Overview

The Western Washington Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) Curriculum is a shared regional curriculum focused on core, introductory green infrastructure skills include green stormwater infrastructure, urban forestry and other related fields. The learning outcomes and structure of the curriculum were developed through a collaboration of practitioners, training organizations, jurisdictions, and non-profits in as part of the work of the Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) Workforce Collaborative in Fall 2023. Access the curriculum through the form below.

What is in the Curriculum?

Within this curriculum, you will find:

8-week entry-level curriculum designed for beginners including youth, young adults or those interested in job retraining
Curriculum includes teaching guides, student syllabi, weekly power points, links to additional resources, and recommendations on field work
Concepts and resources related to the purpose and function of GSI and how to install and maintain basic GSI
Equity and environmental justice woven into weekly lessons
Support for job readiness concepts as part of the curriculum

Outcomes

An overview of the learning outcomes focused on this curriculum (click to enlarge image).

Who should use
this Curriculum?

In Fall 2023 to Winter 2024, the GSI Curriculum is in a pilot phase in partnership with organizations and entities. These Pilot GSI Curriculum hosts will provide important feedback on the Curriculum to support future adaptations. If you are interested in potentially serving as a pilot site, please complete the form below and we will connect with you.

The curriculum is intended to be adapted by organizations, agencies, education institutions, business and others to provide place-based training or subject-specific training opportunities on green infrastructure concepts. The Pilot GSI Curriculum can be implemented as the whole 8-week program or specific pieces can be adapted for certain learning outcomes.

The curriculum is free and available for use based on the terms below. The GSI Workforce Collaborative acknowledges the high value of this product and asks for attribution in any final products that the host organizations produces for their tailored programs.

We recognize that the host entities and the participants will be coming from diverse backgrounds, skills and career trajectories. To that end, we anticipate that some “train the trainer” workshops and curriculum orientations will be needed to ensure that the GSI Curriculum is implemented as intended, and will work with the host entities on these details.

We are committed to advancing equity through this process.

As part of the Collaborative’s interests and priorities, the work has been developed in collaboration with a steering committee comprised of community-based organizations, businesses and others serving young people, job-seekers, BIPOC and other underserved groups. The Collaborative seeks to ensure that bodies of work produced and delivered by the Collaborative aligns with the vision and purpose that it established in the 2022 Charter with an emphasis on engaging frontline communities and job seekers. Learn more about the GSI Workforce Collaborative

Lesson Plan

An example of detailed lesson plan focused on GSI maintenance (click image to enlarge).

Requesting the Curriculum

To access the curriculum, we will ask each host entity to fill in a simple User Agreement to download and adapt parts or the whole GSI Curriculum, so that we can track its use including how many people participated, some basic demographic information, as well as collecting anonymous evaluations from participants, trainers and the host entities. There is currently funding available to support use of this curriculum – indicate your interest in learning more about this funding in the form. Through completing this form, you are agreeing to:

Acknowledging the developers of the GSI Curriculum (“the product” in your use of it (The GSI Workforce Collaborative in partnership with The Nature Conservancy in Washington)
Providing feedback to the developers of the curriculum from trainers and trainees to support adaptation of the curriculum in the future.
There is no transfer of ownership or copyright by granting use of the product
TNC and the GSI Workforce Collaborative make no warranties, express or implied, regarding the licensed material or its delivery systems, including, without limitation, any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
Comply with the full limited license for this product.

Get the curriculum.

Complete the form below to receive access to the full curriculum.

Name

Organization

Email Address

City / Region

Why are you interested in this curriculum?

Do you have any initial questions about the curriculum?

What is the initial time frame you are considering using this curriculum?

Are you interested in learning about funding for a pilot of the curriculum?

Agreement Agreement I have read and agree to the terms above

10 + 11 =

Example of Outing

An example agenda for field day as part of the curriculum (click to enlarge image).

The Nature Conservancy in Washington currently acts as the primary convener of the collaborative with facilitator and strategic support from SM Watts Consulting and project support from Urban Systems Design. Gianna Craig led the coordination and development of the Western Washington GSI Curriculum.

Thank you to the following organizations for their participation in the development of this curriculum: Clover Park Technical College, Dirt Corps, EarthCorps, Pacific Education Institute, Pierce Conservation District, King County Wastewater Treatment Division, Washington State Department of Transportation, and Washington State University Stormwater Center.