Big Cat Rescue Education Grant Application
Proposal Narrative Background:
Big Cat Rescue provides a natural venue to explore physical as well as mental health issues that pertain to the sanctuary cats as well as to humans. While touring the 45 picturesque acres and meeting 100+ big cats, topics pertaining to preventative health care, exercise, diet, psychological well-being and issues related to aging are discussed. This sanctuary has a vision of a world where compassion through education will be enhanced for the welfare of animals as well as humans.
Since 1992 Big Cat Rescue, a Tampa based, 501(c)(3), not for profit organization, has been providing a lifelong home to big cats in need. These cats come from a variety of situations including private homes where people “tried” to raise them as pets, roadside zoos, circuses, fur farm rescues and breeding farms. Many of these cats arrive with psychological as well as physical scars earned from lives of abuse and/or neglect. As the number of cats in need of a home increased each year it became obvious that educating the public was necessary in an effort to reduce the continuous flow of cats requiring life long care. With this in mind the sanctuary opened its’ gates to the public for educational tours. Over the years these tours have grown exponentially as interest in our animal sanctuary has increased.
The mission of Big Cat Rescue includes growth of our educational focus so that quality of life issues relevant to humans and animals are brought to the public’s attention. The art of interpretation requires that people relate cognitively and emotionally to the topic of discussion. As interpreters we help visitors understand and relate to the animals and habitat around them. As such the information provided must be understandable and relevant to the learner otherwise it will be sterile and quickly forgotten. Educational research clearly indicates that learning is improved when activities are designed to be experiential as well as informative. Activities that utilize original objects, firsthand experience and illustrative media with a goal to reveal meanings and relationships allows for superior learning opportunities rather than simply trying to convey factual information through a more sterile format. Research also indicates that people who remain life-long learners demonstrate better mental and physical health than those who engage in less educational stimulation. With this in mind our organization is working toward developing educational activities that target “at risk” groups due to age, socio-economic status or health related issues. Our outreach encounters include a PowerPoint presentation as well as a variety of artifacts that the audience can touch and view. The encounter is adapted to address all age groups from preschool to senior citizens. Previous audiences have included school children, summer camps, service groups, church groups, employees from local businesses, girl & boy scouts, nursing homes, as well as groups that serve physically, developmentally and emotionally challenged clients.
Accomplishments of the past 2 years include an ever-expanding repertoire of educational opportunities offered as well as reaching an increasingly diverse audience. Until 2004 children under 10 years of age were not permitted at the sanctuary. Currently weekly public children’s tours are growing in leaps and bounds and private tours for children and their families are a regular occurrence. Visitors participating in tours have grown substantially over the past 2 years. From 2004 to 2005 our tour guests increased from 17,891 to 22,442. To date this year our tour guests have increased approximately 20% from the same period in 2005. Our tour guests are anticipated to exceed 25,000 for the 2006 calendar year.
To facilitate our mission and growth a full-time position for the Director of Education was established in March 2006. Two people who bring a wealth of experience to the sanctuary currently staff the position as Co-Directors of Education. One is a Chiropractic Physician and businesswoman who previously owned a large health care practice for many years. The co-director is a Certified Teacher who has been employed as a School Psychologist in the local school system for 22 years. In the first 5 months of setting forth on this ambitious educational effort, the number of visitors educated by the sanctuary increased 66% compared to the same period last year.
With regard to collaborative activities we have working relationships with many local businesses. One business celebrates their employees’ birthdays by reserving private tours at our sanctuary. We have established a partnership with the girl scouts and will have badge workshops and special family tour days offered in their next catalog due out in August. We worked with the Museum of Science and Industry as well as many of the local recreation centers to offer their campers learning opportunities at our facility. The Florida Aquarium and Big Cat Rescue are developing a partnership in which we would co-host teacher workshops and exchange resources during summer camps. We also routinely attend functions to support community events. Examples include The Annual Women’s Guild Fourth of July Celebration in Lutz, the South Florida Museum’s Wildlife Festival, community celebrations for Earth Day, and the Great American Teach In.
