Photo: CVA Fatima Khan and a participant in the annual pilgrimage at Manzanar National Historic Site.
COMMUNITY VOLUNTEER AMBASSADORS | FINAL REPORT 2019/20 MEMBER ACCOMPLISHMENTS QUANTITATIVE DATA TOTALS:
300,672
VOLUNTEER HOURS CONTRIBUTED BY INDIVIDUALS
$7,611,905 TOTAL VALUE OF VOLUNTEER TIME LEVERAGED*
7,556
TOTAL VOLUNTEERS INVOLVED WITH EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMING
371
Photo: The 2019-2020 Community Volunteer Ambassador cohort during National Early Service Training
Stewards Individual Placement Program (Stewards) is excited to have completed our second year in partnership with the National Park Service (NPS) to facilitate the Community Volunteer Ambassador (CVA) Program. The CVA Program combines the strength of a national leader in conservation service with the National Park Service in order to train a diverse group of emerging leaders to assist park units in building lasting connections to local communities. Sixty young professionals served as CVA members for 50 weeks at NPS sites across the country, from Saipan to Florida.
VOLUNTEERS INVOLVED WITH VETERANS GROUPS
MEMBER DEMOGRAPHICS:
4,860
(parentheses contain general US demographics according to 2010 census):
VOLUNTEERS INVOLVED WITH DEFERRED MAINTENANCE
9,337
VOLUNTEERS INVOLVED WITH NATURAL AND CULTURAL RESOURCES
13,347
VOLUNTEERS INVOLVED WITH STEWARDSHIPS EVENTS
1,592
TOTAL SKILLS BASED VOLUNTEERS *Amount calculated at the Independent Sector rate of $25.43/hour.
Demographic Numbers of the 2019-2020 CVA cohort
46 out of 60 answered white ~76.7% (76.5%) 4 out of 60 answered Black/African American ~6.7% (13.4%) 4 out of 60 answered Asian ~6.7% (5.9%) 2 out of 60 answered more than one of the above ~3.3% (2.7%) 2 out of 60 answered Prefer not to Answer ~3.3% (N/A) 1 out of 60 answered Pacific Islander ~1.7% (0.2%) 1 out of 60 answered Other ~1.7% (N/A)
Diversity of Members: Ethnicity*
4 out of 60 answered Hispanic/Latino ~6.7% (18.3%) 2 out of 60 answered Prefer Not to Answer ~3.3% (N/A) 54 out of 60 answered Non-Hispanic/Non-Latino 90% *Data exported from Civicore
Diversity of Members: Gender Identification*
15 out of 60 answered Male 25% 45 out of 60 answered Female 75% *Data exported from Civicore- There is no option for ‘Other’ or ‘Non-Binary’ in Civicore
MEMBER POST CVA TERM SUCCESS: 7 members found positions with the National Park Service 12 members decided to return to their sites for a second year of service with CVA 2 members decided to continue their service with AmeriCorps Additional success examples: Seasonal Park Ranger: Maryland State Parks, Landscape Architect, Every Kid Outdoors Collaborative Education Coordinator
COMMUNITY VOLUNTEER AMBASSADORS | FINAL REPORT 2019/20 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR MEMBERS: •“An educational success this quarter includes attending the Advanced VIP training at Channel Islands National Park. This training was paramount to the quarter and really drew some connections for me within the program that were absent before. Those connections were both in the form of resources and information about NPS procedures and protocols.” –Kendall Eldredge, Golden Gate National Recreation Area •“I used my professional development funds to travel to the New England Museum Association and it was a great experience since I am interested in going into the museum field. I met so many people at the conference and did a lot of networking which was really good for my professional development. The sessions that I attended were really interesting and they gave me a better idea of what a career in the museum field would entail.” –Carly Buta, Weir Farm National Historic Site •“Regardless of which direction I head in next, I am happy that I did it and believe it will be an asset to me professionally. It has been a wonderful learning experience as I spend significant amounts of time outdoors and learning how to take care of myself and others is an invaluable skill.” -Fatima Khan, Manzanar National Historic Site
Photo: Pacific West Region CVAs Setareh Nouriboshehri, Kendall Eldredge, and May Slen attending the Advanced Volunteer Management training at Channel Islands National Park
“CVA’s from the northeast also met-up in early November in Pennsylvania to attend trainings together. We stayed at Hopewell Furnace and the regional office set up some great professional development opportunities for us. We visited the regional office in Philadelphia, toured Independence Hall and talked with their volunteer coordinators, discussed the CVA program with April Antonellis, took a training on basic supervision and got to tour both Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site and Valley Forge National Historical Park. This was a really great opportunity to see the CVA’s from the northeast region again and talk about all of the different projects that we had been working on. I think it was super beneficial, the trainings we attended were great and I really hope that something like this is able to happen again next year. I would love to see more collaboration between the northeast CVAs!” -Carly Buta, Weir Farm National Historic Site Other Examples of Professional Development Opportunities: Trainings:
Conferences:
Molding and Casting Training
National Recreation and Parks Association Conference
Leave No Trace Trainer course Certified Interpretive Guide Training Youth Development Training National Outdoor Leadership School Trainings Master Astronomer Workshop Basic Search and Rescue Technician Training Wilderness First Aid Training
Learning Cities Conference New England Museum Association Conference
COMMUNITY VOLUNTEER AMBASSADORS | FINAL REPORT 2019/20
FOCUS AREAS: MEMBER STORIES VETERANS & ACTIVE MILITARY ENGAGEMENT “A few major successes of this quarter included our Veterans Day Fun Run event. It was an event held in our park to increase activity, educate and recognize veterans in our community. We had support from the Page VFW and volunteers from Page High School and Glen Canyon. 11 total volunteers gave their time for the event. It was an extremely successful event that provided a model for future running events. It also engaged new partnerships.”
