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Seward Park Audubon Center 

Description

The Seward Park Environmental & Audubon Center is part of national Audubon's vision to make conservation the path to a better future by building a constituency as diverse as nature to help protect nature. At the Seward Park Audubon Center, we are building the next generation of conservation leaders with programs for schools and the community that help children and adults alike acquire scientific knowledge and a stronger sense of stewardship of their local and global community.

Mission Statement
The Center’s mission is to inspire people of all backgrounds to conserve natural ecosystems and build healthy communities for people, birds and other wildlife.
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Seward Park Audubon Center
5902 Lake Washington Blvd S 
Seattle 
WA
98118-3008 
(206) 652-2444 Ext 111 

Gail Gatton 
Director 

Programs

Seward Park Audubon Center Programs

Early Learners ―Toddler Tales & Trails and the Talking Tree introduce children between the ages of one and five to reading, ecology, and the importance of trees through stories and a guided hike in the forest.

Youth ―The goal of all our low-cost and free education programs is to provide students with science-based education in a fun, engaging way. Middle and high School students are introduced to a variety of exciting learning experiences using the Seward Park outdoor classroom. We also provide four weeks of free in-class programs for schools unable to bring students to the park due to transportation or other costs. In the past year, we have subsidized school programs at a 60 percent rate. During the summer we offer low-cost ecology and adventure summer camps for middle school-age youth.

Community Education & Restoration―The Center offers engaging llow-cost and free programs to introduce people of all ages to the natural world. These include free Super Saturday themed events, guided nature walks, birding classes, NW Author Series, and nature art shows. We host habitat restoration and trail building events for the community at large, school and youth groups, businesses, and organizations to improve and sustain the ecosystems of Seward Park.

Recent Successes and Current Challenges

Highlights from the last year include:
  • We recruited and organized 350 volunteers who spent more than 8,600 hours removing invasive ivy, blackberry, and laurel, making park habitat better for people and wildlife, including several species of birds that face pressures from loss of natural habitat.
  • We doubled our Toddler Tales & Trails program offerings, providing language and ecological literacy to children ages 1-5 through family story time, songs, games, and a forest exploration.
  • Seward Park Audubon Center provided a 60% scholarship rates to participating schools, correlating to their free and reduced lunch rate, with over 75% of students served being of a race other than white.
With more funds we would extend an after-school science program for diverse teens, subsidize more school fieldtrips to the Center, and provide more programs in Spanish, Mandarin, and other languages.

Evaluation


The Seward Park Environmental & Audubon Center is part of national Audubon’s vision to make conservation the path to a better future by building a constituency as diverse as nature to help protect nature. Through the Center and work in classrooms they provide hands-on learning to present ecology education to people of all ages.

Accessibility and Cultural Competency
Seward Park Environmental & Audubon Center is working to widen the group of people who consider themselves conservationists. The location for the Center was chosen in Seward Park in part because of its location in 98118, the most diverse zip code in the country. The Center provides its school and summer camp programs to several high-risk teen programs a year, including Seattle Urban Academy, a school for teens who were on the path to dropping out of public high school. They offer scholarships to more than 60% of students and reach traditionally underserved populations with 75% of students in their programs being a race other than white.

Best Practices
The curriculum for their programs was developed to align with state and national standards, as well as to take full advantage of their location and use of the Park. They worked with teachers to coordinate the most effective learning opportunities. After realizing that funding and scheduling were creating prohibitive barriers to classrooms taking field trips to the park, they expanded their Outside In program of in-classroom programming.

Collaboration
The Center seeks partnerships that are mutually beneficial, align with mission and provide opportunity for leverage. Primary partners include the Seattle Department of Parks & Recreation, Seattle Audubon Society, Mercer Slough Environmental Education Center, Friends of Seward Park, and three institutions of higher learning (UW, Seattle University, and Cornish College of the Arts), in addition to numerous secondary partnerships.

Grant History with The Seattle Foundation:

Grants Awarded through The Seattle Foundation Grantmaking Program:

DateAmountPurpose
There are no recent grants awarded to this organization.

Financials

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