ESC has a track record of collaborating with other organizations to provide educational programs, attract volunteer educators, and reach out to underserved populations. Our current partnerships include:
City of Burien: ESC partners with the City to offer day camps and family programs such as Gym Jams. The city allows ESC to utilize Seahurst Park as a primary field trip venue and has granted a 30 year lease for an idyllic site for an outdoor classroom within Seahurst Park. ESC also provides support for Burien’s Adopt-A-Park program.
Community Schools Collaboration: ESC partners with Community Schools Collaboration to provide programming in their after school programs and over the summer and school breaks.
Highline School District: ESC provided programs for more than 95 HSD elementary school classes during the 2007-2008 school year. ESC also partners with HSD’s Camp Waskowitz to provide high school students who serve as interns on ESC on beach field trips for elementary school students. We also serve students from the Kent, Renton, Tukwila, Lake Wilderness, and Seattle School Districts.
King Conservation District: The ESC is grateful to have received funding from the King Conservation District to provide educational programs to residents, students and residential builders about actions they can take to protect and preserve salmon habitat.
King County: ESC has received funding under the County’s Wheels to Water and Splash programs. ESC has also received $100,000 of capital funding from King County toward development of the Environmental Learning Center at Seahurst Park.
Master Builders of King and Snohomish County: ESC is partnering with the Master Builders to provide low impact development programs for residential builders.
Neighborhood House: ESC partners with Neighborhood House to provide environmental stewardship programs over the summer and during school breaks and afterschool programs in White Center, Highline, and Auburn for underserved populations. These programs will promote sustainability and academic achievement.
New Futures: Within low-income apartment complexes in South King County, which has the highest rates of poverty and school failure in King County, ESC works with New Futures to help inspire a love of learning and an interest in science and the environment for low-income children and families in Burien, SeaTac and White Center.
Normandy Park Community Club: ESC has a two year agreement (now 2009-2011) with the Normandy Park Community Club to help provide environmental education at their outstanding Cove site on Puget Sound. In addition, the agreement includes partnering on the restoration of Walker Creek, with ESC providing community education and outreach.
Para Los Niño’s: Para Los Niños de Highline (PNH) is a community based organization that was formed by Latino Parents. PNH’s bilingual program, Aprendamos Juntos, provides English Classes for adults, child care for infants, early learning for children 4-6 years old and tutoring for school age children in grades K-12. PNH provides the sites and students for a set of the ESC afterschool evening programs for 3-5 year olds.
People for Puget Sound: People for Puget Sound is a citizens’ group working to protect and restore the health of Puget Sound through education and action. Since 2004, ESC has partnered with People for Puget Sound to offer family programs that provide opportunities for connections to Puget Sound shorelines and stewardship activities.
Puget Sound Partnership: ESC is partnering to provide low impact development programs for residential builders.
Puget Sound Skills Center: A cooperative of the Highline, Federal Way, Tukwila, Tahoma and Fife school districts, ESC partners with the PSSC on collaborative programming. PSSC operates the Marine Technology Center (MTC) at Seahurst Park.
Seattle Aquarium: The Aquarium shares a primary common interest with ESC in educating people to protect the environment. ESC and the Aquarium mutually benefit by partnering in curriculum development, and ESC has an agreement with the Aquarium for occasional use of its facility for ESC activities and events.
Stewardship Partners: ESC works with Stewardship Partners to provide workshops on low-impact development and stormwater management techniques.
Sustainable Burien: ESC works with Sustainable Burien to help provide information and resources about community sustainability.
WRIA 9: Water Resource Inventory Area 9 is a consortium of 17 municipalities in South King County that are coordinating for the purposes of watershed restoration and salmon recovery. The ESC is pleased to be partnering with WRIA 9 to provide educational programs to residents, students and residential builders about actions they can take to protect and preserve salmon habitat.
ESC’s Financial Supporters for Programs
Special thanks to all our corporate, foundation, and government donors who financially support our programs:
- Alaska Airlines
- Boeing Company Charitable Trust
- Burien/White Center Rotary
- Charlotte Martin Foundation
- City of Burien
- Horizons Foundation
- Jiji Foundation
- King Conservation District/WRIA 9
- King County
- REI (Recreational Equipment Incorporated)
- The Russell Family Foundation
- Seattle Foundation
- Starbucks