Photo: CVA Alexandra Barbee with volunteers from the Citadel’s women’s volleyball team.
-Victoria Benson, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area
“I was able to create a partnership with student services one of or local military universities. I recruited the women’s volleyball team to lay and rake out four tons of oyster shells at Fort Sumter. This is to help prevent erosion when flooding occurs. In the four hours of service they committed, the seven women were able to bring out over six tons of oyster shells which was a tremendous help to our maintenance division. As we made our way back to the boat taking us to land I heard a few of the women say how proud they were after seeing the finished project. It was an awesome feeling to witness these college athletes be excited about volunteering.”
-Alexandra Barbee, Fort Sumter National Monument
INFRASTRUCTURE AND DEFERRED MAINTENANCE “Some major successes we have had this quarter include our first service day project of the year. It went really well and we were able to get the fence completed along with another fence-building project. Getting the fence completed on Wilkerson Pike was a big accomplishment.” -Rachel Blackburn, Stones River National Battlefield “During the week, we had 14 Alternative Spring Break volunteers that came in to help out around the park. During their time, they contributed over 406 hours (around $10,024 estimated saved by using volunteer work) and we were able to make up hours during the shutdown that severely hurt our numbers in January. " -Kaley Kirk, Prince William Forest Park
Photo: Volunteers working on fence-building at Stones River National Battlefield organized by CVA Rachel Blackburn
NATURAL & CULTURAL RESOURCES “I hosted the park’s second ever Bioblitz in June. We had 57 volunteers spend four hours wandering park land surveying for various wildlife. We had volunteers from local universities, boy scouts, outdoor enthusiast groups, and more. They observed almost 500 different animal species! I organized, planned, and led this event over a six-month process. I even got to design the t-shirts for the event.”
Photo: Volunteers at Manzanar National Historical Site assisting with a public archeology dig
-Claire Murphy, Richmond National Battlefield
“We hosted our City Nature Challenge: Cabrillo National Monument Bioblitz. For twenty-four hours, our visitors, volunteers, and scientists cataloged the biodiversity of our national park unit. With 2,097 observations and 439 documented species, we were able to place third in the world. It was an incredibly unique event to see the public make connections to their land alongside the support of the volunteer community.”
-Setareh Nouriboshehri, Cabrillo National Monument
COMMUNITY VOLUNTEER AMBASSADORS | FINAL REPORT 2019/20
FOCUS AREAS: MEMBER STORIES INTERPRETATION AND EDUCATION “Meet the Farm Animals Day: Back by popular demand, Hopewell hosted a second Meet the Farm Animals Day this year to honor the animals that historically called the furnace home. Families learned about the importance of each of these animals and how they were used around the furnace. Animal related crafts and story time attracted visitors. This also was the most successful social media post to date, having nearly 2000 interactions. Nearly 400 visitors came to the park this day (average is around 150).”
Photo: CVA Setareh Nouriboshehri checking in volunteers for an Outreach Training at Cabrillo National Monument
-Amanda Sherry, Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site
“I have successfully created the first prototype for my Cabrillo National Monument children’s storybook project. Through this, I am hoping to create a volunteer-led (both in writing and illustrations) children’s storybook collection that creatively speak into our park’s natural resources. The prototype, titled Nadine is Thankful, highlights the story of a bushtit family that lives in the coastal sage scrub by the Old Point Loma Lighthouse. It currently runs at thirty pages and will be used in the program proposal.”
