(9) Changing Public Behavior – Increasing Citizen Involvement through Use of Target Audience Information

Session: Skills Building Workshops - Concurrent Session V

"Changing Public Behavior" is a two-year national facilitation project, funded by USDA, to provide new resources and training to help water educators increase their skills in how to focus on specific audiences. This workshop session will introduce tips, tools, and research that educators can use to integrate information about their local situation into an outreach strategy that encourages citizens to take appropriate actions in their home, business, organization, or community.

Water educators transfer information to relevant audiences, provide water management tools and techniques, and facilitate the local environmental decision process. When educators focus on specific audiences, their work is more likely to lead to desired results. Many factors can influence whether an individual will adopt an environmentally significant behavior. New resources incorporate research findings about 16 audiences in a searchable database, cost-effective community analysis tools, and short course at http://wateroutreach.uwex.edu. New resources complement and add to techniques provided in US EPA’s “Getting in Step” guide for watershed outreach campaigns, and in the recently published “Getting Your Feet With Social Marketing: A Social Marketing Guide for Watershed Programs” by Jack Wilbur.

Materials and resources are currently in development. Participants in this session will assist the project by helping to pilot test various resources and by providing feedback about effective methods for making the information available to educators.

Elaine, Andrews
University of Wisconsin Environmental Resources Center
445 Henry Mall room 202
Madison, WI, 53706
608-262-0142
608-262-2031
eandrews@wisc.edu

Kate Reilly
University of Wisconsin Environmental Resources Center
445 Henry Mall room 202
Madison, WI, 53706
608-265-5496
klreilly@wisc.edu