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The primary goal of this project to shift young people's relationship with water such that they: demonstrate or report interest in water, thinking about water, caring about water and acting daily on behalf of water stewardship. The stated objectives of the project include: <ol> <LI>To attract the attention of young people and catalyze a new consciousness related to water <LI>To create, disseminate, and build cohesion among national stakeholders around a shared national message related to water <LI>To expose young people to a wide range of water careers and livelihoods <LI> To disseminate and foster the adoption/integration of the Water Equals framework nationally <LI>To engender knowledge, caring, and engagement related to water; and to integrate these in our approach to education <LI> To infuse water education into the "places? youth inhabit: their homes, their communities, popular culture including social media, and to a lesser degree, school <LI>To provide professional development and better access to resources for adults interested in youth water education <LI>To foster changed behaviors related to improved conservation of water, valuing of water, and water stewardship <LI> To build a generation of citizens who understand water as a societal issue <LI>To create national visibility for USDA as a recognized leader in youth water education </ol> Expected results include changes in youth and practitioner knowledge about water from interdisciplinary, multicultural and systems perspectives, including deeper understanding of core concepts; improved understanding on the part of program providers of what engages young people and inspires action; expanded awareness of water by parents and families; increased social networking relative to water; improved access to resources and tools for practitioners (increased confidence), decreased water footprints of youth, their households, their schools or communities; increased interest in water related careers; changed youth consumptive behaviors; recognition and application of national message related to water by at least four national scale programs or youth serving organizations; presence of youth water education (Water Equals) in new organizations; increased local engagement in water related stewardship or innovation activities.
Non-Technical Summary: <BR>The "Water Equals National Education Campaign" builds on the "Mapping the Future" project (WISN-2009-5384) in its strategy to implement and disseminate the Water Equals framework. The project is distinctive in its fundamental goal to shift young people's relationship with, and consciousness of, water. This goes beyond a focus on instruction to include engaging the hearts, minds, and bodies of youth in multidimensional ways. The project seeks to do this through a campaign, i.e., a connected series of operations designed to bring about a desired result. The first strategy is to attract young people's attention through means that are relevant and engaging to them, and to catalyze their thinking about water in creative, emotive, analytic, systemic, and interdisciplinary ways. The second is to provide fun and challenging educational experiences and resources for them to learn and engage in new ways related to water. The third strategy is to provide easy to use, high-quality activity guides and other resources to a range of adults engaged in youth water education-from parents to museum directors. The fourth is to bring those interested in youth water education together around a shared message and to disseminate the Water Equals framework in ways that are relevant to multiple stakeholders. Lastly, to employ continuous, robust evaluation to measure and understand the impact of this approach, as well as inform employment of the Water Equals framework. The proposed approach involves the creation and implementation of a multi-faceted educational campaign that seeks to reach young people in the real and virtual places they inhabit. These places, as best identified by the youth participants in "Mapping the Future," include their homes, their communities, and popular culture (including social media). The desired outcome of greater knowing, caring, and engagement is greater stewardship, which includes conservation and protection behaviors. Success will be measured in part by the degree to which young people demonstrate new or improved water stewardship. For more information on the "Mapping the Future" project, also see: www.waterequals.org <P> Approach: <BR> The Water Equals National Education Campaign will develop, implement and evaluate multiple key deliverables designed to work in unison and at multiple scales. Nationally, the deliverables will share a common message and branding, adherence to the Water Equals framework, and evaluation metrics. The deliverables will be planned, created, disseminated, and evaluated in a collaborative fashion between the Core Team, Production Team, Regional and National Advisors, Collaborators, and Partners. At appropriate times and working directing with adults, youth will participate in these conversations and activities. The project team will work with 4-H programs and leaders nationally, including the military, to align and infuse Water Equals deliverables into existing programming. Minority Serving Institutions and the communities they serve will be engaged through representatives from Hispanic, Tribal and 1890 institutions. College students will be involved in production and evaluation activities at several institutions. The project will seek to collaborate with the Great Lakes Regional Water Program and the North Central Extension Region as appropriate. Phase I includes planning and assessment activities including refinement of core content, learning objectives, evaluation metrics, target age groups, regional variation, project identity/branding and messaging. Additionally, this phase includes evaluation activities such as a baseline data collection on programming in each region. Phase II will focus on the development of deliverables including activity guides, website and related components (e.g. interactive games), mobile apps with water foot printing calculators, social networking platforms and a suite of public service announcements. When possible, deliverables will be developed in both English and Spanish. Phase III is geared toward distribution and dissemination of deliverables and includes a National Youth Water Education Summit that will bring together youth and water professionals from around the country to learn about the Water Equals project and how to implement it, with meaningful impact, in their own programs. Phase III will include an output evaluation which will focus on assessing the relevance, usability, application, use and early impact of the deliverables. Phase IV will focus on continued distribution an impact evaluation of the national education campaign. This project includes a large mass media campaign to inject key "water messages" into popular youth culture that are designed to change the relationship of youth with water