Thursday, August 31
| 9:30 am - 12:30 pm Concurrent Sessions |
| Focus on Risk Presenter: Adena Messinger, American Forest Foundation Project Learning Tree's "Focus on Risk" supplementary curriculum materials provide a tool for educating high school students, as well as the general public, in making decisions about environmental and human health risks. Participants will engage in a hands-on environmental education workshop focusing on risk communication and taking action to reduce risk in their community. They will participate in at least two activities that can be used either in the classroom or as a means to involve community members in a dialogue about environmental issues. Participants will receive a copy of the "Focus on Risk" materials. |
| Community Cultural Profiling Presenters: Michael Kronthal and Theresa Trainor, U.S. EPA, Office of Water Community Cultural Profiling is an EPA-designed tool to help EPA staff work with communities in ways that embody a given community's beliefs, attitudes, perceptions, and values toward the places they live and work. Profiling utilizes several methods to find the common bonds between people's everyday concerns and EPA's environmental protection efforts—providing a shared basis for achieving local environmental results. This session will introduce participants to the underlying concepts of Community Cultural Profiling and train participants in the use of select tools and techniques, including how to define a community along social and geographic lines, assess local environmental awareness and values, and identify local opinion leaders and quality of life concerns. |
| From Centralia to Hiroshima: Common
Experiences of Toxic Contamination and Their Implications for Community
Involvement Presenters: David Nicholas and Karen Randolph, U.S. EPA, Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER) The Reference Guide for Public Participation Activities in the Permitting Process (Guide) is a new resource from EPA that not only describes the regulations for each permitting program, but also provides an effective baseline strategy and tool for involving community stakeholders. While the Guide is written for state program implementors, the best practices for stakeholder involvement described in the Guide can be applied in any environmental cleanup program or where interactions with the public need to be planned and factored into decision making. However, as the next step in implementation, EPA must consider the regulatory roadblocks that are in the way. After presenting an overview of the Guide's methodology and use of stakeholder involvement in its development and its baseline strategy, a panel will discuss: 1) what are the roadblocks to effective and more universal public participation procedures across EPA permitting programs; and 2) what regulatory changes and voluntary or incentive programs could in effect remove these roadblocks. |
| Revisiting Authentic Signs of Hope:
Exploring Lessons Learned and Best Practices for Meaningful Community
Involvement and Environmental Justice in Brownfields Revitalization and Smart
Growth Programs Main Presenter: Torri Estrada, Urban Habitat Program Brownfields and smart growth programs provide opportunities to address environmental and economic justice problems facing communities of color. Without meaningful involvement and partnerships with community residents and organizations, urban revitalization programs will exacerbate environmental and economic inequities and prove ineffective in addressing community problems. Community practitioners will present the lessons learned and best practices from their work on brownfields and smart growth initiatives. Recommendations for strengthening the community involvement and environmental justice components of these initiatives will be presented, including those developed by the National Community/Environmental Justice Caucus and Brownfields Working Group. Participants will work in small break-out groups to brainstorm ways to address pressing environmental justice issues in local programs, including public health, gentrification/displacement, and emerging brownfields. |
| Using the Web to Present Timely Drinking
Water Quality Information to the Public: A Case Study of Des Moines Water
Works' Experience Presenters: Carrie Bozis Sears and Vince Dwyer, Des Moines Water Works; Robert Dunlevy, U.S. EPA Region 7; Carl Reeverts, U.S. EPA Headquarters Through a partnership with EPA, Des Moines Water Works (DMWW) has developed an Internet-based system allowing real-time public access to local water quality information. The project is the principal drinking water effort under EPA's Environmental Monitoring for Public Access and Community Tracking (EMPACT) initiative. The web site allows the public to understand what the information means and responds to frequently-asked questions. The site has been available since January. The proposed presentation will present the DMWW model in a way that encourages and facilitates adoption by other drinking water utilities and communities seeking to use this innovative, web-based approach. |
| How to Conduct Public Meetings Presenters: Keith Fulton and Sandy Martinez, Fulton Communications This case study reviews a successful six-year community outreach program that was successful due to the power-sharing partnership established with a community of 70,000 and a large 1,800-person petrochemical plant. The plant discharged 82 tons a year of a known carcinogen. Initially, the community had concerns about safety, health, environmental, and fairness issues. In 1985, the plant started a community outreach program with the purpose of improving the overall relationship between the plant, the entire Baytown community, and the Houston broadcast media; there were a total of 25 stakeholder groups, which included a group of environmental activists. |
