Catron County, New Mexico: Community Involvement in Environmental Dispute Resolution and Sustainable Development
Presenters: Melinda Smith, Public Decision Network; Mike Gardner, U.S. Forest Service; Elena Gellert, Catron County Citizens Group; and Adam Polley, Catron County Manager

Since 1995, a group of citizens in Catron County, NM, representing diverse views on issues of natural resource management, have been working together to find common ground and to build a sustainable future for this vast county, of which over 75% is federal land. Members of the Catron County Citizens Group will tell the story of their successes and challenges to negotiate projects that both protect the environment and provide economic benefits for residents. Part of a documentary film on the group will be shown and skills exercises will be conducted related to stakeholder involvement, negotiation processes, and community capacity-building.

From Piecemeal to Cohesion: A Bottom-Up Approach to Improving the Environment and Public Health in Providence, Rhode Island
Presenters: Lois K. Adams and Kristi N. Rea, U.S. EPA Region 1; Mayor Vincent A. Cianci, Jr., Mayor of Providence; and Roberta Hazen Aaronson, Childhood Lead Action Project

Learn about successful projects that are improving the quality of the environment and public health in Providence. This presentation will demonstrate capacity-building; restoration and revitalization of the environment and improved public health; and the creation of a sustainable infrastructure which will ensure livable urban communities for Providence residents. The projects highlighted illustrate the implementation of the Urban Environment Initiative Community Development Pyramid which is a model that uses a bottom-up, five-phase approach to addressing urban environmental and public health problems.

Community Cultural Profiling: Understanding a Community's Sense of Place
Presenters: Theresa Trainor and Michael Kronthal, U.S. EPA, Office of Water

Community Cultural Profiling is a process and a set of tools that can help community involvement practitioners illuminate a community's social and cultural landscape. The profiling process and profiling tools are designed to assess the diverse values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of community members regarding community and environmental issues. This assessment can help design effective community involvement strategies by making them meaningful to a community's local realities. Using presentations and small group exercises, this session will introduce participants to the overall profiling process and will train participants to use assorted profiling tools. Participants will also learn how to involve the community in the process.

Four Core Techniques: Social Profile, Responsive Publication, Open House, and Planning Workshop
Presenters: Desmond M. Connor, Connor Development Services Ltd.

Many managers work with an inadequate tool kit. Expand yours with these techniques:

• Social Profile—a strategic summary of the nature and structure of a community—an essential social database on which to plan and manage a program.
• Responsive Publication—reaches the skeptics, stimulates replies, and prepares for open houses.
• Open House—generates more light and less heat than traditional public meetings—features staff training, preview for politicians, exit checklist, and media feedback.
• Planning Workshop—taps the insights and commitment of a mix of interest-group leaders to resolve issues about a proposal.
  

Community Involvement and Brownfields: A Kansas City Site Tour
Presenters: Lisa Haugen and Debi Morey, U.S. EPA Region 7

The Kansas City, MO/Kansas City, KS Central Industrial District has been designated a Brownfields Showcase Community by EPA. As such, a comprehensive redevelopment initiative is taking place in a multi-cultural, mixed-use neighborhood along the Kansas River. This session will provide participants the opportunity to tour, via bus, several neighborhood and industrial brownfields sites. At each stop, a member of the community and/or industry, along with a representative from the EPA Region 7 Brownfields Team, will discuss site particulars, the significance of the site to the community, and the extent of community involvement in its redevelopment.

• Keynote: "The Challenge of Involvement, Technology, Community, Culture, and Communications," Daniel R. Wildcat, Haskell Indian Nations University
• Open Times Topic Review

The National Estuary Program: A Model for Community Involvement in Environmental Protection
Presenters: Theresa Trainor, U.S. EPA, Office of Water, Oceans, and Watersheds; Timothy Ransom, Puget Sound Estuary Program; Joe Payne, Casco Bay keeper; Chris Hathaway, Lower Columbia River Estuary Program; Joe Strange, Mobile Bay Estuary Program; and Steve Cochrane; San Francisco Bay National Estuary Project

This session will focus on community involvement in developing and implementing the Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP) for three National Estuary Programs (NEP). Each CCMP addresses a wide range of environmental issues from local growth management to public health to habitat restoration. Stakeholder involvement is at the core of this program. To date, 18 programs have begun to implement their CCMPs with the rest scheduled to start by January 2000. The participants on this panel will discuss mechanisms used to involve stakeholders in the NEP, the strengths of the NEP community involvement efforts, and examples of how stakeholders have participated in developing and implementing CCMPs.

