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Our Education Program

Youth Eco Stewards Project

Mulberry School Classroom

The Youth Eco Stewards (YES) program is structured to provide children in elementary and middle schools the opportunity to learn, lead and serve as young stewards of the creeks. For the past three years, our young stewards have been a work-in-progress, and are now ready for the next level. The program encourages youth understanding about watershed stewardship, collaborative learning through discussion, and hands-on learning through onsite activity.

Our Youth Stewardship Program currently links elementary and middle schools to their local stretches of the watershed. Schools adopt sections and participate in SBCCC bi-annual cleanups, with TEAM 222 Leaders/Captains who guide students through cleanups, water testing and invasive plant removal(where permitted).

See this video of a typical school-based cleanup.

school cleanup video

A portion of the trash collected is returned to the classroom where recycled trash art is created. Various presentations educate students on local wildlife, as well as an interactive storm drain model depicting the impact of litter reaching the waterways. Our YES model is being used as a standardized scalable template.

Classromm EgretJenny Jones, Lower School Science Teacher at Hillbrook School says "By connecting with South Bay Clean Creek Coalition our students have been able to connect their learning in the classroom with making a difference in our Community."

We encourage the schools to return back to the Classroom and reinforce their experiences by creating recycled trash art and videos.

Here is a video example of what teachers and the students have created on Why We Should Keep YES Video Our Waterways Clean.