This year CSC has elected to help fund the water education exemplars project as a part of our state-wide education and outreach campaign. Below is an update that we received from the Colorado Watershed Assembly with more information about this project:

I am pleased to provide a status report on the Water Education Exemplars Project — which you might recall by its formal name: “Youth Development, Water Education, and the Colorado Water Plan (Year Zero).” As a partner in this work, we could not have launched and made such progress without you. Please find attached:

• “How old will you be in 2050?” Project Summary
• Water Education Exemplars: Terms and Conditions
• Youth and Water Convening 2025 Agenda
• A sample review summary (draft)

Upcoming, we will continue to review more programs and materials, as well as prepare our youth participants for the work ahead. We have successfully recruited a cohort of 9 (impressively qualified) youth who will help identify the best of the best water education in our state. Come June, this group will meet in Greeley for a workshop — which will culminate in our reviewing “Where Water Flows Uphill,” a frankly amazing immersive art installation at the High Plains Library Innovation Center (Greeley’s main library) and field experience at the Poudre Learning Center. Before this gathering, I will distribute copies of the Guidelines for Excellence in Environmental Education to help prepare our future reviewers.

Soon, we will also begin fundraising for 2026 and beyond. We will also be recruiting more young people (and paying them) in years to come. We have these 5-year goals:

• Setting up a Colorado-specific evaluation system for water education
• Completing 100 reviews to identify “Water Education Exemplars”
• Recruit and train 35 reviewers, aged 18-24
• Amplify, expand, replicate, and improve Colorado’s Water Education Exemplars, in service of the Colorado Water Plan

You have my gratitude for your support of this project. We have great partners and sponsors, without whom we would not have gotten off the ground. Together, we are elevating water education in Colorado, so it can better play its crucial role in securing our water future.

Your feedback is welcomed! More soon.

Donny Roush, Colorado Watershed Assembly Project Manager