Forming a Team

Behind most successful efforts there is a small but mighty team of people. This core group, labeled “lead” in the graphic below and often known as a backbone team, are the behind the scenes coordinators who ensure strategic coherence over time and that communication and collaboration persists.

In local environmental literacy networks, typically that backbone team is composed of leaders (administrators, staff, and/or coordinators of curriculum) from one or more school districts and community organizations (environmental education directors, park staff, and/or local business leaders) who are committed to a shared vision for environmental literacy in the school system. Ideally, this team strives to be representative of the community by including members with diverse perspectives and experiences. While that might not initially be possible, know that teams change over time and that there are opportunities for people to move up or back over time when they see the value and opportunity.

A series of four concentric circles show people who lead or are active co-creators are in the center, people who collaborate or are active partners in the second ring, people who share or are active sharers in the third ring, and people who follow or are passive consumers are in the outer ring.

In addition to the backbone team, there are often other layers of partners who are engaged to varying degrees – as indicated in the graphic, people participate in networks in one of four ways: they lead, collaborate, share or follow. Learn more about building a local environmental literacy network.