Providing Assistance

[Jan Boyle <boylej@msun.edu>]

As an adult educator and environmental training coordinator, I find myself in positions of observer and provider of assistance.  What I've gained through experience in the field that I would pass on to EPA people is this:  most adults do not want to be spoon fed.  What they most desire is guidance to facilitate their own actions using whatever ingenuity applies to their situation.  Maybe "tools" is a good term for this idea.  Tools can include one-on-one training classes, seminars, self-learning modules, contact people.  Perhaps EPA needs to spend real time identifying those existing training models in communities throughout the USA and partner with them in an effort to provide assistance unique to the area or situation.  Maybe not so obvious are higher educational institutions as conduits of technical assistance provision.

Another point on technical assistance:  Too often technical assistance means operational maintenance or mechanically "fixing" something.  In my experience a compartmentalized approach such as this leaves no opportunity to experience what should be a more holistic approach to understanding the connections that exist in our environment.  We train operators to operate and maintain water and wastewater systems without an understanding of the very watershed that provides the water or receives the wastewater.  I would propose to EPA that dollars invested in  watershed understanding and protection is appropriate for technical assistance activities.  More informed communities would also result from this approach in that stakeholders might participate more to solve pollution problems or clean up rivers.