Browsing by Author "George, Pamela"

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    Description and Evaluation of an Environmental Education Program in Madagascar
    (2012-04-27) Angiolillo, Gina; West, Niki; Sangodkar, Sanjyot; Wyman, Noelle
    The Duke Lemur Center (DLC) is a founding member of the Madagascar Fauna Group (MFG), a consortium of zoos and botanical gardens that promotes biodiversity conservation in Madagascar. The MFG’s in-country programs include an environmental education component with a cascade training program that targets upper level regional staff (Chef ZAPs). This program trains the Chef ZAPs in the hopes that they will disseminate information on ecology and environmental issues to teachers, who will then pass the information along to their students. Although the program has been in place for more than 20 years, no formal description or evaluation had previously been undertaken. The DLC is in the process of implementing the MFG’s model in a fledgling training program in another region of Madagascar. Our research seeks to provide recommendations to the DLC’s new program by evaluating the MFG’s existing environmental education platform. A review of literature regarding accepted practices in environmental education and evaluation was compiled to inform the evaluation. Using a mixed-methods approach, interviews with key informants, participant surveys, and material culture were analyzed. Five interviews were conducted with MFG and DLC staff members. Surveys were designed to garner the opinion of Malagasy participants and were juxtaposed with the statements made by interviewees. The qualitative analyses of interviews and surveys were conducted using Nvivo 9 software, and additional quantitative analysis of Likert Scale responses was completed using Stata 12 statistical software. This analysis informed the final recommendations made to our client, the Duke Lemur Center. Our recommendations focus on shifts in organizational and programmatic structure that are important considerations for the expansion of the program within the SAVA region. The suggestions fall into two categories: administrative and field. We hope these recommendations will allow the DLC to build upon the successes seen in the current Chef ZAP training program. In this evaluation, we identify challenges which we found to pose a hindrance to the evolution and future success of the environmental education program; and we suggest recommendations that ensure that the future environmental education programs in Madagascar can contribute to long-term social and environmental change.
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    ItemOpen Access
    Description and Evaluation of an Environmental Education Program in Madagascar
    (2012-04-27) Sangodkar, Sanjyot; Angiolillo, Gina; West, Niki; Wyman, Noelle
    The Duke Lemur Center (DLC) is a founding member of the Madagascar Fauna Group (MFG), a consortium of zoos and botanical gardens that promotes biodiversity conservation in Madagascar. The MFG’s in-country programs include an environmental education component with a cascade training program that targets upper level regional staff (Chef ZAPs). This program trains the Chef ZAPs in the hopes that they will disseminate information on ecology and environmental issues to teachers, who will then pass the information along to their students. Although the program has been in place for more than 20 years, no formal description or evaluation had previously been undertaken. The DLC is in the process of implementing the MFG’s model in a fledgling training program in another region of Madagascar. Our research seeks to provide recommendations to the DLC’s new program by evaluating the MFG’s existing environmental education platform. A review of literature regarding accepted practices in environmental education and evaluation was compiled to inform the evaluation. Using a mixed-methods approach, interviews with key informants, participant surveys, and material culture were analyzed. Five interviews were conducted with MFG and DLC staff members. Surveys were designed to garner the opinion of Malagasy participants and were juxtaposed with the statements made by interviewees. The qualitative analyses of interviews and surveys were conducted using Nvivo 9 software, and additional quantitative analysis of Likert Scale responses was completed using Stata 12 statistical software. This analysis informed the final recommendations made to our client, the Duke Lemur Center. Our recommendations focus on shifts in organizational and programmatic structure that are important considerations for the expansion of the program within the SAVA region. The suggestions fall into two categories: administrative and field. We hope these recommendations will allow the DLC to build upon the successes seen in the current Chef ZAP training program. In this evaluation, we identify challenges which we found to pose a hindrance to the evolution and future success of the environmental education program; and we suggest recommendations that ensure that the future environmental education programs in Madagascar can contribute to long-term social and environmental change.
