CWN ProjectWET Final Report - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Water Efficiency Grant Program Final Project WET Grant Report (CWN) B. In-Kind Support The in-kind support and matching funds for this grant was based on a number of factors which have changed throughout the course of the grant period. ~Ihile the level of total in-kind support was met during the course of this grant term, one source became significantly limited. The Project DIET International Foundation, which produces and prints the ~XIET guides, increased the hard costs of the Project WET Curriculum dnd Activity Guides by 50%, slashing revenues generated from those sales. Given that Colorado Project ~XIET competes with a number of other teacher training opportunities, we could not raise the price of attending a workshop for teachers. Original budgets projected all in-kind match of $30 per educator trained: $10 would go to the facilitator, $10 to pay for the book and $10 to support Colorado Project ~XIET. Now C`XIN only receives four dollars after shipping per educator. This issue is compounded by the fact the initial projected number of educators reached during the grant term was unreasonable. The Colorado V~Iatershed Network received several small grants to support specific water quality and ~Xlesterll Slope workshops, and new sponsored workshops were scheduled during the grant period. These two sources contributed an additional $12,000 in direct cash match towards the in-klnd a11d match111g fU11C1S that Was 1101 alltlclpated 111 the 1111t1a1 grant appllcatl0n. The projected in-kind contribution from our major partners, specifically the Colorado Division of ~Iildlife and the University of Northern Colorado, were met or exceeded during the grant term. The Colorado Division of ~Iildlife employs six Regional Education Coordinators, based out of its six regional offices, which support the volunteer facilitators in planning and implementing workshops for all of the Projects (~XIET, `XIILD and Learning Tree). ~Ie estimated that each Regional Education Coordinator would contribute approximately 6 hours per month towards supporting Project WET in their region. ~Xlhile some regions didn't see the expected support, and resulting number of workshops, two regions in particular exceeded the expected i11- k1nU C011tr1but1011. The number of Project ~XIET workshops that occurred in the Denver Metro area and the Southwestern part of the state are testament to the fact that these regions contributed well beyond their expected six hours per month of in-kind support. The University of Northern Colorado, which was the former sponsor for Project DIET prior to this grant being awarded to the Colorado ~Xlatershed Network, continued in its role of supporting Project ~XIET. Prior to the hiring of a full time Project DIET Coordinator based out of C~XIN, faculty at UNC volunteered their time to keep Project DIET operational in Colorado. Dr. Teresa Higgins remained instrumental to the operation of Project DIET in Colorado. Dr, Higgins participated in all of the Facilitator Conferences as well as two of the New Facilitator Trainings. She assisted in planning of these events, provided professional development to new and veteran facilitators and continued the coordinate the massive pre-service training efforts in place at the University, C. Geographic Scope Another challenge is reaching educators broadly across the state. Although workshops range from La Junta, to Durango, to Rifle, there are significant barriers in some of the more rural areas of the state. Some rural communities are small and spread far apart, without staff able to directly outreach with these communities, some planned workshops have not garnered enough teachers to warrant a workshop. As a result a larger number of workshops have been canceled in V~lestern Page 9