A team definitely worth following

 

About a year ago I wrote about, CERES Education Group Manager, Lorna Pettifer, being selected for The Premiers Sustainability Award for Education. Over the weekend Lorna’s work was recognised again becoming Environment Education Victoria’s Environmental & Sustainability Educator of the Year – (that’s Lorna on the left with Karen Jones from Port Phillip Ecocentre).

Now there are times in life, like reading about the IPCC’s latest report giving humanity a decade to avert a climate cataclysm, that I find myself wanting to check out for a while with a bottle of red wine, some very dark chocolate and a couple of episodes of Anne with an E.

But when I see Lorna and her team recognised for their work helping children and adults all over Victoria to practical and positive ways we can take care of our Earth together, it makes me want to do everything I can to help them do more.

Recently I emailed Lorna asking her what she would do if she had five million dollars for CERES Education?

She emailed me back….

      Hi Chris, you asked me this the other day. Here’s my list…

• create a culture of YES AND and remove the idea of money and resources as a barrier to making social and environmental change happen.
• roll-out Education for Sustainability programs for schools and adults that are subsidised or free and make environmental education accessible for all. 
• assemble a library of resources and engagement activities filled with learning and empowering experiences which anyone can access onsite or online.
• build a totally off-grid sustainable training and youth engagement centre at CERES with co-working spaces, community engagement areas, study pods – the works!
• pay my educators a better wage and give them more professional development.

    I am going to stop there as I could go on for quite a bit. 

    Lorna

I should have said $50 or $500 million or even $5 billion, because if we’re really serious about continuing our tenancy on planet Earth then it’s change-making programs like Lorna’s we need to put our time & money into.

And though this newsletter is a shout-out to Lorna and her team it’s as much about us doing something, anything when we feel overwhelmed and unsure how to go about becoming a sustainable species.

For what it’s worth here’s my four suggestions;

– offer your help to someone in your community who is already making positive change.

– spend your shopping dollars with social enterprises (there are plenty out there) that help make the world a more sustainable place.

– grow food at home & share it with your neighbours, pick up rubbish in your park, creek or beach, plant trees with a land caring group and try to involve kids in all of it.

-And finally, if you do think the best investment for your $5 million may be the CERES Education team, then you’d better get in touch with Lorna.