The following featured projects highlight the work of lead consultant Jennifer Arnold. Please contact us if you’re interested to hear more.
Amara, Lend Your Voice Pierce County
In 2018, Amara, a foster care agency, purchased a 29-acre property in Pierce County seeing it as a key moment to develop needed resources and support for children and families impacted by foster care and adoption. This project invites community members to get creative and share their ideas through a series of listening sessions, house meetings, interviews, survey and community events centered around racial equity and youth and families.
Project Description: English and Spanish
Report: https://reciprocityconsulting.com/wa/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/LYVPC_AMARA_Report_20200203.pdf
Website: https://amarafamily.org/initiatives/pierce-county/
Focus: community engagement, racial equity, youth empowerment, facilitation, community development
Greater Tacoma Community Foundation, Youth Philanthropy Board
The Youth Philanthropy Board is a leadership program that connects young people who have a vision for strengthening their community to the skills and tools necessary to cultivate positive change. This project builds capacity and develops curriculum for youth to co-design and co-facilitate dialog with community leaders and organizations to ultimately elevate youth voice and leadership.
Video from Dialog Session on Juvenile Justice: https://youtu.be/QqkX5eHmLow
Website: https://www.gtcf.org/initiatives/youth-program-grants/
Focus: youth empowerment, leadership, facilitation, equity, community development
Community-engaged Research Methods, Graduate Course for the Master’s in Community Planning
The Master of Arts in Community Planning degree is designed to develop civic leaders who are equipped to make change to create more just, sustainable, and livable urban futures. This graduate course teaches social science methods to elicit, understand, interpret and synthesize diverse perspectives in the context of community planning. Learning grows from the lived experience and perspectives students share. Emphasis is placed on real-world skills practice and reflection to build awareness of self, self-in-community and community diversity. In the spirit of modeling the values and practices of co-creation, the course is facilitated to encourage student creativity, teamwork and shared leadership.
Website: https://www.tacoma.uw.edu/urban-studies/master-arts-community-planning
Focus: racial equity, leadership, ethics, social science, civic engagement, community development
Roadmap to Civic Engagement – A partnership between the City of Tacoma and the University of Washington Tacoma Urban Studies Department
Created by the City Manager’s Office, this project was designed to better understand how the City of Tacoma approaches civic engagement. The study was completed by a cohort of 10 graduate students in Community Planning guided by instructors Dr. Anne Taufen and Dr. Jennifer Arnold. Findings identify opportunities for further organizational investment to promote more inclusive and equitable civic engagement practices across the City of Tacoma.
Report: https://reciprocityconsulting.com/wa/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/LCY_Civic-Engagement_2018.pdf
Website: https://www.tacoma.uw.edu/urban-studies/master-arts-community-planning
Focus: racial equity, civic engagement, city government, social science, grounded theory
Partnership Learning Project
Investments in watershed restoration are increasingly shifting from single organizations to partnerships to increase capacity to work on more complex projects at larger scales and accelerate the restoration of priority habitats and species. This applied research project funded by the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (OWEB) aims to understand what is needed to support resilient partnerships that can effectively implement restoration and how can funders best support their work. Findings will be used to inform the ongoing development of OWEB’s Focused Investment Partnership program.
Publications: Report Part 1 & Board Presentation Part 1 | Report Part 2 & Board Presentation Part 2
Website: https://www.oregon.gov/oweb/grants/Pages/fips.aspx
Focus: watershed conservation, collaboration, collective impact, funding models
Seeley Lake Trails Advisory Council
Community members in Seeley Lake, Montana came together to develop a comprehensive trails plan to increase outdoor recreation and economic development in this rural community surrounded by public lands. Partnering with Clearwater Resource Council, Jennifer provided training, facilitation and guidance to develop consensus-building skills, governance structures and a planning framework for this long-term effort.
Website: https://crcmt.org/trails-project/
Focus: outdoor recreation, landscape planning, watershed conservation, economic development
Hood Canal Coordinating Council’s Strategic Communications Plan
Known for being a leader in salmon recovery and watershed conservation in Puget Sound, the Hood Canal Coordinating Council developed an integrated watershed management plan with broad stakeholder input. Jennifer conducted outreach with key partners to ask how the Council can better position itself and communicate with stakeholders to implement the plan and increase their impact. This work has built goodwill among partners and informed development of the Council’s Strategic Communication Plan.
Website: http://hccc.wa.gov
Website: http://www.ourhoodcanal.org
Focus: watershed conservation, salmon recovery, community engagement
Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF) Model Watershed Program
BEF’s unique watershed program commits long-term funding and technical support to a handful of diverse watershed groups throughout the western US. Their aim is to to build capacity for watershed groups to strategically focus and sustain their work so they are more likely to have large scale, lasting impact. Working with several different watershed initiatives in various roles, Jennifer has led trainings, facilitated strategic planning and provided advice on partnership building, including evaluation and applied research to adaptively manage the development of these partnerships.