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    ItemOpen Access
    Description and Evaluation of an Environmental Education Program in Madagascar
    (2012-04-27) Angiolillo, Gina; Sangodkar, Sanjyot; West, Niki; Wyman, Noelle
    The Duke Lemur Center (DLC) is a founding member of the Madagascar Fauna Group (MFG), a consortium of zoos and botanical gardens that promotes biodiversity conservation in Madagascar. The MFG’s in-country programs include an environmental education component with a cascade training program that targets upper level regional staff (Chef ZAPs). This program trains the Chef ZAPs in the hopes that they will disseminate information on ecology and environmental issues to teachers and who in turn will pass the information on to their students. Although the program has been in place for more than 20 years, no formal description or evaluation had previously been undertaken. The DLC is in the process of implementing the MFG’s model in a fledgling training program in another region of Madagascar. Our research seeks to provide recommendations to the DLC’s new program by evaluating the MFG’s existing environmental education platform. A review of literature regarding accepted practices in environmental education and evaluation was compiled to inform the evaluation. Using a mixed-methods approach, interviews with key informants, participant surveys, and material culture were analyzed. Five interviews were conducted with MFG and DLC staff members. Surveys were designed to garner the opinion of Malagasy participants and were juxtaposed with the statements made by interviewees. Qualitative analyses of interviews and surveys were conducted using Nvivo 9 software, and additional quantitative analysis of Likert Scale responses was completed using Stata 12 statistical software. This analysis informed the final recommendations made to our client, the Duke Lemur Center. Our recommendations range from small to large changes, and focus on shifts in organizational and programmatic structure that are important to consider for the expansion of the program within the SAVA region. The recommendations fall into two categories: administrative and field. These recommendations will allow the DLC to build upon the successes seen in the current Chef ZAP training program, such as the tremendous level of enthusiasm and positivity Chef ZAPs associate with the trainings. In this evaluation, we identify challenges which we found to pose a hindrance to the evolution and future success of the environmental education program; and we suggest recommendations to the DLC to address these challenges and ensure that the future environmental education programs in Madagascar can contribute to long-term social and environmental change.
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    ItemOpen Access
    Description and Evaluation of an Environmental Education Program in Madagascar
    (2012-04-27) Angiolillo, Gina; Sangodkar, Sanjyot; West, Niki; Wyman, Noelle
    The Duke Lemur Center (DLC) is a founding member of the Madagascar Fauna Group (MFG), a consortium of zoos and botanical gardens that promotes biodiversity conservation in Madagascar. The MFG’s in-country programs include an environmental education component with a cascade training program that targets upper level regional staff (Chef ZAPs). This program trains the Chef ZAPs in the hopes that they will disseminate information on ecology and environmental issues to teachers, who will then pass the information along to their students. Although the program has been in place for more than 20 years, no formal description or evaluation had previously been undertaken. The DLC is in the process of implementing the MFG’s model in a fledgling training program in another region of Madagascar. Our research seeks to provide recommendations to the DLC’s new program by evaluating the MFG’s existing environmental education platform. A review of literature regarding accepted practices in environmental education and evaluation was compiled to inform the evaluation. Using a mixed-methods approach, interviews with key informants, participant surveys, and material culture were analyzed. Five interviews were conducted with MFG and DLC staff members. Surveys were designed to garner the opinion of Malagasy participants and were juxtaposed with the statements made by interviewees. Qualitative analyses of interviews and surveys were conducted using Nvivo 9 software, and additional quantitative analysis of Likert Scale responses was completed using Stata 12 statistical software. This analysis informed the final recommendations made to our client, the Duke Lemur Center. Our recommendations focus on shifts in organizational and programmatic structure that are important considerations for the expansion of the program within the SAVA region. The suggestions fall into two categories: administrative and field. We hope these recommendations will allow the DLC to build upon the successes seen in the current Chef ZAP training program. In this evaluation, we identify challenges which we found to pose a hindrance to the evolution and future success of the environmental education program; and we suggest recommendations that ensure that the future environmental education programs in Madagascar can contribute to long-term social and environmental change.
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    Durham County Food System: A Qualitative Analysis of Actors, Missions, and Challenges
    (2017-04-28) Sun, Tianshu; Davis, Laura
    In the context of a national movement around local food, our clients, the Duke Campus Farm and World Food Policy Center want to know what they can do to best engage with and support the local food system (LFS) in their community of Durham County, North Carolina. We conducted an exploratory case study to characterize the current network of actors within the Durham LFS and the challenges they face, in order to provide recommendations to our two Duke clients. Qualitative analysis of interview data resulted in a network sociogram showing two main clusters of actors, generally separated by sector and mission. The primary challenges facing these actors include financial barriers, lack of communication, and social environment barricades. We recommend that our clients 1) facilitate communication between network actors 2) assist with collecting baseline data for evaluation, and 3) provide relevant policy analysis.
