Personal case study: Megan Rahi, education officer, Caringi Water Board

 

 

Purpose of position:

Megan's job entails educating and capacity building for freshwater protection within the Caringi community. The emphasis is on community education to raise awareness of strategies for maintaining water health; enabling sustainable interaction with the water supply and surrounds and putting into action the community's desire to care for their water resource.

Responsibilities:

Megan’s position offers her a lot of diversity, working with farmers, landowners, industry and businesses, schools, local councils, government agencies, NGO and community organisations to develop and promote strategies for protecting the water supply. The position has focused on the threats posed by leisure activities of the local population who use the waterways for recreation, and domestic activities.

 

Megan's responsibilities include but are not limited to:  

• giving presentations to schools, community and business groups
• running professional development sessions for teachers on whole school approaches to environmental education for sustainability
• assisting schools in developing sustainable school water management plans
• helping schools, business and community groups to take local environmental action to aid the protection of the freshwater resources and
• creating and providing local environmental resources and contacts.

Goals in this position:

New natural gas reserves have been discovered at Caringi, and Benton Mining is hoping to exploit the resource. Caringi Water Board realises the threat drilling poses to their water reserves. In addition to her overall responsibility of educating the community, Megan hopes to develop, manage and facilitate an awareness campaign that will balance the importance of maintaining a healthy freshwater ecosystem with the increase in local employment promised by the mining company.

Skills and knowledge:

Megan has a Degree in Environmental Science, specialising in freshwater ecology.

 

Other skills and knowledge that help her in this position include:  

• the ability to undertake careful research  
• excellent written and spoken communication skills
• a good understanding of sustainability issues
• skills in designing and writing education and awareness resources and 
• an understanding of state and federal sustainability guidelines, protocols and existing Education for Sustainability programs. 

Identified priority learning areas to achieve goals:

Megan is confident in her theoretical and scientific knowledge and expertise but, after taking the Hub's self assessment she realises that she needs to learn more about community education and program planning to achieve her goals. Specific capabilities Megan needs to work on include:

• Principles of community education
• Program development and
• Facilitation.

Priority learning areas for this position:

Priority learning areas for this position include:  

• Principles of community education
• Understanding of sustainability issues and
• Project management.