Website: http://watersheds.b-e-f.org
Focus: watershed conservation, salmon recovery
The Russell Family Foundation’s Puyallup Watershed Initiative
The Puyallup Watershed Initiative was initiated by a 10-year commitment of $10 million from The Russell Family Foundation with the aim to build community resiliency. Participatory planning methods were used to engage more racially and culturally diverse partners and develop collective impact strategies to improve social and environmental conditions. Working closely with The Russell Family Foundation and more than 150 local and regional partners, Jennifer designed and facilitated the launch of 6 collaborative groups, which have received more than $2.3 million in collaborative funding. She helped these groups develop governance and self-assessment tools and conducted an in-depth developmental evaluation that informed evolution of the Initiative.
Website: www.pwi.org
Website: www.trff.org
Focus: collective impact, watershed conservation, active transportation, agriculture, biodiversity, equity, environmental education, food justice, forestry, industrial stormwater
Washington State’s Olympic Experimental State Forest
The Washington Department of Natural Resources conducts applied research on state trust lands in the Olympic Experimental State Forest to expand knowledge of successful forest management techniques. They are currently developing a formal adaptive management program as part of their Habitat Conservation Plan with the US Fish and Wildlife Service. As a former employee, Jennifer Arnold led stakeholder outreach, facilitated public involvement and advised policymakers on the governance framework for the adaptive management program.
Website: http://www.dnr.wa.gov/programs-and-services/forest-resources/olympic-experimental-state-forest
Focus: forest management, landscape planning, wildlife habitat, salmon, northern spotted own, old growth, riparian management, research, state trust lands, timber production
Washington State’s Marbled Murrelet Conservation Strategy
The Washington Department of Natural Resources has been working closely with the US Fish and Wildlife Service to develop a long-term conservation strategy for the marbled murrelet, which is a federally threatened sea bird that depends on mature forest for nesting. As a former employee, Jennifer Arnold advised the Commissioner on stakeholder engagement, worked with the planning team, and designed and facilitated public involvement, which achieved authentic public dialog in both urban and rural counties. Jennifer also trained employees from across the agency in stakeholder outreach.
Website: http://www.dnr.wa.gov/marbledmurrelet
Focus: forest management, landscape planning, wildlife habitat, conservation biology, threatened species, NEPA, state trust lands, timber production, marbled murrelet
Ranching Collaborative Groups in Arizona and Sonora, Mexico
As a former employee and later contractor, Jennifer Arnold designed and conducted a series of focus groups to assess the potential for new strategic partnerships among ranchers in Arizona with support from The University of Arizona Cooperative Extension and the Arizona Cattle Grower’s Association. Fluent in Spanish, she also conducted exploratory research in Sonora, Mexico to assess the potential for collaboration among ranchers and conservationists in the border region.
As a result of the focus groups, one new rancher collaborative group was launched, which worked to improve relationships with US Forest Service staff, engage effectively in revision of the Forest Plan, and work through long-standing conflicts in the community. Jennifer provided training, facilitation and advice on governance structures for this group.
Focus: rangeland management, ranching, watershed conservation, riparian areas, NEPA, public lands, state trust lands, border issues, agricultural extension
Capacity Building with the Tohono O’odham Nation
The Tohono O’odham Nation is the second largest tribal reservation in the US and one of the few reservations that retained its communal land tenure system. Situated in the Sonoran Desert, sustainable ranching in this context requires community cooperation. Jennifer worked with tribal leaders and community members to design and implement a series of educational workshops, which included presentations by tribal elders and professional planners, field demonstrations and community dialog. The workshops created such interest that the tribal community college initiated a degree program from this foundation. Research described how the social capital created from this participatory project supported the trust and relationships needed across communities and with professional planners to implement more sustainable land use practices in the context of communally managed tribal lands.
Website: http://www.tonation-nsn.gov
Focus: community-based participatory research, rangeland management, conservation planning, social capital, ranching, watershed conservation, tribal sovereignty, agricultural extension
Adaptive Livestock Management on the Santa Rita Experimental Range
One of the oldest biological stations in the US, the Santa Rita Experimental Range is administered by The University of Arizona to advance research and education on the ecology and management of desert rangelands. As a former research specialist with The University of Arizona, Jennifer Arnold facilitated the launch of a multi-stakeholder planning process to adaptively manage livestock grazing on the experimental range. Jennifer helped frame research and management assumptions, collect and interpret data, and facilitate learning and adaptive management, including extension workshop to share insights with ranchers and rangeland professionals.
Website: http://cals.arizona.edu/srer/
Focus: rangeland management, ranching, watershed conservation, state trust lands, agricultural extension
A Participatory Research Learning Community
The University of Florida has a strong tradition of participatory international development and interdisciplinary collaboration. Working closely with the Center for Tropical Conservation and Development and the School of Natural Resources and the Environment, Jennifer facilitated workshops and trainings with faculty and students on participatory methods to promote development of a participatory research learning community.
Website: http://www.tcd.ufl.edu
Website: http://snre.ufl.edu
Focus: community-based participatory research, community-research partnerships, participatory methods, interdisciplinary research
Center for International Forestry Writing Workshop
The Center for International Forestry uses a global, multi-disciplinary approach to conduct research on the most pressing challenges of forest and landscape management around the world. Coming to the end of a multi-year, global comparative study examining the effectiveness and equity of climate change mitigation strategies, Jennifer facilitated a week-long writing workshop that brought together 22 authors to advance 27 scientific papers through focused time for writing, feedback and reflection.
Website: http://www.cifor.org
Focus: climate change research, writing workshop, research publications, interdisciplinary research, forest management, equity, tropic