Parks for All Californians

Parents as Educators: Foster stewardship of the environment using curriculum pursuant to Public Resources Code, Division 34, Part 4: Statewide Environmental Education (Sections 71300-71305). This goal was achieved through the Hike It Baby program hikes conducted monthly, Community Tide Pool exploration, Family Camping, and the Passport to History program.

Bring the Outdoors In: Curriculum that is aligned to the content standards for California public schools adopted by the State Board of Education, including, but not limited to, the Next Generation Science standards, or the California History-Social Science Standards. This goal was achieved through a natural resources lesson with preschool, Transitional Kindergarten, Kindergarten, and first grade students in the county, as well as with multi-grade after school programs.

Career Technical Education: Career pathway mentoring related to natural resource agencies, environmental protection agencies, park operations, and therapeutic recreation. This goal was met by taking high school year to participate in trail crew clean up with California State Park Trail Crews.

Culture and History: Curriculum that is aligned to the content standards for California public schools adopted by the State Board of Education, including, but not limited to, the Next Generation Science standards, or the California History-Social Science Standards. This goal was met through the Passport to History program and taking youth to meet with tribal speakers at the Yurok Tribe dance site at the mouth of the Klamath River.

Howland Hill Outdoor School Experience: Curriculum that is aligned to the content standards for California public schools adopted by the State Board of Education, including, but not limited to, the Next Generation Science standards, or the California History-Social Science Standards. Second to fourth grade students participated in lessons that involved physical activity, science, math, art, and environmental education while visiting the outdoor school.

California Coastal Clean Up: Foster stewardship of the environment using curriculum pursuant to Public Resources Code, Division 34, Part 4: Statewide Environmental Education (Sections 71300-71305). Sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students participated in beach clean up at Tolowa Dunes State Park and Redwood National Park.

Explore Lake Earl and Tolowa Dunes: Foster stewardship of the environment using curriculum pursuant to Public Resources Code, Division 34, Statewide Environmental Education (Sections 71300-71305). Sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students participated in environmental science lessons at Tolowa Dunes State Park.

Jed Smith Adventures: Foster stewardship of the environment using curriculum pursuant to Public Resources Code, Division 34, Part 4: Statewide Environmental Education (Sections 71300-71305). Youth participated in "Paddle N Pull" raft events that included removal of invasive species in Jed Smith Redwoods State Park while learning about the Smith River watershed.

Exploring Community Parks: Curriculum that is aligned to the content standards for California public schools adopted by the State Board of Education, including, but not limited to, the Next Generation Science standards, or the California History-Social Science Standards. Healthy lifestyles and sound nutritional habits. Youth participated in a Tsunami Walk through the local Beachfront Park, learning of the history and science of tsunami frequency in Del Norte County.

Art in the Park: Instruction in arts, science and mathematics that connects the nature experiences, or environmental stewardship. Healthy lifestyles and sound nutritional habits. Youth participated in both physical movement and art lessons in Jed Smith Redwoods State Park and Redwood National Park.

Klamath River Adventure: Instruction in arts, science and mathematics that connects the nature experiences, or environmental stewardship. Community outreach methods and civic engagement related to Environmental Justice. While engaging in jet boat and canoeing through the Yurok Tribe, youth learned about the cultural history of the Klamath River as well as the significance dams have caused and the efforts to remove the dams.

Family Camping 101: Foster stewardship of the environment using curriculum pursuant to Public Resources Code, Division 34. Statewide Environmental Education (Sections 71300-71305). Healthy lifestyles and sound nutritional habits. Youth experienced interpretive trails while engaged in camping weekends with their families at Sue-meg, Prairie Creek, Del Norte Redwoods, and Jed Smith Redwoods state parks.

North Coast Junior Lifeguards: Instruction in arts, science and mathematics that connects the nature experiences or environmental stewardship. Healthy lifestyles and sound nutritional habits. Youth participated in the North Coast Junior Lifeguards program, learning about healthy habits, wave action, and life skills.

