While there are other regional organizations that are focused around fostering collaboration between community based partners (CBPs) and offering high quality professional learning experiences (i.e. MEEA), there remains a need for this type of facilitation to be done from a backbone organization within the formal education system. This is because a County Office of Education (COE) has connections to districts and schools, and a strong sense of the professional learning that best aligns with the standards and pedagogy training received by teachers and administrators. 

Intended outcomes for this network include: 

• Ongoing professional learning and alignment with the formal education system (i.e. standards training, equity training and culturally responsive pedagogy, etc.);

• Increased communication and collaboration between partners, with the intention of establishing collective collaboratives for program offerings, seeking funding, and streamlining evaluation, etc.; 

• Providing every student in San Mateo County with a high quality environmental education experience, with a community based partner, at every grade level. These experiences will align to a K-12 scope and sequence of standards aligned opportunities that provide experiential environmental learning.