Purpose of grant request:
We would like to expand educational opportunities for those that otherwise
may not be able to take advantage of our services. One way to accomplish
this goal efficiently is through the train the trainer model. With this
model we would hold teacher workshops targeting Title One Schools in particular. After
attending these workshops teachers would be equipped with information via lesson
plans to bring the Big Cat information into the classroom and to those students
that may otherwise not be exposed to the sanctuary experience. In
addition Big Cat Rescue would like to provide scholarship opportunities for
groups/individuals that would like to experience a tour of the sanctuary and
learn of our mission but financially might be prevented from doing so.
We would also like to provide outreach opportunities during which we travel to groups whose membership ranges from school age to senior citizens to share our educational message with those who cannot get to our location due to health, tranportation or financial limitations. Such groups could include school-aged children, those residing at facilities for senior citizens and patients at hospitals.
As we grow our educational opportunities we need additional tools to make our vision a reality. Such tools include the need for an indoor space to meet with large groups, gas to reach the outreach destinations, animal artifacts, software, hardware, and educational materials. Each of these resources will be used to improve the quality of our educational activities offered to the community.
Our goal is to utilize the grant to expand the learning opportunities offered to members of the community who otherwise could not tour our sanctuary or attend our educational programs. The objectives include improving the quality of programs offered and reaching people that otherwise could not participate in the amazing life experience of meeting and learning about lions, tigers, leopards and many other big cat species face to face. The timetable for accomplishing these goals and objectives will be within one year of receiving the grant money. Program methodology will include research based experiential learning activities. This will be accomplished utilizing our current staff and volunteers as well as hiring a part time person to provide additional educational opportunities. Collaboration with those organizations in which relationships have been established will continue. In addition, collaboration with surrounding school districts, senior residences and hospitals will be expanded.
Because of the nature of the grant activities, educational opportunities will continue to grow. With greater exposure within the community word of our sanctuary’s mission will spread and the number of visitors will continue to increase. Sustainability of our educational efforts will be attained through this growth in exposure and subsequent increased attendance. The grant will also allow us to increase the number of complimentary educational opportunities that we provide now as well as in the future. With the grant in place we will increase the number of complimentary tours and outreaches dramatically. Our goal will be to offer 4 teacher workshops and 36 tours and/or outreaches on a complimentary basis during the first year.
Awarding of this grant to Big Cat Rescue would allow for a substantial increase in the number of complimentary visits and/or outreaches offered to community groups for the purpose of education. The target audience would benefit tremendously from educational experiences in which they otherwise could not participate. These benefits include improved cognitive functioning as well as improvement in mental and physical health.
Volunteer opportunities for those over the age of 18 can be explored individually or as a group. Animal care related work along with office/administrative tasks are available options to those interested in helping the sanctuary. Volunteering with the education department, interaction with the public as tour guides or working in the gift shop are among the available tasks. On occasion entire office staffs have volunteered to work on substantial jobs requiring many hands.
Evaluation:
The effectiveness of our activities will be assessed in a number of ways. First
the number of educational activities provided to the community free of charge
will be documented. Secondly we will ask the audience and/or management
of each facility where we provide services to complete a satisfaction survey. We
currently do this by seeking feedback in writing from students who attend our
camps and their parents. We will revise this survey to make it inclusive
of other groups we serve. For example, we would want to know the potential
impact of our presentation on the behavior of the group we visited. In
other words how can the information you learned about the sanctuary be applied
to your overall health and quality of life?
With this in mind criteria for success will include both the quantity and quality of the educational opportunities that we provide to the community. By the end of the funding period we hope to have provided free educational services to at least 40 groups that otherwise would not have enjoyed the opportunity to visit us or to have us visit them. In addition we will have added resources by way of space, technology, books, activities, artifacts and community contacts, which will help us to sustain educational opportunities during and beyond the funding period.
Beth Kamhi, DCA and Coleen Kremer
Education Directors
Big Cat Rescue
813-323-3265
kids@bigcatrescue.org
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