental needs and hazards resulting from heavy industry. Elkhart EnviroCorps has contributed substantially to regenerating ecosystems, reducing contaminants, educating citizens, and implementing effective environmental management practices in the city.
As the program is sponsored by the Department of Public Works and Utilities, numerous resources are made available to EnviroCorps from offices such as environmental services, engineering, transportation, water works, wastewater, and urban forestry. This comprehensive approach fosters effective practices in training and project management:
Training
- Staff in each of these divisions provide specialized training for AmeriCorps members, who then develop and implement projects to restore native grasslands, improve water and air quality, or conduct environmental assessments. Members are expected to develop expertise in a number of skill areas and they receive ongoing training and support from their partners.
- Members receive a tour of the city during orientation that introduces them to the nature preserve, the wasterwater treatment plant, a landfill, and a Superfund site.
- After orientation and initial training, members are grouped into teams based on responses to "interest surveys" and relationships developed with fellow members. Each team is led by a second year member, and has a set of goals and objectives. While the teams most often work independently, at times teams pair up and collaborate. If a project is better suited to the goals and objectives of one team than the other, then that team takes the lead. When teams complete a project ahead of schedule, they are given the discretion to pursue other projects that meet the program's and the city's environmental goals.
- Careful planning and sound management practices are essential to managing multiple resource-intensive projects. Staff from city agencies lend their assistance to project planning and development. Tools, supplies, and vehicles are provided by the city agencies. To ensure efficiency in the use of labor and materials, members diagram project tasks, resource requirements, and deadlines on a chart. Using a timeline, members and staff create awareness of potential overlaps in projects so that they can plan and implement tasks effectively.
Context
The City of Elkhart is a highly-industrialized city and produces a variety of manufactured goods, ranging from band instruments to pharmaceuticals. With a dense concentration of industry, the city confronts environmental challenges such as polluted air, contaminated drinking water, and brownfields. In recent years, the city's Department of Public Works and Utilities has taken on major environmental protection and enhancement projects, such as converting the former municipal dump into an environmental center and cleaning up a sludge farm to develop a nature preserve. However, the department lacked the resources to address a number of smaller, but critical projects.
Citation
AmeriCorps and the Environment: Strategies from the Field. August 1997, DRAFT.
Outcome
Collaboration with city agencies has resulted in greater program efficiency for Elkhart EnviroCorps, providing them with increased time and material resources to address air and water quality, community beautification, and biodiversity enhancement.
