Northeast Region District Resources

In April 2018, representatives from across the conservation partnership in the northeast met in Tarrytown, N.Y. to examine their current activities and assets. Participants shared their best practices and discussed their visions for the future and drafted potential actions.  The last time the northeast undertook planning at this scale was in 1996. Following the work in 2018, planning committees were created and 8 action plans drafted. With the significant interruptions to work in 2020 and staffing changes across the partnership, the work slowed until it was revisited in November 2021.

The region still felt strongly about the importance of these efforts and following a work session at the region meeting in 2021, several workshops were planned and led in 2022 which resulted in the 2022 Capacity Building Report. This chapter of the work aims to reprioritize what is most needed at the regional level for this effort to be successful with an eye towards sustainability and making sure participants have the support they need to be able to engage. The report outlines “bite sized” actions on key items and a timeline to continue moving the group’s energy and enthusiasm towards measurable outcomes.

The two priorities identified for immediate action were the need for sustainable funding for conservation and addressing climate change mitigation and resilience. The key audiences for both topics being state decision makers/funders/partners. Sustainable funding for conservation was selected to be work area with a focus on communications and outreach strategies.

A communications committee was formed and the group began identifying the best approach for creating the first product of the 2022 efforts. As conversations progressed, the committee quickly found themselves with the beginnings of a resource library showcasing efforts and materials created from across the region. The committee continued to pull together materials and resources from across the region, examples that conservation districts could utilize as references for communicating about their own work. Included in the library is everything from presentation examples on year-end report outs, templates for crafting testimony, example invitations to state decision makers for district events, and a variety of one page visual materials highlighting how to condense so much great work into an easy to reference one page document.

The library is available to all and will continue to grow as materials are added.

Next steps this year will be to begin addressing the next identified action, addressing climate change mitigation and resilience for a state decision maker/funder/partner audience.

District Resources for Communications with State Funder Audience:

• How to Use This Resource Library