RCE Greater Portland (aka Greater Portland Sustainability Education Network) serves as a connector and collaborator in bringing core partners together to develop education for sustainable development (ESD) curriculum and projects. The Heroic Imagination Project (HIP) trainings reflect these networking efforts well. We have worked with GPSEN partners: Portland State University, Portland Community College, and Trash for Peace, as well as with Charles Hopkins, UNESCO Chair with York University, to develop a sustainability train-the-trainer model with global leaders in social psychology through The Heroic Imagination Project (HIP). We will be working with our Social Science Think Tank for curriculum development and our College Student Network to do outreach for participation in the trainings, in addition to supporting Trash for Peace in their efforts to serve at-risk youth and underserved communities and in their translation of training materials into Spanish.

The Heroic Imagination Project (HIP) provides the knowledge, tools, strategies, and exercises to help individuals challenge powerful negative social situational forces as well as political system forces and engage more proactively, empathetically, and heroically with the world around them. Implementation steps include:

1. Work with groups to identify needs and outcome goals

2. Help groups choose from their current set of modules or identify the need for new curricula

3. Develop customized modules

4. Teach the intervention programs to group members who will, in turn, become trainers for their community

5. Be available as a consultant to deliver programs

6. Work with partners to assess program outcomes and impact