Alison Rose Jefferson
  • Home
  • News
  • History in Public / Media
    • Links
  • About
    • Professional
    • Publications
  • Contact
  • Search
Blog - Latest News

Sierra Club’s Diversity Outdoor Hangout

March 16, 2013/1 Comment/in Events, General, History, Sierra Club /by alirosejeff

Important Discussion About Engagement of More Varied Audiences for Appreciation of America’s Natural, Cultural and Historical Heritage

Sierra Club Logo

The folks who participated in the recent Sierra Club diversity conversation offered some useful observations as to how a better job can be done to engage audiences of color with historically low participation rates in connecting to America’s natural, cultural, and historical heritage.

If you missed the Sierra Club’s Mission Outdoors Google+ Hangout on Wednesday, February 27, 2013, you are in luck, as it can still be viewed on the web.

Rusty White
Competitive and traveling surfer Rusty White represented the Black surfing community in the Sierra Club’s Diversity conversation. (Article is from King magazine, August 2006.)

[View article]

The Sierra Club’s mission is to get people outside to local urban green spaces and watersheds, and distant, more remote landscapes to explore, enjoy, and protect America’s natural environment and cultural heritage. The ideas from the discussion most resonating with me were:

  • Natural environment stewardship and historic preservation organizations should look for “outside-the-box” or “new” solutions to inspire and engage new audiences that are authentic and of mutual benefit, such as developing new partnerships with individuals and with new organizations and technologies that can disseminate their messages.
  • The cultural and historical heritage of natural sites should be more developed to reach specific audiences and align with community values. For example, stories at National Parks in America’s Southwest — about the historically significant Hispanic heritage and Buffalo Soldiers — should be more fully developed and promoted so people of Latino descent and Black Americans have visits that can be more meaningful and relevant to their own experiences.
  • In the education messages disseminated to the varied audiences about natural conservation and historic preservation, better connections to everyday life and community values need to be associated with quality-of-life issues for stewardship and for improvement of minds and bodies.
  • To be successful in attracting new participants and leaders, natural environment stewardship and historic preservation organizations must make long-term commitments to developing sustained participation and engagement of new, more diverse audiences.

In my current work as a public historian, I reclaim local stories of African Americans beach culture heritage during the nation’s Jim Crow era (1910s–1960s) in Santa Monica and Manhattan Beach in Los Angeles County and other local sites. At the beach sites I am forging new partnerships with colleagues in ocean stewardship as well as in the history industry, social action and surfing, to build pathways to broader, younger and wider audiences to connect them with more culturally diverse stories of our shared, national heritage.

Both historic preservation and nature conservation address the common interests, values and goals of enjoying, protecting and preserving what is valuable to our community. Strategies may vary, but both movements focus on the fundamental need to keep all the unique and irreplaceable pieces of our heritage intact for all people to enjoy no matter what their background.

I urge you to listen to the Sierra Club Diversity dialog. I challenge you to use what you learn from it to invigorate your own work inspiring, engaging and empowering youth and their parents in your communities through meaningful education programs to help build personal experiences with natural, cultural and historical heritage. These individuals’ relations are the foundation of stewardship and the development of the next generation of enthusiastic participants and leaders in nature conservation and historic preservation.

Coming up soon, watch for my post of my more reflective thoughts on this subject.

Sierra Club President Allison Chin hosted the conversation with:

  • Rue Mapp, founder and CEO of Outdoor Afro
  • Audrey Peterman, author of Our True Nature: Finding a Zest for Life in the National Park System (2012) and Legacy on the Land: A Black Couple Discovers Our National Inheritance and Tells Why Every American Should Care (2009)
  • Rusty White, a competitive and traveling surfer who was profiled in the film White Wash, a documentary about the history of black surfers in America
  • Juan Martinez, the Director of Leadership Development and Natural Leaders Network for the Children and Nature Network
  • Javier Sierra, a bilingual media strategist for the Sierra Club.

Listen to the whole discussion and view others’ comments about it at:

The Sierra Club
or
Huffington Post


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB-OqHP44w8

Share this:

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
Tags: buffalo soldiers, environment, hispanic heritage, history, national parks in america, sierra club
You might also like
Accomplishments and New Life Opportunities
ARJ Picks: Important New Books and Films on the African American Experience
#MakingHistory with the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African American History and Culture
Green 2.0 Heritage Conservation and Nature Environmental Movements Must Diversify Or Die
ARJ, Coastal Conservancy Noon Time Talk | Thurs., Sept. 20, 2018
¡It’s 2017. The Year of the Fire Rooster in the Chinese Zodiac is upon us, as is the yearly recognition of Black History and Women’s History!
1 reply
  1. Rick Blocker
    Rick Blocker says:
    March 29, 2013 at 10:30 am

    Very nicely stated and your message rings through clearly. Keep up the good work.

Comments are closed.

Newsletter Sign-up



Recent Posts

  • ARJ || New Year’s Greetings 2019 and Social Justice News
  • ARJ, Coastal Conservancy Noon Time Talk | Thurs., Sept. 20, 2018
  • Sept. 2018 News: LPV Book Fair…KCET Series…Waves & Curls Beach Fest
  • Santa Monica Conservancy Hosts South Los Angeles Youngsters for the 2018 International Coastal Cleanup Day and Nick Gabaldon Day Weekend Activities
  • L.A. Designer’s Anti-Racism T-Shirt Message Demands Social Justice
Follow

Archives

  • December 2018
  • September 2018
  • May 2018
  • December 2017
  • September 2017
  • April 2017
  • February 2017
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • April 2016
  • December 2015
  • September 2015
  • June 2015
  • January 2015
  • September 2014
  • February 2014
  • June 2013
  • March 2013
  • September 2012
  • August 2012

Categories

  • Art & Culture
  • BlackPast.org
  • Bruce's Beach
  • Events
  • General
  • Heritage Conservation
  • Historic Preservation
  • History
  • Inkwell
  • Intangible Heritage
  • Manhattan Beach
  • Martha's Vineyard
  • Nick Gabaldon
  • Santa Monica Beach
  • Sierra Club
  • White Wash
© Copyright - Alison Rose Jefferson
  • Facebook
  • Gplus
  • Linkedin
  • Instagram
California Coastal Cleanup Day 2012 Events Heal the Bay Banner Latest Publications
Scroll to top