Information

Registration is Now Closed.

Click here for a PDF of the conference invitation.

The 2005 EPA Community Involvement Conference and Training (CI Conference), "Building Bridges Through Strong Partnerships," will be held July 12-15, 2005, in Buffalo, NY. Staff and managers from EPA, other federal agencies, state, tribal and local government, academia, and community members will come together to explore how collaborative partnerships can improve environmental public education, community involvement, and decision-making.

Conference speakers, representing a wide variety of stakeholders, will share how they are involving communities in the protection of our air, water, and land. Over 400 people are expected to attend this year. Please share this invitation with those interested in environmental community involvement, partnership, stewardship, outreach and education programs. We want to encourage as many people as possible to join us in our discussions. Limited scholarships are available for representatives of local government.

Conference Schedule and Agenda

The 2005 CI Conference begins at 8:30 am on Tuesday, July 12, and concludes at noon on Friday, July 15. The conference features:

• Forty-one concurrent workshop/panel sessions.
• Three plenary sessions.
• A keynote address delivered by Chief Oren Lyons, Faithkeeper, Turtle Clan, Onondaga Nation.
• A panel presentation with three community activists, including Gayla Benefield, LincolnCounty (Libby, Montana) Asbestos Victims' Relief Organization, Teresa Leal, Coordinating Council Co-Chair, Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice, and Peggy Shepard, West Harlem Environmental Action, Inc.
• A facilitated discussion on collaboration involving all conference participants led by Langdon Marsh, National Policy Consensus Center, Portland State University, followed by a working lunch.
• A poster presentation session held in conjunction with an evening networking reception.
• Two open-time sessions, with topics determined by participants at the conference.
• Four field trips.
• Three 4-hour and five 8-hour training courses.

The final agenda and session abstracts can be viewed here.

Plenary Sessions

Tuesday, July 12: Opening Ceremony and Keynote Address

This plenary session, which opens the conference, begins with a tribal ceremony performed by the Seneca Nation, followed by welcoming comments and a keynote presentation by:

• Chief Oren Lyons, Faithkeeper, Turtle Clan, Onondaga Nation, Haudenosaunee, New York. Chief Lyons is a leading advocate for American Indian causes. He is recognized internationally as an environmentalist and human rights advocate. He is a professor of American Studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he directs the Native American Studies program. He has received numerous honors and awards, including the Ellis Island Congressional Medal of Honor and the Earth Day International Award of the United Nations.

Wednesday, July 13: The Role of Community Activism in Environmental Protection

Building on the theme of promoting strong, productive partnerships between EPA, community groups, and other stakeholders, the panel for this session features three prominent citizens who have been forces of change in their communities. These panelists will share their experiences and highlight opportunities for building successful partnerships for providing safe and clean communities in which to live, work, and play. This panel presentation, which will be moderated by Bonnie Bellow, Director of Public Affairs, U.S. EPA Region 2, will include an opportunity for the audience to ask questions. The panelists include:

• Gayla Benefield, President of the Lincoln County Asbestos Victims' Relief Organization. Ms. Benefield has served as the voice for her community throughout the asbestos tragedy in Libby, Montana. She has testified to the U.S. Congress and has spoken to groups around the country about her experiences and those of her neighbors.
• Teresa Leal, Coordinating Council Co-Chair, Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice
• Peggy Shepard, Executive Director and co-founder of West Harlem Environmental Action, Inc. (WE ACT). Founded in 1988, WE ACT was New York's first environmental justice organization created to improve environmental health and quality of life in communities of color.

This session concludes with the announcement of the Poster Presentation awards.

Thursday, July 14:  Facilitated Dialogue on Collaboration/Working Lunch Session

The final plenary session will begin with a facilitated, interactive dialogue on collaboration led by Langdon Marsh, a fellow with the National Policy Consensus Center at Portland State University. He will draw on his thirty years of environmental work to set the stage for engaging participants in thinking about how collaborative processes can help solve community-based environmental problems. In small group discussions, participants will have the opportunity to exchange ideas and experiences. There also will be some general plenary sharing of innovative ideas and a final perspective on how we can continue to work together to promote collaborative environmental protection. Mr. Marsh, a recognized expert in the field of collaboration, has been extensively involved with natural resource and environmental management issues since 1973. He has served as the Director of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and Commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

A working lunch for all conference participants follows the facilitated dialogue. The lunch will include award presentations and closing comments by conference organizers. Participants are asked to sign up for the lunch when registering for the conference.

Poster Presentations/Networking Hour

This year's conference includes a poster session for participants to share information about a particular project or activity. Participants are encouraged to prepare and display a poster on their public education, collaboration, and community involvement projects. Posters will be on display during the first two days of the conference and will be the highlight of the networking hour on Tuesday evening, when presenters will have the opportunity to speak one-on-one with other participants. The networking hour also will be a chance to chat with old friends and meet new ones.

