GROW Externships

With nearly 20 years of experience developing green roofs and for New York City, Max Lerner directs environmental initiatives of the Emerging Technologies team of the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation. In that capacity, Max has implemented countless environment pilots for the city covering a broad range of sustainability goals. Max is able to achieve this bold scope of work through the collaborative efforts of a rotating think tank of approximately 100 scientific visionaries who continually manages to bring cutting-edge environmental ideas to life for the public.

Max has also developed a 501(c)(3) outreach program, GROW (Green Revitalization Outreach Workforce) Externships, with partner sites in both Hawaii and Japan. The goals of this programs work are to give dynamic opportunities for his group of developing professionals to rapidly gain applied experience to fast track their careers while simultaneously helping to extend the capacity of environmental projects in Hawaii/Japan.

GROW (Green Revitalization Outreach Workforce) Externships is a program designed for people newly entering the environmental science workforce to rapidly build their credentials which not only expedites their training but additionally assists in-need populations and projects in the process. Professionals vetted through my work within NYC Parks and beyond gain dynamic field experience on farms and across horticultural and other land management projects both in Hawaii and rural Japan. This process is committed to solving a classic challenge of land management projects being unable to flourish under a lack of people power in challenging locations. This additionally strives to elevate humanity by creating a pipeline of high ability and decorated experts in the field of sustainability to help save our evolving environment. Project sites requiring volunteer assistance are able to additionally secure staff which are otherwise unavailable on a local level, creating a win-win scenario for everyone involved.

GROW Externships solves a number of international problems which challenge the sustainability of environmental projects. In Hawaii, people are often challenged by the high value of land and the high price of food. This has traditionally not led to the most optimal development of the state to preserve environmental spaces, and the general cost of living and access to food has added further stresses to local life. Through an additional pipeline of volunteers, we are able to help said projects as well as open up more opportunities for food and further environmental engagement.

In Japan, a number of cultural variables threaten the viability of agriculture and land management as a whole. Jobs in these fields are generally not in vogue in Japan, and neither is the concept of organic food, as well as a general aversion to living in rural areas leads to an incredible lack of people power, interest and funding for sustainable farming and resilient land management projects. Through GROW we are additionally able to breathe new life and expand local efforts.

This project taps into the expertise of the interns coordinated by Max Lerner for NYC Parks. In an effort to offer them additional opportunities to build their professional stories and background, further opportunities past NYC in both Hawaii and Japan are offered to vetted interns. They are sent to unique sites they may have never learned about through traditional means to be part of cutting edge teams activating dynamic environmental pilots focused on sustainability, conservation, food production, land management and more. They work with locals on projects which locals themselves identify as fields which need additional helping hands, provide said labor and learn in tandem with partners, ensuring their projects flourish while additionally blossoming their professional backgrounds in the process to help rapidly expedite their career journey to their next position of employment.

We are largely working to improve the lives of the most rural communities within Japan, that being the prefectures of Shimane and Tottori, as well as help a wide range of projects to help people in Hawaii freely access food, educational opportunities and exposure to the sciences where those opportunities may be too costly to otherwise gain through their own  means. We are working with local partners in both Hawaii and Japan to identify what those local needs are, supplying them with trained staff to achieve their already existing local goals in environmental arenas, and we are gaining local knowledge and expertise through working hand in hand with them to achieve these deliverables. This is not only enabling local projects which currently lack people power and resources, but preserve local efforts, knowledge, culture and creativity by proliferating them both within and beyond their communities.

My project is designed around building awareness and driving action to solve the most difficult problem of our world, that being environmental sustainability. We exist at a time of incredible and ever-increasing environmental challenges spanning a broad range of arenas. These problems simply cannot be addressed and will continue to worsen without professionals to tackle them, and as such my project helps to actively solve these evolving threats.

Working as an environmental scientist on a global level, I noticed a vast disparity in the attention and capacity of sustainability projects which seemed completely disconnected with the viability and value of the initiatives themselves, and more so had to do with location and public exposure. Specifically, I noticed many farms, community gardens, natural spaces and other amazing natural spaces and initiatives simply not having the people power to take care of them. I brainstormed a way to coordinate a pipeline of volunteers not local to sites that would have a framework that would allow them to benefit from the heroic effort of doing such unique work, allowing both people and projects to flourish.

I am personally motivated to coordinate this project as it models the success, I’ve seen in this field but through an expedited framework so that more developing professionals can find career traction in the sustainability field. There is a massive bottleneck in gaining footing in environmental science as its still very much a new and undefined professional horizon, and as such developing professionals frequently founder in finding truly survivable work in this blossoming world. Through the rapid professional training this project offers to participants they are able to truly develop themselves and quickly gain the experience needed to bridge the uncanny valley that exists in this field that exists before securing true career roles.

As someone who has coordinated the construction of the world’s most diverse green roof, led thousands of interns and volunteers in my field and accrued nearly 20 years of experience across NPO’s, FPO’s, government and advocacy agencies within the larger environmental field I am well positioned to take this initiative to the next level through additional funding. GROW Externships is already activated both in Hawaii and Japan, but with additional funding the capacity could be increased. There is no question that this project and its leadership is primed to do more, and there is no shortage of professionals who can be activated through this program, it is only limited by resources.

