Engaging Stakeholders
Communicating with Stakeholders About Social and Emotional Learning in RELCs
As you work to deepen your relationship with schools, school districts, associated communities, funders, and supporters, it is important to be able to articulate how your Residential Environmental Learning Center (RELC) supports social and emotional learning (SEL). Highlighting the unique capacity of RELCs to provide supportive SEL experiences for students and model SEL pedagogy for teachers, all while providing stimulating academic content in the natural world, can serve as a part of your “elevator speech” and marketing collateral when discussing your program with schools and other stakeholders.
Consider tailoring your organization’s communications to match its strengths with the needs of local stakeholders. While this can be done internally in isolation, we strongly recommend you purposefully engage stakeholders—including, but not limited to school district personnel, teachers, family members, funders, supporters, and local community organizations—during this process. This direct engagement represents a modeling of your organizational SEL competency as you demonstrate the value of building positive relationships in your community, and it provides opportunities to strengthen your program as you incorporate feedback generated during these conversations.
This section of the toolkit offers tips, as well as examples from participating REEP organizations, for engaging external stakeholders and partners to better understand their needs and communicating externally about the ways in which your programs support SEL.
Tool
Making the Case for Social and Emotional Learning at RELCs: This document, which can provide useful context when communicating with external stakeholders, emphasizes the importance of intentionally incorporating SEL into RELC settings.
Reflection Tool: Click here to be guided through an internal assessment of how your RELC both engages with stakeholders to understand their needs and priorities and communicates the ways in which your program supports SEL.
Engaging Stakeholders and Partners
Identify key stakeholders in your region that also have SEL goals. At the school or district level, this may include district leadership, school administrators, teachers, school counselors, PTO/PTA, neighborhood organizations, etc.
Increasing capacity: Consider funding sources as potential stakeholders. Look for local foundations or grant opportunities dedicated to supporting youth development outcomes.
Remember to approach relationships with schools, districts, and funders as exactly that—relationships that should be nurtured, mutually beneficial, authentic, and so on. Employ your social emotional competencies!
Example from the Field: A School Superintendent Ignites “Aha” Moment at Sierra Nevada Journeys During a Site Visit
The superintendent of a large school district visited the Sierra Nevada Journeys (SNJ) outdoor school for a guided tour and to observe a sixth grade program in action. During the visit, he observed ecology programming as well as facilitated team-building on the challenge course. In conversation, the superintendent mentioned how impressed he was with the social and emotional outcomes he witnessed. He suggested that we spend more time talking about SEL in our programs, perhaps even leading with this, as opposed to leading with science or STEM. While he saw immense value in the science education, its value was embedded in the broader context of Social Emotional and Academic Development (SEAD). This was an “aha” moment for SNJ, who now understands that organizations don’t have to always lead with academics when describing the program’s value to students and schools. SEAD has become an increasingly significant context and focus for learning in public schools.
Example from the Field: Sierra Nevada Journeys Seeks to Learn About School District’s SEL Goals
In an effort to learn about a participating school district’s SEL goals so they could better serve its students, the Education Director at Sierra Nevada Journeys interviewed the district’s SEL Coordinator. This interview design was inspired by SNJ’s engagement in the Residential Environmental Education Partnership (REEP), and it ended up being an excellent means for relationship-building between SNJ and the local Washoe County School District. Through the interview process, which focused on the district’s approach to SEL, their SEL goals, and how partnership organizations, particularly SNJ, support these goals, SNJ developed more awareness about the district’s SEL goals and identified areas where they could strengthen their partnership through mutual program development, funding opportunities, and so on. The interview responses were certainly instructive, but the process itself was mutually beneficial. You can access the full interview here. The main takeaways are listed below:
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This discussion provided a great opportunity to learn about SEL-related goals within the local school district. It also provided the perfect venue to discuss SNJ’s outdoor education programs and to find alignment between our approaches to student learning.
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The district lead described the alignment between the school district and the CASEL framework.
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It was interesting to note that the Washoe County School District has a dedicated SEL department, which is not the case for all school districts.
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The district lead indicated that “out of school time” (OST) is a key phrase to consider when researching efficacy and possible funding of outdoor education programs tied to SEL.
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RELCs provide a prime opportunity for students to apply SEL competencies.
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RELCs should absolutely promote SEL competencies in their communications with schools and districts.
Example from the Field: Participating School Conducts Focus Group to Better Understand How Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont Supported Student SEL
A local education leader came to observe a residential school program at Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont and commented that this type of program would be a “game-changer” for some of the schools in local underserved urban communities. One school procured funding and participated in a residential program. Afterwards, the school convened focus groups composed of students and teachers in order to capture in their own words some of the social and emotional impacts of their shared residential experience. To provide more context for the words that follow, this particular elementary school from the southeastern U.S. has an ethnically diverse student body; many students recently arrived in the U.S. and their families had very little financial resources. While the focus group questions were not selected with specific SEL competencies in mind, parts of the resulting conversation directly pertained to CASEL competencies. You can read additional excerpts from the conversations here. Some highlights from the conversations include:
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Teachers saw value in the opportunities students had to engage in deep discussions, express curiosity, ask questions, think deeply, and reflect.
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Teachers said that their students had opportunities to be responsible and independent, to think and be curious.
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Students spoke about overcoming challenges, about exploring the sights, sounds, and feel of nature, and about adjusting to and becoming comfortable in a new setting.
