Echo Leahy Center for Lake

The public face of the Leahy Center for Lake Champlain Inc. (dba Echo, Leahy Center for Lake Champlain or Echo) is an innovative science and nature museum located on the burlington waterfront. Open daily, Echo encourages visitors to view the natural environment as part of their neighborhood and to explore, learn about, and consider opportunities for stewardship. Since 1995, we have taught more than 3 million visitors about the role of science in our culture and lives. Echo leverages its unique setting to inspire and engage families in the joy of scientific discovery, wonder of nature, and care of Lake Champlain. Visitors explore over 100 interactive family experiences, 70 live species, seasonal changing exhibits, and our northfield savings bank immersive 3d theater. New in 2020, Echo has been reinvented by all new permanent and highly interactive science exhibits, awesome forces and engineer it. Visitors of all ages tackle daily engineering challenges at our tinkering bench and test zones as well as delight in discovering the amazing processes that have shaped the Lake Champlain basin and our earth. To learn more visit: https://www.echovermont.org/. The nonprofit is governed by a 15-member board of directors, who retains responsibility for defining Echo's overall strategic direction, ensuring the institution remains on track and achieves its goals. The primary responsibilities of the Echo board fall in the areas of finance, fundraising, strategy, and policy. As a general matter, board members are not directly involved in Echo's daily operations, as these duties are the responsibility of management. Board members sit on one of four committees that meet multiple times annually: policy & governance, planning & finance, audit & ethics, and stewardship. The entire board meets quarterly within the fiscal year. Principal programs & annual accomplishments: supported by meaningful partnerships and an informed understanding of audience need, Echo provides high-impact science-based learning experiences in and outside our walls. Public museum: 170,000 annual visitors including 75,000 children, 5,500 member households, 15,000 school children. Echo is dedicated to breaking down barriers so that all visitors can experience the museum. Animal care program: promoting environmental stewardship and ecology by connecting the public to more than 70 native species of fish, amphibians, and reptiles. Echo early learning: eel is engaging the new american, refugee, and under- served populations to prepare children for transition to formal kindergarten. This free, weekly, informal care program supports play-based learning for child and caregiver together; reading-readiness; and caregiver learning and resources to foster safe, supportive, and enriching learning environments for children at home. Statewide stem outreach: this mobile project proposes to grow the capacity of rural Vermont schools that lack science subject specialists to deliver high-quality stem opportunities to low-resourced students. The project will accomplish this by marrying our expertise in constructivist teaching and science content, maturing long-term relationships with low-performing schools, and leveraging national museum-school partnership models. During the pilot program - Echo is committed to addressing geographic equity by partnering with isolated, underserved, and low-resource schools; serving a minimum of 500 teachers, 3,000+ students, and 3,000+ family members; building community resilience by strengthening partnerships between local companies and schools; and supporting families by providing networks of social support through community building engagements. Teacher institute: supports stem learning, providing teachers a clear vision of best practices & professional development training on timely topics including trauma-informed teaching, distance learning tools, universal design & digital accessibility, and virtual engagement strategies. In addition to training in effective stem facilitation and curriculum development, teachers will participate in ongoing curriculum and instructional coaching via implementation support visits to classrooms and videoconferencing. Virtual and in-service workshops will be utilized throughout the school year to limit teacher travel time. E-team: year-long teen leadership program inspires 30+ 9th-12th grade highly diverse students to develop career skills in leadership, goal setting, social justice, public speaking, science communication, financial literacy, and teamwork. College intern and volunteer program: annually, 75 undergraduate students gain career-relevant experience in animal care, science education, it, communications, and event management. Responding to social justice is a core value: Echo's open door program: a yearly community access program partnering with more than 70+ social service agencies to provide 33,000+ free or significantly reduced admission recipients and 3,500 complimentary memberships - strives to make the science Center accessible for all. Created to specifically break down financial, geographic, and cultural barriers, Echo finds affordable and equitable ways to allow all members of our community to have access to our services and resources. By working with an extensive network of more than 70+ social service partners we reach out to low-resourced families, new americans, and the underserved residents in this area, focusing on everything from children's spaces for our youngest community members to active military service families. It is because of this program that mentor pairs all over Vermont have an opportunity to experience Echo at a discounted rate any day, not just on community science night. Equity, empowerment, and inclusion we take our role as a community science and nature Center seriously, and we believe in our priority of being welcoming to all. Recent staff trainings have highlighted systemic oppression, social and racial equity, gender and identities, diversity and inclusion, and supporting guests and volunteers on the autism spectrum. We are also prioritizing accommodations for guests with sensory-friendly sunday event series: Echo understands that many of our exhibits and public spaces can be overwhelming to those with sensory processing differences, especially when crowded. Understanding the unique barriers that families with autism spectrum disorder face in public spaces, Echo has created sensory-friendly events that open early for families with sensory processing differences, autism spectrum disorder or developmental disabilities to explore in a more calm and supportive environment. A crucial part of achieving this goal is offering free admission and ongoing training for our staff and volunteers. Masks on sundays event series: Echo is supporting members of our community that are immunocompromised. Monthly, Echo opens for families struggling to find a safe, friendly environment with their parents, siblings and other children. This is a free and exclusive event, developed to serve families with a family member whose health has been compromised due to covid, by a medical condition, specialized surgical procedures or medical treatments, that otherwise prevents them from playing together in our facility. A crucial part of achieving this goal is offering free admission and ongoing training for our staff and volunteers.