|
Community Outreach
Passaic Valley Sewerage Commissioners
Marvin’s
Environmental Adventure
Passaic
Valley Sewerage Commissioners created the Pollution
Prevention Educational Outreach Program to educate adults
and youths about the environment and its current
challenges. Updating the educational materials has led to
the development of an exciting new tool to reach a broader
scope of audiences. The PVSC created a new multimedia
piece named “Marvin’s Environmental Adventure”.
This multimedia cartoon represents a creative way to use
the Internet and new media to reach out to a very specific
target in the community.
This
piece is a natural evolution of the previous multimedia
work based on the story of Marvin. In the process of
developing this new piece there were a few technical and
technological obstacles the Educational Outreach Program
team had to overcome. It was a difficult challenge to
develop innovative, creative yet effective material that
could get the children’s attention and motivate them to
get involved in environmental stewardship while being
entertaining and fun.
The new
DVD is made of interesting material that has successfully
grabbed and retained student’s attention even in tough
audiences. A great number of students have enhanced their
learning about pollution and environmental responsible
behaviors through this cartoon.
“Marvin” raises the possibilities for students to identify
with a likeable, fun character in which they see a
reflection of their own learning experience about
pollution and the environment. Through this new story
Marvin expands his learning experience from water
pollution to other different environments, learning about
the importance of environmental stewardship in order to
protect and enjoy our environment.
The
story presents Marvin learning about the damages of
littering in our parks, streets and waters as he interacts
with many forms of life that usually inhabit these various
ecosystems. Marvin and his sister learn from first-hand
experience how pollution has damaged all these
environments, and how litter has dramatically affected the
animals living in these areas.
Soon,
Marvin also takes an active part in the rescue and
decontamination of the areas and commits himself to
environmental stewardship. The piece not only expands the
radius of Marvin’s learning experience, but also shows
images of restoration activities performed by the PVSC
Restoration Program with the help of kids and young adults
from different communities. The cartoon stresses the
importance of participating in these kinds of activities
and invites the audience to get involved and make a
difference.
In
summary, the cartoon has been very successful and has
found incredible reception from different student groups,
teachers and parents. Different communities have benefited
from this initiative with more environmentally friendly
residents that also participate in important restoration
activities of the waterways of their community.
The
multimedia material developed by the PVSC Educational
Outreach program is totally produced in-house by the
talented team that makes this successful program a
reality. The source of this funding comes from the PVSC
general operational annual budget.
|
Secaucus Municipal Utilities Authority
“OurSPACE”
Newsletter
The
Secaucus Municipal Utilities Authority created the
“OurSPACE” newsletter to increase awareness and respect
for the environment, and in particular the wildlife found
in local waterways. The newsletter also aims to stress
water conservation and awareness. Believing it is best to
reach children at an age where they can take ownership of
their own behavior, and that children can have a profound
effect on their parents’ behavior, the SMUA focused its
efforts on fourth through sixth grade students.
The newsletter aims to
build a sense of pride in Secaucus and cautions children
about the harm that could happen to the fish and wildlife
in the Hackensack
River if the community doesn’t
take action. In an effort to educate the children about
the importance of environmental stewardship – especially
in regard to litter and the damaging effect it can have on
the waterways - the Secaucus MUA reached out to local
educators. The schools were very interested in integrating
the SMUA’s environmental message into the classroom
curriculum. Municipal representatives or SMUA officials
went to the classrooms to distribute the newsletter and
provided a question and answer session with the school
children.
The
total cost for 2,500 newsletter copies and labor was
$5,000.
Willingboro Municipal Utilities Authority
Power Point
Presentation
A power
point presentation was created to be used as a community
outreach tool and consequently placed on the Willingboro
MUA’s website. The presentation explains what the WMUA
does; educates residents about water environment issues;
and educates the public about the process of treating
wastewater, recycling biosolids and potable water. The
presentation is a virtual tour, a step-by-step explanation
of how wastewater is processed and how potable water
produced. The presentation uses pictures, written
explanations and audio to describe the process of each
step.
As a
result of WMUA’s efforts, interest in the MUA and interest
in learning more about water environment issues has
soared. The MUA benefit was that more people in the
community know about the authority, what the authority
does and how well the authority accomplishes its goals.
The reach out effort has also benefited the community. The
community understands more about the MUA and water
environment issues. The WMUA has received requests by
various groups including educators and community groups
for presentations, tours of the facility and for
preparatory materials prior to taking the tours.
The
power point presentation, as well as the website audio,
was produced in-house by MUA personnel. The approximate
budget was $5,000 and funded through the WMUA operating
fund.
|
