Founded in 1999, Delaware Valley Earth Force is a regional affiliate of the national nonprofit Earth Force, Inc. Our mission is to engage young people as active citizens who improve the environment and their communities now and in the future. Earth Force students across the five-county Philadelphia region are solving environmental problems in their own backyards, school yards and neighborhoods, through hands-on projects that improve water quality in local creeks, streams and rivers, urban areas and green spaces, air quality, waste management, biodiversity, energy conservation and community resources.
“The goal of environmental education is environmentally literate citizens, prepared to make wise decisions and take positive action on behalf of the environment.” To achieve this goal, Earth Force provides an innovative service learning program—Community Action and Problem Solving (CAPS). Through CAPS, educators guide students in implementing a range of environmental action projects that benefit local communities.
Environmental results achieved by the CAPS program: From September 1999 to the present, Earth Force engaged 14,000 young people in environmental problem solving, generating more than 250 youth-driven environmental action projects, and prepared 200 teachers to raise environmental literacy in seventy schools and after school sites in the Philadelphia region. These projects educated parents, peers and community members about environmentally responsible practices through outreach events such as the annual Earth Force Youth Summit at the Philadelphia Zoo, attended by 600 young people.
Earth Force trains educators to lead their students through the six-step CAPS process: (1) conducting a community environmental inventory, (2) choosing a local issue to address, (3) researching environmental policies and community practices, (4) exploring options for making a difference through sustainable community change, (5) planning and taking civic action through an environmental project, and (6) reflecting on and evaluating project results, and looking ahead to determine how citizen involvement can continue to influence their issue. Earth Force supports teachers during the school year by providing technical assistance, nationally recognized materials, visiting classrooms, facilitating student activities, conducting youth focus groups, building community partnerships, making connections with resources and experts in the field, promoting youth projects, and organizing youth leadership events, such as trips to visit legislators in Harrisburg and Washington.
The Earth Force approach is unique because it teaches young people to think like scientists and act like citizens. Earth Force motivates young people to think critically as they conduct unbiased investigations that include hearing from the experts, exploring different points of view, and balancing costs and benefits. Young people are encouraged to look for long-term solutions by evaluating public policies and community practices and examining the combined human activities that impact the environment.
An important element of all CAPS projects is conducting public outreach and educating members of the local community. When Earth Force students learn about environmentally responsible practices, they become educators of their peers, their parents and the public. Best management practices are demonstrated and implemented by youth as they: reduce non-point source pollution; repair riparian buffer zones; remove invasive species and plant native species; restore wildlife habitat; and conserve energy through efficient lighting.
Earth Force reaches populations of young people who are at the highest risk from exposure to adverse environmental conditions and are the least likely to be civically engaged as they get older. Approximately 55% of Earth Force students come from economically disadvantaged families. Involvement in Earth Force helps disadvantaged young participants embrace the role of positive change agents in a society that is often seen to have no place for them. Earth Force offers every young participant the opportunity to play a positive role in the community and make a meaningful difference by improving the environment.
Earth Force continues to develop innovative tools designed to meet the needs of or our region; for example, our Awareness to Action Watershed Poster and Activity Guide provides an overview of environmental issues and resources in the Delaware Valley. Earth Force materials help young people reach their full potential as they implement community service projects that increase environmental literacy, enhance their academic content knowledge, hone their problem-solving skills, and improve their local communities.
The CAPS program teaches young people about environmentally responsible practices through inquiry and project-based learning strategies – they learn by asking, analyzing, synthesizing, evaluating, and applying what is learned. Earth Force provides educators in the CAPS program with workshops that enhance their ecological knowledge base, sociopolitical knowledge base, and their understanding of the local context of environmental issues and responsible practices. Educators also benefit from Earth Force training in best teaching practices, including student centered learning, utilizing the personal strengths of students and their passions, experiential teaching, cooperative and inclusive learning and allowing time for student reflection.
Examples of environmental impact: In just one year, the Earth Force team at Lincoln High School in Philadelphia collected 17,000 lbs. of paper, 35,000 plastic drink bottles, 275 lbs. of aluminum, over 500 glass containers, 300 cell phones and 500 inkjet and laser cartridges. They collected another 32,000 pounds of paper and 9,000 pounds of plastic working on weekends as volunteers with the Friends of the Pennypack Park community recycling program. Students at Bucks County Alternative School successfully launched a recycling program for the entire school. More than twenty classrooms in the Delaware Valley implemented tree planting and urban greening projects. Other Earth Force groups focused their efforts on improving water quality, using alternative energy, improving indoor air quality, and removing invasive species. Earth Force is currently engaging more than 3,000 young people in environmental problem solving in the Delaware Valley.
Creative partnerships support Earth Force programs: To support the CAPS program, Earth Force builds relationships with government agencies, school districts, institutions of higher learning, corporations and community based organizations. Earth Force staff members help educators connect with experts in the field and use local and regional resources during the implementation of CAPS. Educators bring speakers into their classrooms or after-school centers, have their students visit resource sites, and use these resources for expertise in identifying environmental issues and project options.
Earth Force partners with more than thirty agencies and organizations in the Philadelphia region including: PA-DEP, US-EPA, Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, the WHYY TV 12 Learning Lab, WXPN Radio, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Free Library of Philadelphia, the National Audubon Society, NetworkArts, Temple University, the Philadelphia Water Department and the Philadelphia Zoo. This is our eighth year of partnership with the School District of Philadelphia.
Waste Management and Rohm and Haas are among the highly valued corporate partners that help us to reach new audiences with our programs. About 50% of our funding comes from government agencies, including the PA Department for Community and Economic Development, PA-DEP and US-EPA. Approximately 20% of our funding comes from foundations and 25% from individual donors.
Our office location in Cheltenham Township helps us keep our overhead low, and gives us easy access to the five-county region by car and public transportation. Our staff consists of four full-time employees (Executive Director Janet Starwood, Program Coordinators Colleen Contrisciane, Corri Gottesman and Kate Anderson) and two part-time employees (Program Coordinator Evelyn Christian and Executive Assistant Wendy Weber). Our combined backgrounds include a J.D., three master’s degrees, six undergraduate degrees, four teaching certifications, and tremendous passion for our cause. Please visit our website at http://www.earthforce.org/delval to learn more about youth projects in the Philadelphia region.
