10,000 Hands Report - 2016
ACAP Saint John and its community outreach initiatives have become an established vehicle by which community stakeholders can participate in hands-on improvements to their local environment. The efficiency of this program lies in its ability to maintain a strong partnership with the City of Saint John for logistic support, the New Brunswick Environmental Trust Fund for financial support, and in ACAP Saint John’s ability to maintain an established, growing and dedicated network of volunteers and experts. Through direct engagement, in-field and in-class education programs, tree planting and outdoor activities, citizens develop a sense of understanding and ownership of their environment and are more likely to support other initiatives that promote good stewardship and sustainable development.
ACAP Saint John and its community outreach initiatives have become an established vehicle by which community stakeholders can participate in hands-on improvements to their local environment. The efficiency of this program lies in its ability to maintain a strong partnership with the City of Saint John for logistic support, the New Brunswick Environmental Trust Fund for financial support, and in ACAP Saint John’s ability to maintain an established, growing and dedicated network of volunteers and experts. Through direct engagement, in-field and in-class education programs, tree planting and outdoor activities, citizens develop a sense of understanding and ownership of their environment and are more likely to support other initiatives that promote good stewardship and sustainable development.
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
Environmental Outreach<br />
Environmental outreach in <strong>2016</strong> was achieved through volunteer activities organized as part of the<br />
<strong>10</strong>,<strong>000</strong> <strong>Hands</strong>: Environmental Engagement in Saint John project and targeted educational activities<br />
towards children and youth and through social media. Volunteer events enabled outreach through<br />
project participants and volunteers directly engaged in environmental events and activities who then<br />
circulated information through their individual contacts and networks. ACAP Saint John was also able<br />
to leverage promotion of environmental information and events through regional stakeholders and<br />
various multi-media channels. Local media remained an important outreach component for ACAP Saint<br />
John, the organization and its activities were covered by five local news stories in 2015.<br />
Online resources were also leveraged for Environmental Outreach and have enabled ACAP Saint John<br />
to reach a broad audience and publicize up to date environmental information, comments, event<br />
announcements, cleanup contests, and cleanup and planting event pictures. Online resources also<br />
enabled volunteers and stakeholders to promote ACAP Saint John projects and environmental<br />
information, especially through social media where posts are easily and quickly distributed through<br />
wide networks as shown in the image below. By the end of <strong>2016</strong> the ACAP Saint John had 4,215<br />
followers on the organization’s Twitter account and 997 ‘likes’ on Facebook. ACAP Saint John’s<br />
webpage also remains a vital component for sharing information. The website was visited by an<br />
audience of 4,<strong>10</strong>0 visitors with over <strong>10</strong>,<strong>000</strong> page views during the twelve-month duration of the <strong>2016</strong>-<br />
2017 <strong>10</strong>,<strong>000</strong> <strong>Hands</strong> project.<br />
As of this year, ACAP Saint john is more connected to the community than ever with a move to a new<br />
office in the Social Enterprise Hub along with three other local non-profit organizations: The Saint John<br />
Community Loan Fund, the Saint John Learning Exchange, and the Saint John Human Development<br />
Council. This new hub has received a lot of attention and praise by the Saint John community and ACAP<br />
Saint John has been involved in multiple media articles and building tours to talk about our work and<br />
how it fits into the work others are doing in our community. The tours as well as informal<br />
conversations in the buildings common spaces have already facilitated and enabled valuable<br />
discussions about sustainability in Saint John.<br />
25 | Page
Change language