| 1:30 - 5:30 pm Concurrent Training Sessions |
| Dealing with Hostile Meetings and Difficult
People Presenter: Lucy Moore, Lucy Moore Associates This highly interactive eight-hour training session will offer direct help to those who face hostile meetings and difficult people in their roles with EPA. Specifically, the session goals are to: help participants understand the roots of hostility and other difficult behavior in a public meeting setting; explore ways of preventing or planning to avoid these situations; identify the components that make a situation difficult; offer techniques for dealing with hostility and other difficult behavior; and give participants insights, experiences, and skills that will help them develop their own responses to difficult situations. |
| Media Relations Training Presenters: Helen DuTeau, U.S. EPA Headquarters; Bill Landis and Dale Armstrong, U.S. EPA Region 7 Learn how to be a "Media Star" by attending this dynamic, interactive workshop. Whether it is "60 Minutes" or the local newspaper, we will teach you how to handle any interview professionally. Whether you are called upon to answer tough questions on potential threats of PVC pipes, Superfund sites, or pesticide plights, we'll teach you how to give your message to the media. The workshop includes a brief overview of EPA's history and relationship with the press, demonstrating some universal truths about the journalism profession and how it relates to environmental reporting. The bulk of the workshop will be spent practicing interview skills by crafting and delivering key messages – no matter how tough the questions get! |
| Introduction to Community
Involvement Presenters: Helen DuTeau and Peter Redmond, U.S. EPA Headquarters This eight-hour workshop is designed to problem-solve challenging situations by offering a variety of tools and techniques to plan effective outreach and involvement strategies. The course will focus on designing strategies that will help you plan a successful communication and participation program. The bulk of the workshop is designed around a mock community situation in which participants will work together in teams to craft a strategy. The course will also devote time to coaching participants on strategies to help them in their real life community involvement challenges. |
| Designing Community Involvement Processes
that Bridge Racial and Cultural Diversity Presenters: Gregory Bourne and Rosemary Romero, Public Decisions Network Diversity and cross-cultural issues often present great challenges to designing and implementing effective, inclusive community involvement processes. Many such processes exclude certain interest groups or individuals whose participation is crucial. Mistakes in designing and convening processes often create problems that last the duration of the project. Inattention to diversity can undermine otherwise sound processes. This session will help participants increase their awareness of cross-cultural issues, and incorporate these concerns into community involvement processes. This session builds on the extensive experience of the trainers with environmental justice, community-based planning, and environmental policy issues. |
| Understanding and Dealing with the Stress
of Working with Superfund Communities–Theirs and Yours Presenters: Jan Shubert, U.S. EPA Headquarters, and Pamela Tucker, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) Working with citizens in Superfund communities can be very challenging on a number of different levels. The citizens in these communities have multiple concerns, ranging from health-related issues to job stability and property values. Because they often are the most visible indicators of the problem, EPA and other government agency staff frequently become the targets of citizen frustration and anger. This can be very stressful for everyone. This session explains the stress process and the effects on the human body and health; presents an overview of psychosocial stress and the connection between stress and chronic technological disasters, such as Superfund sites; examines work-related stress in general and in relation to working at Superfund sites; reviews stress management techniques; and concludes with relaxation exercises. |
| Risk Communications and Public
Dialogue Presenters: Keith Fulton and Sandy Martinez, Fulton Communications This course provides skills development low trust/high concern communications regarding safety, health, environmental fairness, and other issues. The trainer spent six years in an active public participation effort between the chemical industry and numerous public stakeholders and will demonstrate how public participation will only work if communicators are skilled in low trust/high concern dialogue. The skills are based on truly understanding and caring about others' positions, learning how to "de-personalize" one's involvement during conflict, non-verbal communications, and how to communicate across cultures. The course involves "hands-on" training and active participation by the attendees. |
This page was last updated on: July 21, 2000
Site maintained by: Office of Emergency and Remedial Response
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