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    Evaluation of Triple Bottom Line Impacts of Resourceful Communities' Creating New Economies Fund
    (2013-04-26) Furnish, Abigail; Kay, Alexandra; Xia, Shuang
    Resourceful Communities is a program of The Conservation Fund, a national nonprofit that promotes conservation and sustainable economic development. In 2001, Resourceful Communities established the Creating New Economies Fund (CNEF), a program to support triple bottom line community development work in North Carolina. The triple bottom line approach integrates sustainable economic development, environmental stewardship, and social justice to create solutions to challenges facing communities in North Carolina. Each year, CNEF awards small grants to partner organizations to develop and implement community-driven triple bottom line projects. Resourceful Communities has experienced difficulty in communicating the aggregate impacts of the partner projects that they support, which may be a result of inadequate reporting and evaluation tools, and is also confounded by the wide variety of projects they support. Resourceful Communities has requested that our team conduct a thorough evaluation of CNEF that will be used to clearly communicate their impacts, as well as provide recommendations to guide CNEF in improving the program and its reporting processes. We evaluated the impacts of the most recent three years of projects (2009-2011) supported by CNEF using a mixed-method approach, including surveys, interviews, site visits, and review of reports submitted by CNEF grantees. We distributed an online survey to grantee project leaders designed to gather information on the triple bottom line impacts of the projects. We conducted nine interviews with grantee project staff to better understand project impacts and gather grantees’ opinions on how CNEF could be improved. We performed three site visits to talk with project staff in person and to see some of the on-the-ground work being done by grantees. Finally, we reviewed all final reports submitted by the grantees to CNEF in order to gain information on projects that were not included in the survey or interviews. We used NVivo 10 qualitative analysis software to analyze qualitative data, and we used STATA and Excel to perform statistical analysis on quantitative data. We found that CNEF supported projects are contributing to triple bottom line sustainability in North Carolina in significant and widely varied ways. Further, we found the CNEF program fosters integration of the three components of the triple bottom line, community engagement, leveraged funding, and increased organizational capacity in the projects it supports. Based on our findings we were able to offer several recommendations to Resourceful Communities that might improve the CNEF program and its reporting practices.
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    ItemOpen Access
    Evaluation of Triple Bottom Line Impacts of Resourceful Communities' Creating New Economies Fund
    (2013-04-26) Kay, Alexandra; Furnish, Abigail; Xia, Shuang
    Resourceful Communities is a program of The Conservation Fund, a national nonprofit that promotes conservation and sustainable economic development. In 2001, Resourceful Communities established the Creating New Economies Fund (CNEF), a program to support triple bottom line community development work in North Carolina. The triple bottom line approach integrates sustainable economic development, environmental stewardship, and social justice to create solutions to challenges facing communities in North Carolina. Each year, CNEF awards small grants to partner organizations to develop and implement community-driven triple bottom line projects. Resourceful Communities has experienced difficulty in communicating the aggregate impacts of the partner projects that they support, which may be a result of inadequate reporting and evaluation tools, and is also confounded by the wide variety of projects they support. Resourceful Communities has requested that our team conduct a thorough evaluation of CNEF that will be used to clearly communicate their impacts, as well as provide recommendations to guide CNEF in improving the program and its reporting processes. We evaluated the impacts of the most recent three years of projects (2009-2011) supported by CNEF using a mixed-method approach, including surveys, interviews, site visits, and review of reports submitted by CNEF grantees. We distributed an online survey to grantee project leaders designed to gather information on the triple bottom line impacts of the projects. We conducted nine interviews with grantee project staff to better understand project impacts and gather grantees’ opinions on how CNEF could be improved. We performed three site visits to talk with project staff in person and to see some of the on-the-ground work being done by grantees. Finally, we reviewed all final reports submitted by the grantees to CNEF in order to gain information on projects that were not included in the survey or interviews. We used NVivo 10 qualitative analysis software to analyze qualitative data, and we used STATA and Excel to perform statistical analysis on quantitative data. We found that CNEF supported projects are contributing to triple bottom line sustainability in North Carolina in significant and widely varied ways. Further, we found the CNEF program fosters integration of the three components of the triple bottom line, community engagement, leveraged funding, and increased organizational capacity in the projects it supports. Based on our findings we were able to offer several recommendations to Resourceful Communities that might improve the CNEF program and its reporting practices.