Awards will be given for the best posters, one of which is determined by conference participants. Space for posters is limited and is available on a first-come, first-served basis. To obtain an application form to reserve space to display a poster, please click here or contact Lisa Gebler (Conference Coordinator) by telephone at 301-589-5318 or by email at lisa.gebler@emsus.com.

Open-Time Sessions

The agenda sets aside time for undefined open sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons for networking and discussion of hot topics. Topics of interest for open-time discussion may be proposed and outlined by participants during the plenary sessions at the conference, with the person proposing the topic agreeing to serve as the host.

An Evening at Niagara Falls

A trip to Niagara Falls is planned for the evening of Wednesday, July 13. Participants will travel by bus to Goat Island and Prospect Point State Parks, and will have several options for the evening, including a boat ride (on the Maid of the Mist), a balloon ride, crossing to the Canadian side over the Rainbow Bridge, enjoying dinner at numerous restaurants near the falls, or visiting the Seneca Niagara Casino. Buses will depart the hotel at 6:00 pm and plan to return by 11:00 pm.

There is a $10 fee to participate in this event. Space for the trip is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. To register for this event, complete the registration form and submit your payment as directed on the registration form. For additional information contact Lisa Gebler at 301-589-5318 or lisa.gebler@emsus.com.

Requests for Special Accommodations

It is EPA's policy to make reasonable accommodations to persons with disabilities. To request special accommodations, please contact Lisa Gebler before June 15, 2005, at 301-589-5318 or lisa.gebler@emsus.com.

Field Trips

Four field trips will be offered at this year's conference (two on both Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons). Space for the field trips is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. All of these trips are expected to fill quickly.

Tuesday Afternoon, July 12

• Love Canal and Other Niagara County Superfund Sites: This four-hour trip begins with a brief presentation in the hotel about local Superfund sites, including Love Canal. It continues with a bus tour of the sites with several stops along the way to highlight various site facilities or cleanup activities.
• Waste Management, Inc. (WMI), Hazardous Waste Facility/Niagara Power Project Visitors Center: This four-hour trip begins with a briefing at WMI's Visitors Center about the facility and the establishment of an American songbird ground nesting area within a seven-acre mitigation wetlands area on the facility grounds. The trip continues with a visit to the Niagara Power Project Visitor Center where participants can learn about hydroelectricity and the historic role it has played on the Niagara Frontier.

Wednesday Afternoon, July 13

• Erie County Habitat Restoration Projects: During this three-hour field trip, participants will visit four habitat restoration projects, learn how and why they were selected, and hear about the unique partnerships that were created to accomplish these projects.
• Cleaning Up the Manhattan Project: Battling a Legacy of Mistrust: This three-hour field trip features a tour of two Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program sites. It also includes a presentation focusing on efforts to promote a better understanding of the environmental restoration work being conducted at these former Manhattan Project-related sites.

Training Sessions

Eight training and skills development sessions will be offered at this year's conference. Space for these sessions is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis, so please register early.

Four-Hour Training (Thursday Afternoon, July 14)

• Creating an Eco-Municipality: Citizens and Officials Involved in Environmental, Economic, and Social Community Change: This workshop introduces a participatory approach to sustainability, called the "Natural Step" approach, and includes case studies of communities that have successfully used this approach to adopt sustainable municipal practices.
• West Valley Demonstration Project: Media, Community, and Government Outreach: During this session, representatives from the West Valley Demonstration Project, a U.S. Department of Energy environmental cleanup and waste management project, will describe and discuss proactive methodologies they have used to engage the community and facilitate community involvement.

Four-Hour Training (Friday Morning, July 15)

• Moving Visions from Dreams to Reality: In this session, multiple stakeholders will present the story of an abandoned Oklahoma City high school located in an African-American community and use this story as a backdrop for identifying community empowerment opportunities and developing effective approaches for communicating with diverse audiences.

Eight-Hour Training (Thursday Afternoon, July 14, to Friday Noon, July 15)

• Air Toxics Risk Assessment: Community Exercise in Source Characterization and Evaluation: This course introduces risk assessment methods and modeling tools and how to present this information to the public.
• Be Prepared: An Advanced Media/Spokesperson Training: Participants of this highly interactive workshop will learn how to prepare for interviews and public speaking engagements, and how to craft and effectively deliver appropriate messages–under pressure or in a crisis.
• Environmental Forum Theater: Drama-Based Action Strategies for Community Building, Issue Clarification, and Conflict Mediation: This participatory workshop provides drama-based strategies and techniques, such as community-building games, image making exercises, and interactive sociometry demonstrations, for issue analysis, conflict mediation, and popular education that can be used to translate and explain complex scientific concepts to the public.
• Using Social Marketing Planning Tools to Address Public Health: This course provides community engagement practitioners with the key principles and techniques of a social marketing approach to address environmental health concerns, including using a computer tool to apply social marketing systematically to public health programs.
• You Get What You Measure: This informative, interactive workshop introduces the process of measurement by showing participants how to clarify goals, identify indicators and effective measures of progress, and use new information to make better decisions.