Establishing Community Partnerships

The Science Education PartnershipS, SEPS, Program began as a grassroots organization in the Corvallis, Oregon school district. In November 1990 Oregon voters passed Measure 5, a property tax limitation measure that placed a cap on the portion of property taxes used to fund schools. Responsibility for adequate school funding was transferred from local governments to the state government to equalize funding across districts. This equalization helped some districts in small, rural areas but resulted in budget cuts to many of the urban districts that had previously been allowed to pass local funding measures to support their schools. As budgets were reduced and teaching positions and programs cut, community scientists and parents stepped in to fill the gap by mobilizing local resources.
Every member of a community benefits from producing educated, informed citizens. Successful businesses require educated workers. A smoothly run government depends on informed citizens who participate in the political process. Before any outreach efforts could begin SEPS established partnerships with other community organizations that recognized the importance of a strong educational system for all children in the community. We began by approaching the three largest employers in the community; Oregon State University, Hewlett Packard and the Corvallis school district. We located people within those organizations that were willing to act as liaisons. The liaisons helped SEPS to communicate with other interested volunteers in their organization. Some used existing list servers to inform people of opportunities for outreach. Others recruited fellow employees who they knew were looking for opportunities to do outreach.