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    ItemOpen Access
    Evaluation of Triple Bottom Line Impacts of Resourceful Communities' Creating New Economies Fund
    (2013-04-26) Furnish, Abigail; Kay, Alexandra; Xia, Shuang
    Resourceful Communities is a program of The Conservation Fund, a national nonprofit that promotes conservation and sustainable economic development. In 2001, Resourceful Communities established the Creating New Economies Fund (CNEF), a program to support triple bottom line community development work in North Carolina. The triple bottom line approach integrates sustainable economic development, environmental stewardship, and social justice to create solutions to challenges facing communities in North Carolina. Each year, CNEF awards small grants to partner organizations to develop and implement community-driven triple bottom line projects. Resourceful Communities has experienced difficulty in communicating the aggregate impacts of the partner projects that they support, which may be a result of inadequate reporting and evaluation tools, and is also confounded by the wide variety of projects they support. Resourceful Communities has requested that our team conduct a thorough evaluation of CNEF that will be used to clearly communicate their impacts, as well as provide recommendations to guide CNEF in improving the program and its reporting processes. We evaluated the impacts of the most recent three years of projects (2009-2011) supported by CNEF using a mixed-method approach, including surveys, interviews, site visits, and review of reports submitted by CNEF grantees. We distributed an online survey to grantee project leaders designed to gather information on the triple bottom line impacts of the projects. We conducted nine interviews with grantee project staff to better understand project impacts and gather grantees’ opinions on how CNEF could be improved. We performed three site visits to talk with project staff in person and to see some of the on-the-ground work being done by grantees. Finally, we reviewed all final reports submitted by the grantees to CNEF in order to gain information on projects that were not included in the survey or interviews. We used NVivo 10 qualitative analysis software to analyze qualitative data, and we used STATA and Excel to perform statistical analysis on quantitative data. We found that CNEF supported projects are contributing to triple bottom line sustainability in North Carolina in significant and widely varied ways. Further, we found the CNEF program fosters integration of the three components of the triple bottom line, community engagement, leveraged funding, and increased organizational capacity in the projects it supports. Based on our findings we were able to offer several recommendations to Resourceful Communities that might improve the CNEF program and its reporting practices.
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    Investigating Best Practices of Conservation Education for the African Wildlife Foundation
    (2014-04-17) Sarikas, Christine; May, Katlyn; Kleinbort, Tori
    Effective conservation education has the ability to improve educational opportunities and expand environmental support in places where it is implemented. The African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) was founded in 1961 to promote wildlife conservation, land and habitat protection, community empowerment, and economic development across Africa (AWF, 2012). Until recently, AWF had not ventured into the formal education realm and, while they do not currently own or operate schools of their own, the organization is working to develop conservation education curricula to help support its mission. AWF will construct new schools and improve the infrastructure of existing schools to create effective learning environments for conservation topics. This study seeks to provide AWF with expert opinions and related curricular developments to help support their efforts at improving conservation education in Sub-Saharan Africa. A review of relevant literature focusing on the successful development and implementation of conservation education curricula was conducted and analyzed. Live interviews were conducted to obtain views from conservation education experts around the world. Nineteen interviews were conducted in total. These interviews provide expert opinions on environmental education, particularly conservation, in developing nations. Additionally, these interviews highlight existing environmental and conservation education curricula that contemporary experts identify as exemplary, and they include advice and guidance from experts within the education field. Qualitative analyses of these interviews were conducted using NVivo 10 software. Recommendations to AWF were developed based on the information reviewed throughout this process. The research shows that an emphasis on teacher capacity, community involvement, local context of curriculum, long-term project goals, and local relevance must be given significant consideration during curriculum development and implementation in order to maximize the probability of success.
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    Keep It Dirty Durham: A Social Marketing Strategy for Altering Public Littering Behavior
    (2015-04-23) Doolin, Heather; Zhang, Qi
    The city of Durham, North Carolina has a population whose chant is “Keep It Dirty, Durham.” With a unique character, the location of the food hub of the south, and an increasingly growing population, Durham’s citizens must recognize a progressively present problem. Litter in the form of cigarette butts, fast food wrappers, and beverage containers is becoming a normal daily sighting.Social marketing can be a useful and effective tool when trying to spread knowledge to a vast population. Outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram create easily accessible, tangible, and interesting ways not only to access information, but also digest it in a manner that is increasingly popular and understandable. The City of Durham is hoping to market anti-pollution campaigns with the intent of reducing gross solid waste from entering or blocking storm drains throughout the downtown Durham area. This project hopes to bring about the reduction by ten percent of gross litter at five bus stops in the City of Durham. Through the method of a targeted anti-litter campaign, we hope to target cigarette litter and fast food waste. This will occur through the use of social marketing methods by way of social media (Facebook and Twitter), presence at Durham events, passing out of swag (pocket ashtrays) at bus stop study areas, and the existence of flyers at bus stops and in DATA buses. By partnering with the Durham Stormwater Management Department, Keep Durham Beautiful, and DATA Transportation, this study will be made possible. The objective of the waste reduction intervention was met, showcasing statistically significant reductions at all sites even when including outliers that can skew data.