Prescott College
EN-6: Community Partnerships

Creeks and Watershed Program

The 5th Grade Watershed Program is a long-standing partnership between Prescott Unified School District, Prescott College, and the City of Prescott, providing field-based watershed education to 5th graders and teaching experience for Prescott College students. It includes one week of training for Park Rangers and six weeks of field trips, culminating in a week-long campout at Mingus Springs 4H Camp. Launched in 1977, the program has benefited students, educators, and the Prescott community for over 45 years. Activities like urban creek cleanups and invasive species removal connect participants to the environment and support the community. The program also adapts to Prescott’s changes, offering relevant learning opportunities and addressing local needs, such as exposing the impact of human development on natural landscapes. Focused on the significance of water in Prescott's ecology and history, the program fosters environmental stewardship and provides essential outdoor experiences for youth. Recent updates ensure inclusivity, modern teaching methods, and alignment with educational standards. Led by PUSD and Prescott College, AmeriCorps members serve as Park Rangers, while new leadership roles and differentiated content ensure the program remains impactful and sustainable.

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The Green Mountain Center for Sustainability (GMC) thrives on fostering robust community partnerships that drive local and regional progress in sustainability. Here is an overview of a few partners:

Prescott Community Compost Program

A 501c3 non-profit, GMC supported the initial grant and staffing for a community composting project in Prescott, Arizona. The program includes a Saturday collection of food scraps from community members, which are then, in turn, processed on a 1/3 acre compost site on Sundays. GMC students and staff have assisted in recruiting volunteers to help process compost material, cook/bake food to nourish volunteers on site, and regularly host field trips for students to learn about composting from a community-scale perspective.

Quad Cities Climate Collaborative

The Quad Cities Climate Collaborative in Prescott, AZ, is a 501c3 regional initiative to tackle climate change and build resilience across four neighboring communities: Prescott, Prescott Valley, Chino Valley, and Dewey-Humboldt. These towns, known collectively as Arizona's “Quad Cities,” have joined forces to address environmental challenges specific to their region, including water scarcity, extreme heat, and wildfire risk. GMC is an active partner with the collaborative and has assisted in (1) writing white papers about various sustainability issues to inform the city council and city managers, (2) planning informational events or webinars about issues in the community, and (3) drafting a Sustainability and Resiliency section in the upcoming Prescott City Plan for 2025.

Local Schools

The center partners with local schools like Northpoint Academy, Granite Mountain School, and the Prescott Unified School District, extending sustainability education into the K-12 system. Students and staff from GMC visit classrooms throughout the year to lead education activities on a particular focus topic like waste or water. Additionally, student workers assist the farm-to-school program in Prescott schools, which involves designing and growing gardens aligned with Agroecology and food justice principles. Lastly, several schools take field trips to GMC to learn about sustainability principles and practices from personal to communal scales. This involvement nurtures an early awareness of sustainability and builds a pipeline of future leaders in environmental science and sustainability.

Slow Food Prescott

Prescott College works with the local Slow Food Movement to enact good, clean, and fair principles in the local food systems. This collaboration has yielded two major annual events, Seed Mania and Fall Harvest Festival, that bookend the growing season. Seed Mania occurs in the spring to educate and empower community members to grow their own food. Local farmers and agricultural experts host workshops for participants to learn about specific topics like mushroom cultivation, tree grafting, and intercropping. Non-profit educational institutes lead kids activities related to composting, seeds, and plants. Then, a free meal with locally grown and native ingredients is provided to all participants. The Fall Harvest Festival is similar but focuses more on gratitude for the Earth and the labor from the growing season.

Prescott College works with the Launch Pad, a nonprofit teen center and youth organization dedicated to empowering young people through educational programs, leadership development, and community service. Founded with a vision of creating a safe, inclusive space where all teens can thrive, the Launch Pad offers a variety of programs that help young people build life skills, pursue personal growth, and positively impact their community. The Launch Pad works with youth on modern issues like social justice, mental health, climate change, sustainability, and LGBTQ+ rights. In recent years, Prescott College students and staff have helped Launch Pad teens develop surveys to, for example, assess community knowledge and awareness of climate change and local climate impacts. Currently, the Launch Pad is working on a Better Together program to foster critical conversation skills in our community to overcome division and polarization.