About the EEC

The Environmental Education Collaborative (EEC) is a grassroots alliance that works to elevate environmental education to a new level of importance and urgency.

The EEC strives to develop resources that support environmental education programs, so that everyone has the opportunity to experience nature and to learn about caring for our natural resources.

The EEC works to:
• bring funding to the region to increase environmental literacy
• develop a resource network to support and promote existing programs
• monitor and influence environmental education policy and initiatives.

We invite you to join with us in supporting the EEC of Riverside and San Bernardino Counties.

Are you concerned about the care of our natural world and the future of our children?

Help Elevate Environmental Literacy with the EEC

Join the Environmental Education Collaborative (EEC), a grassroots organization that works to increase funding, programs, and policies for environmental education (EE) in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. EEC is an inclusive network that promotes existing programs at non-formal sites, including nature centers, parks, museums, and outdoor camps. We collaborate with teachers, school districts, program providers, businesses, and organizations. With people like you and the support of over
50 local partners, we can elevate EE to a new level of importance and urgency.

Visit our website to sign up for our free, periodic newsletter.

  • Attend our monthly meetings.
  • Join our social media sites and share your events at our
    Facebook Group page.

All EEC organizational members are provided a free basic listing on our website and when we reprint the Environmental Learning Resources guide.

History of the Environmental Education Collaborative

During 2014, a variety of organizations met to explore how Environmental Education (EE) funding, influence, and networking might be improved in San Bernardino and Riverside counties. Diana Fox of Reach Out, a social service non-profit, facilitated for the group’s planning efforts. The participants selected the Stanford University Collaborative Impact Model to follow and became the EE Collaborative Task Force. The original participants included:

  • The Community Foundation (now Inland Empire Community Foundation and our fiscal sponsor)
  • Riverside Land Conservancy (now Rivers and Lands Conservancy)
  • Santa Rosa Plateau Nature Education Foundation
  • The Wildlands Conservancy
  • Reach Out
  • Santa Ana Watershed Association 
  • CREEC (California Regional Environmental Education Community, now defunded in our region).

The Task Force gained support from Riverside and San Bernardino Counties’ Offices of Education and reviewed five documents that validated the need for a local EE initiative:  

  • California’s Environmental Education Initiative (EEI)
  • the Inland Empire Community Foundation’s Environmental Initiative
  • the California Department of Education’s Blue Print for Environmental Literacy
  • and initiatives of the Children and Nature Network and North American Association of Environmental Education (NAAEE).

The first EEC Symposium was held in February of 2015 with over 120 participants from 75+ organizations who shared ideas and laid the foundation for beginning the Environmental Education Collaborative (EEC). Since then, an annual symposium has been used to share and gather resources, grow a network, and work toward EEC’s goals:

  • to engage and influence funders, community members, and businesses to support an Environmental Education program resulting in increased environmental literacy
  • to identify, promote, and leverage existing EE programs and resources
  • to influence local and state environmental education policy and initiatives.

EEC Board & Advisory Board

Board & Committee Leads

Jackie Gardner
San Jacinto Unified School District

Co-Chairjgardner@sanjacinto.k12.ca.us

Jenifer Lopez-Valdez
The Wildlands Conservancy

Co-Chairjenifer.l@twc-ca.org

Mary Valdemar
CHICCCAA

Equality and Justicemvaldema@valleycollege.edu

Jen Futterman

Art & Writing Contestjenniferevefutterman@gmail.com

Carol Kinzel
San Bernardino Mountains

Outreach Chair kinzel1812@aol.com

Diana Ruiz
RCRCD

Treasurerruiz@rcrcd.org

Caroline Conway

c-conway@earthlink.net

Pam Johnson
ECOS Institute

Prior Chair

pamjohnson@ecosinstitute.com

Celia Cudiamat

IE Community Foundation

ccudiamat@iegives.org

Our Sponsors

EEC would like to thank all the organizations that support this work. Please see our many symposium sponsors under symposium.

Action Driven Inquiry

Visit

Inland Empire Resource Conservation District

Visit

SkyPark at Santa's Village

Visit

Santa Rosa Plateau Nature Education Foundation

Visit

Chino Basin Water Conservation District

Visit

Emerald Cove Outdoor Science Institute

Visit

HUERTA DEL VALLE

Visit

Riverside-Corona Resource Conservation District

Visit

Riverside County Habitat Conservation Agency

Visit

Girl Scouts of San Gorgonio

Visit

The Wildlands Conservancy

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Western Riverside Council of Governments

Visit

Eastern Municipal Water District

Visit

Grantors

EEC would like to thank all the organizations that support this work.

Pony Barnes Foundation

Visit

Mosaic

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Southern California Edison

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