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Students and teachers both spoke about the opportunity students had to get to know themselves, their classmates, and their teachers in new ways, and about how this strengthened existing relationships and helped to form new ones.
Marketing and Communicating
Your Program’s SEL Strengths
Clearly articulate why and how SEL is an important focus of your programming. Identify the SEL competencies that your programs excel at supporting.
Develop a strategy and tactics for communicating externally about how your programs support student development in SEL. Consider the different channels of communication, including marketing materials (website, print, etc.) and social media.
Identify your stakeholders and the audiences you aim to reach, along with the messages you want to communicate to each group. These may include your Board of Directors, funders, schools and districts, parents of participants, community leaders, other local youth development organizations; take the time to determine who all of your stakeholders are.
Once you have identified your stakeholders, endeavor to understand the SEL goals of each and where they may overlap with yours. With this understanding, you can create targeted communication that speaks to how your program contributes to meeting their goals.
Identify grant or fundraising opportunities for which your organization’s intentional support of SEL makes you a more competitive applicant.
Example from the Field: NatureBridge Tells Story of its Impact on One Student
One important goal of many RELCs is to inspire a calling for environmental stewardship. Through the development of a personal connection to nature or deeper relationships with their peers, these impactful experiences motivate students to be changemakers in their communities. Each year, NatureBridge honors a student who has demonstrated leadership, growth, and a commitment to protecting our natural world as a result of a NatureBridge program.
NatureBridge’s 2018 Student of the Year, Marisa Granados, was a high school senior at Bosque School in Albuquerque, New Mexico, when she attended NatureBridge’s Summer Backpacking course and environmental science programs in Olympic National Park. It was during these programs that Marisa discovered her passion for protecting the natural world. With the support of the U.S. Forest Service, Marisa is developing a handbook and curriculum for middle school students to learn and apply environmental stewardship effectively. Marisa hopes to pursue a career in environmental engineering and outdoor education. (This demonstrates Self-Management.)
Marisa first came to attend NatureBridge in Olympic National Park with her school. Initially on track to pursue a career in architecture, Marisa’s immersion in nature during her trip made her realize the crucial role that nature played in her life. Marisa returned home with a new calling, one that consisted of playing a role as a spokesperson for the environment. (This demonstrates Self-Awareness.)
“Through my NatureBridge experiences, and in particular because of my educators, I was able to gain the confidence to speak up about what I wanted to do with my life. (This demonstrates Self-Awareness and Self-Efficacy.) By gaining a stronger relationship with nature and discovering a deeper part of myself, I now see the influence of my actions and the amount of power that I have in creating change. (This demonstrates Self-Awareness.)
Because of the meaning my NatureBridge experiences have given to me, I have the courage to step up and change the path of my own future, I have gained the courage I need to make a difference in the world, and I have learned to always look up, no matter the situation. All of this has shown me that I am unstoppable, and that I have a purpose to be an ally for our environment and for future generations.” (This demonstrates Responsible Decision-Making.)
Marisa embodies the characteristics of the changemakers that we hope to inspire through our programming. Through the skillfully crafted experiences and mentorship of trained and experienced educators, Marisa now has the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to act as an environmental steward.
Example from the Field: NatureBridge Highlights SEL in Grant Applications
The following examples present language excerpted from grant applications that aims to showcase the ways in which our programs support SEL and the value this brings to our participating students.
GRANTEE EXAMPLE 1
To bolster our academic curriculum, NatureBridge is engaged in an intensive practice of SEL with support from the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation. SEL is the process through which youth acquire and apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills to understand and manage emotions, achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions. NatureBridge believes that social and emotional growth fosters positive outcomes including enhanced academic motivation and strengthened interpersonal skills like leadership, teamwork, and communication, all of which further support students’ growth in scientific identity.
NatureBridge’s engagement with SCHOOL A offers one example of how schools value our SEL-focused programming. SCHOOL A has brought nearly 100 students to NatureBridge each year for the past five years. In the beginning, SCHOOL A participated at the end of their school year in June. After SCHOOL A teachers observed the way that their NatureBridge experience optimized student community-building, SCHOOL A now brings their students to NatureBridge in September at the beginning of the school year. Teachers observe how students best learn and relate to each other, and incorporate that knowledge back in the classroom. SCHOOL A finds the experience so important that they are currently working with NatureBridge to explore extending their three-day program into a five-day program next year.
GRANTEE EXAMPLE 2
SEL is also a process in which youth develop the self-awareness, self-control, and interpersonal skills that are vital for success in school, work, and life. As a result, students develop confidence, leadership, teamwork, and communication skills—essential for youth as they grow into future environmental stewards.
NatureBridge knows through decades of experience that many students, especially those living in urban areas, can be frightened by the physical challenges of the program, like 8th grader STUDENT B from SCHOOL B. By incorporating SEL practices with an equity, inclusion, & diversity lens into daily team-building activities, both educator and teammate support help students grow during their NatureBridge program. From STUDENT B himself:
“As a kid growing up on Third Street in the hood of San Francisco, being in nature frightened me.” At first, STUDENT B was reluctant to go hiking and exploring with his classmates; instead, he hung back. By the third day, it was time for the group’s challenge hike, and he made a resolve to face his fears. As he struggled through the hike, he had an epiphany:
“I said to myself that if I can do this, if I can climb this big mountain, well, then, I suppose I could get better grades at school. Maybe it’s all related.”
Three days at NatureBridge was all it took for STUDENT B to discover an entirely new side of himself, to push his limits and to feel a sense of accomplishment and pride.