Technical Assistance: Knowledge is Power
Presenters: Lois Gartner, Dottie Pipkin, Allen Maples, and Helen DuTeau, U.S. EPA, Office of Emergency and Remedial Response; and Shawn Grindstatt, Mineral Area College

Several different kinds of technical assistance are available to communities affected by Superfund, Brownfields, and RCRA sites. This session uses EPA and community members' expertise to provide participants with basic programmatic information about DOD's Technical Assistance for Public Participation (TAPP) and EPA's Community Advisory Group (CAG), Technical Assistance Grant (TAG), and Technical Outreach Services for Communities (TOSC) programs. Program basics to be covered include eligibility requirements, application processes, and ways in which technical assistance can be used by communities. Actual experiences with these different technical assistance programs will be provided by community members.

HELP!!?? Knowing When and How to Obtain and Use Outside Facilitators or Mediators in Your Community Involvement Effort
Presenter: Deborah Dalton, U.S. EPA, Office of Policy

Analyze your community involvement projects to determine whether, when, and how to use professional facilitators or mediators. This session will cover:

• Determining the need for a professional facilitator or mediator and gauging the best time to bring in a professional facilitator/mediator
• Understanding the knowledge, skills, abilities, and background the facilitator/mediator needs in order to be effective
• Identifying and choosing an appropriate facilitator/mediator and identifying the mechanisms or contracting vehicles to use to contract for a facilitator/mediator
• Constructing a clear statement of work that does not unduly limit the project
• Working with a facilitator/mediator without compromising neutrality or confusing roles
• Evaluating the work of the facilitator/mediator
  

Providing Better Service: Hearing From Community Partners
Community Participants: Bill Allen, Environmental Office, Kickapoo Tribe; Wes Martel, Win River Reservation; Michael Nelson, Wesley House Association; Marvin Robinson, Quindaro Ruins/Underground Railroad Exercise
Facilitator: Carolyn Perroni, Environmental Management Support

Some of our best teachers are those we seek to serve. This session is an opportunity for you to hear from and talk to four separate community members. These community members have a direct stake in many of our actions, represent different interests and have worked with a variety of EPA programs. Together we will hear and learn, from a community perspective, how our programs have helped and where we can improve. Discussions will cover a range of issues specific to EPA programs such as Superfund, Brownfields, Environmental Justice, and Tribal and Community-Based Environmental Protection. You will leave this session with a better understanding of how to reach out to our communities to make meaningful and realistic changes.

Write It Easy-to-Read
Presenter: Loretta Simpson Bush, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry

Community involvement and public participation practitioners are sometimes responsible for presenting scientific and technical information to communities. We often do this through printed materials— brochures, pamphlets, booklets, and fact sheets. Surveys show that nearly half of American adults read at basic levels, and that one in five reads below a fifth-grade level. Even skilled readers are turning less and less to written materials for information, relying instead on quick information they get on television, radio, and the Internet. Therefore, if we want our printed materials to be used, we must make them easy to read and attractive to the audiences we wish to reach.

Field Trip—Kansas City and Surrounding Communities' Household Hazardous Waste Program/Building Tour
Presenters: Bill Lewry, KCMO Regional Household Hazardous Waste Center; and Kathleen Fenton, U.S. EPA Region 7

Learn about the recycling and reuse programs offered by this facility to the local metropolitan and rural areas. The presentation will consist of a 20-minute bus ride to the Household Hazardous Waste facility and a detailed tour by the facility manager focusing on how the center was created, how it is funded, who its partners are, who works at the facility, what products are recycled and where they end up. You also will learn process details regarding how the center learns from and works with their communities to create a more efficient and customer-oriented center.

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