-Setareh Nouriboshehri, Cabrillo National Monument
STEWARDSHIP/HANDS-ON VOLUNTEER EVENTS “This quarter we hosted a National Public Lands Day event. Our service event focused on improving the native plant gardens on the grounds of the Gulf Coast Visitor Center. Specifically, we removed non-native plants from our main native plant garden bed. The grounds had not been restored or maintained after Hurricane Irma in 2017. Our group of eight volunteers, myself, and the district supervisor spent the morning removing the invasive plant species. In just 3.5 short hours, we were able to nearly fill a 5-cubic-yard dump truck with plant material we’d removed from the garden bed.” -Lauren Boehnke, Everglades National Park “This quarter, I worked with partner, Conservation Corps North Carolina, to promote their trail volunteer event on the Parkway. Through this event volunteers and corps trail crew members helped to make several more miles of the Shut-In trail more sustainable.” -Ethan Crump, Blue Ridge Parkway
Photo: CVA Ethan Crump talking with Conservation Corps volunteers before a service project at Blue Ridge Parkway
SKILLED VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
Photo: NPS staff and volunteers ready to start the Veteran Fun Run at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.
“Two programs were particularly successful this quarter: Preventative Search and Rescue (PSAR) and Canyon Host. The PSAR team revealed its’ significance at Horseshoe Bend – an extremely accessible and popular trail for tours and international visitors whose knowledge about the outdoors is limited. It is located in one of the six districts of Glen Canyon with limited law enforcement officers and district medical resources. With a cart provided by Law Enforcement, four volunteers were able to treat over 500 heat exhaustion incidents and provide carry outs to visitors unable to self-transport to the trailhead. Compared to last year, the team cut the number of emergency calls to dispatch in half!"
-Victoria Benson, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area
COMMUNITY VOLUNTEER AMBASSADORS | FINAL REPORT 2019/20
QUOTES FROM VOLUNTEERS AND PARTNERS Leiann De Vera, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area When I have Alternative Breaks, the groups from UNLV come out, and many are inspired to work towards continuing their service learning, below are some quotes: “It was a great experience for the students to come out here and learn about fire ecology, it’s been a pleasure allowing us to come to the different sites” –Stina UNLV Alternative Breaks Coordinator “I didn’t realize the amount of opportunities you’re able to do here, it’s like there’s never a dull moment.” -Janerah, Filipino American Pre-Nursing student Julia Kaback, National Parks of New York Harbor
Photo: CVA Leiann De Vera preparing Alternative Break student volunteers at Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area
Emily Yetsko, a new volunteer with Trails and Rails provided us with why she came to the program. She said, “This was something new unlike any volunteer program I had done before.” Emily’s words truly exemplify the power of volunteering in a way that promotes public history and awareness for some of the most beautiful places along the Hudson River.
Setareh Nouriboshehri, Cabrillo National Monument We have a high school volunteer who comes in regularly to serve the park. When I asked her about her experience at Cabrillo National Monument, this is what she had to say: “This volunteering has overlapped with my AP Environmental Science and AP Biology classes at school. At the park, I get to watch what I've learned unfolding in real time and even employ the info I've gathered at school during my presentations with the snakes. I make an impact by leaving listeners with a new respectful mindset about snakes. Sometimes, people who were afraid of snakes initially reach out to touch them by the end of the talk. That gives me a lot of hope. I'm a high school student, so my schedule isn't very flexible at times, but I always find a way to stay involved because I love this job. This job is very rewarding because I get to interact with people and watch their perception of snakes change in real time, all while promoting the preservation and protection of wildlife and the ecosystems they are a part of.” It’s easy to miss the excellent work—and the heart behind the work—that our volunteers put in, especially those who are quiet and self-motivated. This particular volunteer has mentioned that she sees the staff at CNM as her “mentors and friends”.
Photo: CVA Ahli Chatters during her internship at New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park
Photo: CVA Setareh Nouriboshehri participating in herpetofauna monitoring alongside volunteers at Cabrillo National Monument
“Ahli's work centered on doing community outreach at events and performances, promoting events, and organizing an educational kids' minicamp for jazz and visual art. Ahli is particularly proud of the minicamp project because of how much fun it was for the kids. During her internship Ahli learned the various parts and pieces there are within the park's mission to preserve the resources linked to the origins of New Orleans jazz and promote an appreciation of jazz. Ahli did an excellent job in the organization of the kids' jazz and visual art minicamp, working with the Education Specialist at the New Orleans Jazz Museum. Other partners that Ahli worked with included the French Market Corporation, Ashe Cultural Center, and Our Mammy's (MLK Day of Service). Congratulations Ahli, it has been a pleasure having you onboard." -Matt Hampsey, Park Ranger New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park