The stormwater ambassador program: A community education partnership between schools and local government

The Stormwater Ambassador program is an environmental education partnership between schools and local government, which supports students selected by their schools as “ambassadors” to promote stormwater and water cycle awareness within the community. Ambassadors learn about the catchment that they live in and related water issues during workshops held each school term, and then develop and implement ideas promoting community awareness. Ambassadors’ activities have included regular newspaper columns and community newsletters, school assembly presentations, drain stenciling, presenting the Runoffski family skit, creating community water awareness murals and totem poles. Ambassador students have also undertaken a variety of special focus campaigns including “Butt Out”, “Say NO to plastic”, “Be calico-fantastic” and “Your dog’s business is your business”. Regular and widespread media coverage of the program also promotes community stormwater awareness.

A compact disc resource containing sample communication material, workshop programs, educational activities, outcomes and evaluations, examples of community awareness activities undertaken by previous ambassador programs and a professionally produced video has been developed to assist implementation of the program. This resource has been developed from six separate ambassador programs involving over fifty schools, and the educational concepts and processes of the program are easily transferable to other environmental issues.