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Offering the MRG Class In Your Community
Offering the Master Rain Gardener class in your community gets rain gardens built. Communities across the Great Lakes are implementing this effective program. We started this program - and are teaching other communities how to start their own. Would you like to build supporters, advocates, ambassadors, and volunteers - and rain gardens - in your community? Contact us.
In order to offer the Master Rain Gardener class in your community, you need to:
- Attend a train the trainer workshop, offered by Washtenaw County
- Have the staff involved take the Master Rain Gardener class themselves, and build a rain garden
- Sign a MOU with Washtenaw County saying you will use the program for good, not evil 🙂
- Agree to attend a yearly collaboration workshop with the other entities that offer this class, to learn best practices and contribute lessons learned.
Need stormwater retrofits? Washtenaw County Water Resources runs a training program for residents that yields 97 rain gardens built a year. The training is known as the Master Rain Gardener Certification class. Such a training program fulfills stormwater permit requirements for pollution reduction, public education, and post-construction runoff control.
This program not only gets rain gardens built. It trains ambassadors out in the community. These trained Master Rain Gardeners become advocates and champions for green infrastructure. They write magazine articles, host tours, and promote rain gardens in their local communities. They show up at public meetings supporting green infrastructure projects. They give talks on rain gardens at their local libraries. They write letters to elected officials supporting the stormwater budget. They promote rain gardens on social media – at all hours of the day when you are not working.
The Master Rain Gardener class is cost-effective and appropriate for all kinds of communities - rural or urban. People love to be the one "in the know", and to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. Learn how to implement your own program.
Perhaps you have already offered a “rain garden how-to” workshop. Did anyone build a rain garden as a result of that workshop? What were the missing elements? We have figured it out, and don't mind sharing our lessons learned.
Have you ever wondered. . .how do you develop a committed, energetic volunteer corps that goes home and gets out a shovel? How to inspire people to advocate for stormwater initiatives in the community? To maintain a rain garden beautifully? How do you convince someone to advise their neighbor over the back fence to put in a rain garden? To post in social media rain gardens as a solution when a neighbor asks? The Master Rain Gardener program is one way to do all of these.
Spoiler alert - it is the basic golden rule your mom taught you. Treat resident rain gardeners as true collaborators and leaders.
Hope to work with you soon!
~Susan Bryan
One of the communities who we shared the Master Rain Gardener program model with is Cleveland Ohio. They implemented the Master Rain Gardener class in 2018. Here are some of the results from the program so far.
The Cleveland Metroparks and Cuyahoga Soil & Water Conservation Service gathered a coalition of partners and funders to pull off this class. The project was coordinated through the Northeast Ohio Public Involvement Public Education Workgroup (NEOPIPE), and the Central Lake Erie Basin Collaborative (CLEB).
As a full partner in the Master Rain Gardener program community, you will receive an Instructor's Handbook - all the secrets to offering the class yourself. This is the hidden, secret back-end philosophy behind how the Master Rain Gardener class is structured and built.
This, along with the Train the Trainer workshop offered by Washtenaw County Water Resources, officially authorizes you to teach the Master Rain Gardener class, and award Master Rain Gardener certificates to members of your community.
The Train the Trainer workshop is a custom-built training just for you. We take into account your skills, and teach you the parts you may not have experience in. That, plus all the materials, slide shows, and schedules for offering a successful class.
One of the communities who asked Susan Bryan to train them to offer a Master Rain Gardener class of their own - is the Cleveland Ohio metropolitan area. Click on the video to hear about that collaboration. Susan Bryan, WCWRC & Elizabeth Hiser of the Cuyahoga Soil & Water Conservation District explain their experiences.
To talk about collaborating on offering the Master Rain Gardener class in your community, contact Susan Bryan.
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Susan Bryan, MLA
Rain Garden Coordinator
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