Santa Maria Outdoor Recreation Experience - SMORE
Year 1 Annual Report |
Jump to annual report details (2023-2025)Amount | $589,379 |
Grantee | City of Santa Maria |
Award Year | 2022 |
Funding Source | General Fund, Outdoor Equity Program |
Project Type | Program Operation |
Project Status | In Progress |
Description
Conduct the Santa Maria Outdoor Recreation Experience (SMORE) Program for residents near The Cabin at Buena Vista in the City of Santa Maria. This program will include approximately 138 activity days in the community for approximately 2,000 participants and approximately 48 trips to natural areas for approximately 1,500 participants during three years of programming.
Activities in the community will include Los Flores Ranch Park Adventure Tours; Educational Steam Sessions; Swim, Paddle Board & Kayak Lessons; Virtual Park Experiences; and Introduction to Camping.
Trips to natural areas outside of the community will include Family Camp Adventures to Camp Ocean Pines and Cachuma Lake or Jalama Beach; Whale watching at the Santa Barbara Channel; Channel Islands Adventure; Oceanview Adventure at Circle Bar B Ranch Stables; Historic Dunes Adventure at Guadalupe/Oso Flaco, Ocean Kayaking Adventure at Morro Bay; College Adventure; Butterfly Beach Adventure at Pismo Beach & Monarch Grove; and Resident Youth Camp at Camp Ocean Pines.
Click box to enlarge images | |
Use arrows to see more images |
Community Home Base Location
800 S. Pine Street Santa Maria, CA 93454
County | Santa Barbara |
Assembly District | AD 37 Gregg Hart (D) |
Senate District |
SD 19 Monique Limón (D) |
Congressional District | CD 24 Salud O. Carbajal (D) |
Program Goals
Service Learning/Career Pathway/Leadership Opportunities
The City Volunteer Program. 150 Residents
Key Club / Toastmasters for Teens. 150 Residents
Job Skills Classes. 100 Residents
CPR/ Lifeguard Certification. 40 Residents
Nature Exploration Internship with paid work experience. 15 Residents
Partnerships
Camp Ocean Pines
Will facilitate Natural Area Trips, weekend Family Camp Adventure, and week-long Resident Camp.
Allan Hancock College
Will provide college and career development opportunities for youth and adults.
People for Leisure & Youth
Will provide on-going mentoring/ job coaching after grant.
Mentoring
Monthly follow up topics will be shared with the youth via social media and email. The adults mentoring the youth will be tracking their educational progress, career development activities, whether they are working, and whether the jobs have a connection to environmental studies. For the first year, they will be contacted monthly (months 1-12) and then in months 13-18, they will be contacted bi-monthly with a short survey for them to complete to provide their mentors updated educational and work achievements. During the mentoring phase, they will be invited to keep volunteering with the City and to apply for City jobs. Other partners in this phase will be California Conservation Corps, Workforce Resource Center, Santa Maria Chamber of Commerce, Santa Barbara County Workforce Development Board, Employment Development Department, California Department of Rehabilitation, U.S. Forest Service, State and County Parks.
Annual Report Details
Programs may span from one year to multi-year, not to exceed four years. The specific length of the program is contained in the description above.
Category | Total |
Youth Served | 724 |
Days for Activities in the Community | 47 |
Nature Area Trips | 41 |
List of Educational Goals Achieved
2023
Experiential learning Environmental education Team Building Social skills Leadership Development Physical fitness cultural/historical understanding Creativity / innovation
List of Formed Partnerships
2023
Scouts Island Packers Camp Ocean Pines CA State Parks-FamCamp-Butterfly Grove Dunes Center Circle Bar B Ranch Central Coast Kayaks Agents of Discovery
Lessons
2023
When estimating your projected youth attendance, be sure to consider that sometimes there are several adults who want to join in the activity. The adults who elect to participate may be more than anticipated. While it is great to have their interest and willingness to participate, it can sometimes make the adult : child ratios quite different than what was projected.
Although California has been in a drought for many years, the last year did have significant rainfall and many of our Natural Area Trips were postponed or cancelled due to inclement weather. Having some back-up dates booked would have been helpful for some of the hard-to-book trips where reservations must be done well in advance. We adopted a motto reminding participants that planning outdoor trips requires flexibility because nature is unpredictable! We dress in layers, bring hats, coats, and sunscreen, because anything can happen in the great outdoors!
When planning classes to help prepare people for the Natural Area Trips, our attendance would have been higher at the classes if the participants were required to attend a class before the trip. A class called “Mammals of the Sea” really did help prepare children and adults for their 4 hours ocean excursion and made them better informed about what they saw and experienced on their adventure. To keep attendance numbers steady for the classes and the trips, consider making some classes required.
The Outdoor Recreation Leadership Resources Guide is well-written and easy to follow when planning the FamCamps held at State Parks. Despite having sent two staff to the training, we needed more staff to run this weekend campout for 30 people. Perhaps volunteers could be recruited to help during FamCamp so that there are enough helping hands. If not, we suggest including more paid staff in your planning budget to make sure the weekend is a total success.
When picking your dates for the FamCamps held in state parks, consider where your date falls within the whole camping season. Our first effort running this FamCamp was towards the very end of the season and felt like the supplies in the storage trailer were not all there, or in poor condition to the point they could not be used.
Internally we found it hard at first to make sure each staff person working at one of the grant events had their work hours documented. We eventually developed a sign in sheet brought to all grant-related programs and now have staff list their work hours and sign the document before leaving when their shift is done. • The travel industry took such an economic hit during the pandemic that every travel cost seems to be having high inflation. Please ahead for charter bus fees and admission fees that are increasing steadily.