Last updated: June 30, 2023

RCE Greater Phoenix

Photo Credit:
Rce details
Region:
THE AMERICAS
Country:
United States of America
Overview
Date of RCE acknowledgement:
January, 2021
Description of RCE and Geographic Region:

RCE Greater Phoenix aims to build an active network of organisations from the community at large and from Arizona State University. Community stakeholders include government, businesses, civil society organisations, and educational providers. ASU partners include research labs as well as the partnership between  Arizona State University’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College and School of Sustainability, with the support of ASU’s Knowledge Exchange for Resilience and Global Futures Laboratory.

This diverse group of stakeholders is committed to working together to address our region’s most critical sustainability challenges through education, while providing opportunities for collaboration, learning, and impact.
 
RCE Greater Phoenix aims to foster cross-sectoral collaborations to empower all learners, especially historically marginalised youth, to access high quality sustainability education, both formal and informal, and engage in meaningful learning experiences that contribute to sustainability outcomes for the region.

The Greater Phoenix metropolitan region is a large, interconnected urban area situated within the natural boundaries of a desert valley surrounded by mountains. It is one of the ten largest cities in the U.S. with an estimated population of over 1.7 million people and the fastest growing population centres in the U.S. The Phoenix Metropolitan Area comprises Maricopa County (estimated population of 4,420,568), and Pinal County (2020 population: 425,264). A characteristic of the region and Arizona’s history is the diverse blend of racial, ethnic and cultural identities. The State of Arizona is built on the lands of 22 federally recognised tribes, having inhabited this land for centuries and today holding the highest number of indigenous populations nationwide. Maricopa County is located in the Salt River Valley on the ancestral territories of Indigenous peoples, including the Akimel O’odham (Pima) and Pee Posh (Maricopa) Indian Communities, whose care and keeping of these lands allows us to be here today.

As a rapidly expanding area situated in a precarious desert environment, the Phoenix metropolitan region faces significant sustainability challenges. Phoenix has recently been called the most unsustainable city in the world, especially in terms of air quality, heat island effect, groundwater availability, and quality education. Stakeholders across a range of sectors, including schools and universities, businesses, non-profits, and public administrators, are starting to address these issues, emphasising sustainability education as key to developing solutions to these critical social, technical, cultural, and environmental challenges faced by Arizona.


(Photo credit: RCE Greater Phoenix)

 

Goals and Objectives:

Our goal is to co-create new formal and non-formal education programs - as well as to mobilise the existing ones - with all community members, through meaningful, equitable and participatory learning experiences to contribute to a more sustainable future in the region. Our work focuses on five SDGs primarily:

Goals:
●    SDG 4: Quality Education - Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
●    SDG 5: Gender Equality - Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
●    SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities - Reduce inequality within and among our communities
●    SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities - Make our cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable
●    SDG 13: Climate Action - take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

To promote sustainability education in support of the SDGs, we pursue 4 approaches:
 
Pathways: Supporting marginalised youth towards diverse access to quality education.

Collaboration: Building partnerships across sectors to strengthen existing and new educational activities.

Capacity: Building capacity for quality sustainability education to dynamically integrate into diverse learning contexts.

Grants and Research: Advancing use-inspired and participatory research and utilising it to inform practice, policy, leadership, and evaluation.

 

Organisation Hosting RCE Secretariat:

Arizona State University
RCE Greater Phoenix Secretariat
Katja Brundiers, Ph.D., Director
Alejandra Enriquez Gates, Program Manager

Key Partners:

Name of organisation: City of Phoenix
Role: Community Partner
Contact name: Darice J. Ellis, Sustainability Specialist
Contact email: darice.ellis@phoenix.gov

Name of organisation: City of Tempe
Role: Community Partner
Contact name: Dr. Braden Kay, Sustainability Director
Contact email: Braden_kay@tempe.gov

Name of organisation: Mesa Community College
Role: Community Partner
Contact name: Erianne M. Saffell Ph.D., Faculty Cultural Science
Contact email: saffell@mesacc.edu

Name of organisation: Rob and Melani Walton Sustainability Teachers Academy
Role: Teacher Professional Development, program at ASU
Contact name: Molly Cashion
Contact email: Molly.Cashion@asu.edu

Name of organisation: Alhambra Elementary School District. Community Relations
Role: Community Partner
Contact name: Gabriel Gamino, Resource Development Coordinator
Contact email: communityrelations@alhambraesd.org

Name of organisation: Echo Canyon School,
Scottsdale Unified School District
Role: Community Partner
Contact name: Ms. Kathleen Hughes, Principal
Contact email: khughes@susd.org

Name of organisation: ASU Social Embeddedness Network
Role: ASU Program Partner
Contact name: Christina Ngo
Contact email: Christina.Ngo@asu.edu

Activities
Current Activities:

Activities specific to individual organisations in the region, including leading organisations.

Pathways - Supporting marginalised youth towards diverse access to quality sustainability education.

Collaboration - Building partnerships across sectors to strengthen existing and new educational activities.

Capacity - Building capacity for quality sustainability education to dynamically integrate into diverse learning contexts.

Research - Advancing use-inspired and participatory research and utilising it to inform practice, policy, leadership, and evaluation.

Upcoming Activities:
Achievements:
Communication Channels
RCE Website:
Instagram:
Facebook page:
Twitter handle:
YouTube page:
Other(s):
Contact Details
Main RCE Contact:
Alejandra Enriquez Gates (Program Manager, RCE Greater Phoenix)
alejandra.enriquez@asu.edu
Secondary RCE Contact:
Katja Brundiers, Ph.D, (Clinical Associate Professor at the School of Sustainability, Arizona State University)
Katja.Brundiers@asu.edu
RCE Youth Coordinator(s):
General RCE email:
RCE mailing address for correspondence:

Payne Hall, 1000 S. Forest Mall, Suite 204, , P.O. Box 871611. Tempe, AZ 85287-1611