Partnerships within Del Norte County have been prolific. Relationships have extended to other public agencies, local tribes, non-profit organizations, and individuals, leading to numerous Memoranda of Understanding and agreements. Partners with whom GOAL engaged since November 2022 include California Department of Fish and Wildlife, California Department of Forestry, California State Parks, City of Crescent City, County of Del Norte, Del Norte County Health and Human Services, Del Norte County Historical Society, Del Norte County Public Health, Del Norte Senior Center, Del Norte Unified School District, Elk Valley Rancheria, First Five of California, Family Resource Center of the Redwoods, Friends of Tolowa Dunes, Klamath Adventures, Klamath Promise Neighborhoods, Redwood Coast Transit, Redwood National Park, Redwood Parks Conservancy, Redwood Rides, Resilient Del Norte, Smith River Alliance, Tolowa Dee'-ni Nation, and the Yurok Tribe.

There were several partnership interactions that played a significant role in accomplishing the objectives of the grant:

Redwood National and State Parks provided interpreters that allowed a variety of school activities both in the classroom, on the trails, and in utilizing the Howland Hill Outdoor School facility.

Redwood Parks Conservancy helped by securing grants that helped expand the number of participants in several events and provided the transportation for community field trip events as needed, reducing transportation barriers for many participants.

The tribes within Del Norte County provided GOAL with significant support. Elk Valley Rancheria provided in-kind contribution of facilities to GOAL events.

The Yurok Tribe provided cultural speakers, access to tribal sites, Klamath River canoeing and jet boating, and additional funding to expand the number of participants in several activities.

The Tolowa Dee-ni’ partnered with GOAL and other organizations to help bring native youth to Tvm Chaa me’ Day to Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park and provided GOAL with additional financial support to expand project objectives.

GOAL teamed up with Redwood Rides to accomplish two objectives this year with several rafting/kayaking activities, including “Paddle N Pull” where participants rafted/kayaked the Smith River, pulling over at various locations within Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park to pull invasive species. Families learned how to identify invasive species and help reduce their spread, encouraging stewardship of the river and forest lands. GOAL presented “Passport to History” in cooperation with the Del Norte County Historical Society. Each month, a community field trip begins at the historical museum with a docent-led tour focusing on the history of sites that were visited in person later that day.

Resilient Del Norte and Tribal Lands is a partner organization whose vision is to become the most resilient community in California by 2040. As part of its goal to encourage families to engage in healthy activities, Resilient DNATL provided support to bring the “Hike It, Baby” curriculum to the community through the GOAL program. Resources within a small, rural community like Del Norte County are thin, and in working together for delivery of the activities with our partners, we are able to strategically leverage limited available funding to its fullest. Communication is key to establishing a good relationship with partner organizations. As this program continues to develop, communicating needs that fit within the grant criteria, seeking input from GOAL’s partners, and providing participant feedback helped to strengthen subsequent events and experiences for the continuing grant period while adjusting experiences that aren’t working for the community.

The success of our program has been, by far, the relationships we have formed within the community. We could not have delivered most of our services without the partnership of the organizations and individuals we work with. Engaging those partners in the process has been key to understanding the needs of our community and how to meet those needs. Although it is a constant, ongoing process, we would not have been able to meet our goals and objectives had we not developed the partnerships to the extent we have.

Branding was key to establishing our program and its activities. Our logo was created by a team of students at Del Norte High School, and it appears on everything we produce. Additionally, a flyer template was used to announce and advertise our activities so the community would immediately recognize them. This was so successful that, when a partner used the same flyer template to advertise its non-GOAL activity, the GOAL program was inundated with inquiries about the activity! It has become a detriment now, though, as we find the population suffering from "flyer fatigue." Due to the frequency of our events and social media (Facebook) algorithms, many of our flyers pop up on a feed well after the date of the activity. We have found this is leading people to ignore all GOAL flyers as they are released. GOAL has been meeting with a media team to determine how to best overcome this challenge.

Our biggest challenge has been how to ensure that participants who have signed up for GOAL activities are attending those activities. The GOAL program has experienced a very high no-show rate for many of its activities to the detriment of those who may be on a waiting list, and to the cost associated with engaging those partners with whom we have contracted for those activities. We are exploring several different remedies to this situation, including beginning a text-reminder program, increasing the likelihood they have a high interest in engaging and opportunity to confirm their participation. We are also having difficulty reaching our desired population and still have some barriers to overcome, such as communication and transportation. We are participating in many community organizations that help us get the information out to all of our population, and we are exploring a better platform to communicate to those same families.