In both Hawaii and Japan, although assistance is welcome, it is difficult working in an environment you are not native too. This project in its numerous pilot rounds have had to deal with the challenges of overcoming the adversity of language barriers, lack of local renown and the challenges of working with young populations of workers which often face biases of ageism and general scrutiny of their professionalism/experience. Through active engagement with the public and countless community events and onboarding activities as well as vetted work examples, newspaper articles, video coverage and outreach we have been able to overcome these barriers to demonstrate the capacity of our teams.

I have led thousands of interns and volunteers through NYC Parks over my years with the agency as well as further background of volunteer coordination through New York Cares, AmeriCorps and numerous NPO's. This work is universally based around improving the sustainability and resiliency of public environmental spaces and projects.

This program creates a disruptive opportunity for change by combining volunteers from radically external spheres of work and scope from the target sites to shed new light and lend energy to make projects lacking people power happen. This has a proven track record of success and I look forward to expanding its capacity further.

This project embodies my theory of change in that it enables the ability to maintain current environmental projects and gain momentum for scalable progress in the future of the sector. Under the ever increasing burden of environmental challenges the world is currently facing, we have to act both in the here and now as well as plan for the future phases of development. By having the next generation of professionals in the sciences put in the work to solve the problems we have today, we additionally prepare them to be rapidly equipped to understand and address the future hurdles our planet is slated to face.

This is a difficult number to predict as the project is still in its pilot phase both in Hawaii and Japan, we are still actively scaling its capacity based in active field trials with volunteers and growth of our partner network. However, there is a grand and undeniable potential for the rolling benefits to countless individuals of increasing the access to food, space and healthier quality of environment.

Within the next year, barring travel challenges from Covid 19, I would like the full program model to be solidified, have all core institutional partners identified and have coordinated my 4th round pilots in both Hawaii and Japan to demonstrate a full deployment of the program in an abridged but otherwise full capacity.

Within the next five years I would like to model the year one goals but on a reoccurring basis, coordinating connected cycles of participants for the majority of the year as weather and environmental work is feasible.

The only barriers which exist are financial, this project is currently funded 100% out of my own income. Although I am more than happy to donate my own money to what I fully embrace is an incredibly valuable goal for developing professionals in the sciences and the planet, I only have so much capacity to scale this work on my finances alone.

We are actively in the process of attempting to secure grant funding and other forms of donation, however we are not allowing the temporary absence of greater resources to slow our work, we are merely scaling the project to ensure that the goals are deliverable within our means.

NYC Parks: Providing an initial incubator and industry expertise to vet volunteers and assist with the overall coordination of the program.

Enchanted Gardens: Field programming/supervision, program approval (for compliance, zoning, and maintenance requirements), access to the site, institutional knowledge, tools, facilities, potentially financial, legal, and governance resources.

Seeds to Soil: Provide logistical support, participatory design and
research approaches, and general collaboration focused on cultural and
local understanding.

Prime Produce Limited: Provide fiscal sponsorship, general support and programming partnerships (e.g. Seeds to Soil, GROW Externships).

Prime Produce Apprentice Cooperative: Skilled volunteer services including but not limited to strategy, design/creative, facilitation, community engagement, and communications/messaging.

Our project focuses on enhancing existing environmental projects, such as farms, land preservation efforts, community gardens, public spaces and more. Our further activation of these spaces allows them to provide more food, to expand their capacity to train and teach the public, to create further opportunities for connectivity and beyond. These needs are exclusively defined by local constituents and partners, we are here to help them achieve their goals with the additional assistance and capacity of experts dedicated to help.

This work will be funded through grants and other charitable donations, which is definitely feasible, however the project is young and it is difficult to find substantial funding at the early phases of a NPO project.

No funds have been raised at this time, it is 100% funded through charitable donations I have made to the initiative and the developing professionals participating in the program through my own contributions.

We are applying for other grant funding as it is available, we have submitted applications to both Shimane prefecture and Yasugi city council within Japan, however our critical focus is demonstrating success at a smaller scale rather than dividing our efforts and reducing our rapid piloting of the core program.

Projected 2020 GROW Externships Budget

Estimated Program Cost: (Staff and students travel, food, training and work stipends and incidentals 50%)

$50,000.00

Estimated Logistic Costs: (Housing, local transportation, safety equipment, tools and other Supplies, 40%)

$40,000.00

Estimated Indirect Costs: (GROW Externships organizational memberships, insurance and operations 10%)

$10,000.00

Total Projected 2020 Costs

$100,000.00

The only resource GROW Externships requires is funding, otherwise the project is fully vetted and actively growing, we are incredibly excited to partner with a visionary organization that might enable our already amazing work to flourish.

Through additional funding and marketing, awareness and capacity would be scaled for our already active and demonstrated successful efforts on the ground at all our sites.

GROW Externships is open to partnering with any relevant partners, especially ones local and representing the community voices within and adjacent to our sites of operation.