University of Colorado Colorado Springs
EN-10: Community Partnerships

The Trails and Open Space Coalition (TOSC) is a 501c3 nonprofit created in 1987. They are committed to a preserving open spaces and parks, as well as creating a network of trails, bikeways, and greenways for the Pikes Peak Region. They have a small staff and are governed by a board of directors. As a 501c3 nonprofit organization, TOSC receives NO government funds of any kind. Most of their support comes from individual contributions and people who care about their parks, open spaces, and trails. A smaller part of their revenue comes from grants and fundraising events.

UCCS had a staff member and a student in the College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences serving on the TOSC Board of Directors and Marketing Committee. They both finished their terms in the Fall of 2023. This formal connection provided undergrad and graduate students pathways to internships and engagement through research and experiential learning. It also supported the unique, on-campus trails system through volunteer efforts, shared knowledge of trail maintenance, citizen science opportunities, open space conservation, regional trail connectivity, wildlife habitat preservation, community-wide support and special events.

The financial support for TOSC is the in-kind hours worked by the students and staff members on their Board of Directors and committee involvement.
https://www.trailsandopenspaces.org/about/boards/

UCCS Office of Sustainability had a staff on the Fountain Creek Watershed Creek Week Steering Committee since its inaugural year of 2014 until the Summer of 2022. Along with in-kind support of hours worked to provide website maintenance, draft and revise grants, host clean-up events, attend additional clean-up events, manage communication with crew leaders, manage an adopted waterway through the City’s Adopt-a-Waterway program, staff also provide materials through marketing and education.

This watershed-wide initiative is the State’s largest creek clean-up. At most, we have seen over 3,000 volunteers, 14 tons of debris removed from our watershed, and 106 different clean-up locations. Our watershed spans 927 square miles of land and water over 3 counties and 8 cities that has an elevation range from over 14,000 to 4,600 feet in the distance of 50 miles. Creek Week ensures the engagement of representation from organizations within the City of Pueblo on the Creek Week Steering Committee, since it is the last city in our watershed before emptying into the Arkansas River and it has a demographic of 56.6% Hispanic and Indigenous populations. The care of our watershed north of Pueblo has drastic effects on water quality and stormwater impacts to the City and their residents.

The educational component of Creek Week not only discusses the most littered items and most potent to our waterways, but it also teaches our community about watersheds and how we can protect and restore them and why they are important. We have volunteers from all grade levels of Manitou Elementary School to corporations that host the clean-up as a staff engagement event.
https://www.fountaincreekweek.com/about-us/

The Director of Sustainability sits on several non-profit and governmental boards that support sustainability in the Pikes Peak Region. The Director just became the Co-Chair for the Peak Alliance of Sustainable Future Board, which is a 501c3 non-profit organization that strives to promote regional sustainability in the Pikes Peak region and to advance the regional sustainability plan called “Looking to Our Future: Pikes Peak Region 2030.” The Director the organization’s marketing and engagement programs and hosts their monthly speaker series, “Sustainability in Progress” which covers sustainability topics connected with the regional sustainability plan.

https://peakallianceco.org/event/october-sustainability-in-progress/

Wasteless Colorado Springs Intern:

We have an intern from the Wasteless Colorado Springs Internship Program working with the Office of Sustainability. The program outline is provided below:

"Supports the recycling, organics, and waste reduction program throughout the city and county areas
Participate in waste characterization studies and zero waste outreach
Collaboratively collecting and sorting (either visually or by hand-sort) desired waste, recyclable, and/or organic material as specified in a research study design
Writing emails, reports, memos, and other project-related documents
Performing data entry and collection both in the field and in the office
Conducting quantitative analyses in spreadsheets and databases
Conducting research (internet and telephone surveys) as needed

Must be a current undergraduate junior, senior, or graduate student at the time of internship
Interest in recycling, organics, and waste reduction programs
Interest in quantitative analysis and problem-solving
Attention to detail and a commitment to team building are equally important qualities
Must be enrolled at local Colorado Springs university at least part-time

The City of Colorado Springs offers additional compensation depending on the position, area of assignment, and specific job assignments, including shift differential, pay differential, acting or lead, special assignment, hazard pay, longevity, cell phone allowance, uniform allowance, relocation, awards, standby, call out, compensatory time off, tuition, overtime, extra duty, incentive, holiday premium, proficiency, and vacation sell back.”

https://www.salary.com/job/city-of-colorado-springs/internship-wastelesscos/j202308210548560414256