SDG&E hosted their 2017 Environmental Champions Kickoff event on March 17, 2017 and invited the Climate Science Alliance to come speak as a case study for their Environmental Champions grant program. Climate Science Alliance staff Marina Varano, Program Lead for our Innovative Community Engagement initiative spoke about Climate Kids and how we implemented funding from SDGE’s environmental champions grant to expand our programming and partnerships greatly to reach more students.
Marina mentioned that Climate Kids provides free hands-on science, art, and storytelling activities in the classroom followed by a field trip experience that gets students outdoors to connect with the very nature we hope they will protect. In addition to going into schools, the Alliance also participates in community events to engage people of all ages on climate change. To date, Climate Kids has reached 12,000 students in San Diego, Mexico, and southern California Tribes.
In the spirit of collaboration, the Alliance has been very fortunate to partner with other organizations that already have robust environmental education programs and provide these partners with the training and additional support they need to incorporate the topic of climate change into their existing programs. These professional development trainings are offered to formal and informal educators to build long term capacity so that educators are comfortable delivering climate change messages on their own.
The event facilitated opportunities to network and collaborate with other non-profit organizations, to learn more about SDG&E’s overall giving strategy and how to apply for funding visit
