AWSP Blog

Dudley Edmondson, an African American wildlife photographer, believes it is critical for people of color to get involved in nature conservation. He sought out 20 other African Americans with deep connections to nature and asked them about their personal experiences, how they came to value nature and why African Americans seem under-represented in our parks and conservation efforts.

A thoughtful piece about accessing outdoors for all. James Edward Mills writes, "Gear catalogs, advertising campaigns, films, and articles in magazines like Outside typically presented the outdoors as a place for white people, most of them men. At the turn of the millennium, I decided to do something about this, pivoting from sales to journalism...."

Welcome to another episode of AWSP News, where we discuss our 2019 plans, upcoming workshops from Kids at Hope, our workshops in early January at ESD 123, the National Association of Elementary School Principals annual conference in Spokane this summer, key business partners like Capturing Kids Hearts and the Gates Foundation, the Governor's proposed budget, a possible innovation summit around the 24 credit graduation requirement, using student leaders to create a strong culture and foundation, and preview our partnership with world-renowned speaker Kevin Carroll.

AWSP is closed for the holidays. We hope you're able to rest, recharge, and recuperate too. If you need to reach us, we'll be periodically checking email at our webmaster account. We'll reopen on January 3rd. In the meantime, happy holidays.

Last week, Governor Inslee presented his budget for the next legislative session. We’re happy to see lots of support for education in the budget. Unfortunately, even though revenues are up, we don’t have enough to pay for the projected costs of current programs. We need additional revenue to pay for new programs we know our education system needs – like special education funding, additional nurses and counselors, and additional mental health supports. The Governor proposes an increase in several different taxes to pay for issues like education, mental health, and clean energy. Taxes and/or tax reform will be a hot topic in 2019.