Outreach

Funds available for educational projects related to our mission

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NEW RFP! Proposals due May 24, 2024. 

The Council works to educate Exxon Valdez region youth about the environmentally safe operation of the Alyeska terminal and associated tankers. Working with area youth is vital to fight complacency that can arise if new generations of citizens are not continually reminded of the need for ongoing oil spill prevention.

To support this effort, the Council is inviting proposals for facilitating learning experiences with Exxon Valdez oil spill region youth. Youth in this case can include students from K-12 formal education, homeschool students, informal education programs, and either formal or informal college-level education. In the past, the PWSRCAC has also sponsored projects for teachers that benefit area youth.

  • Submittal Deadline 11:59 p.m. on May 24, 2024
  • Final announcement on or before July 31, 2024

Projects should result in better understanding of such topics as: citizens’ oversight, environmental impacts of the operation of the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company oil terminal in Valdez and the oil tankers that call there, oil spill prevention and response planning and operation, and/or other topics related to the Council’s mission.

Past and ongoing projects have included:

  • youth stewardship expeditions into the marine environment via sea kayak and other vessels
  • youth monitoring for aquatic invasive species
  • public oil spill science discovery labs
  • oil spill science and technology outreach
  • oil spill education website development
  • K-12 oil spill curriculum writing and testing
  • travel funding for youth presenting oil spill projects at conferences
  • oral history projects related to the Exxon Valdez oil spill
  • other marine stewardship programs for students with an oil spill connection
  • more information about past projects


For more information, please download the full Request for Proposals:

Questions?

Please contact Outreach Coordinator Maia Draper-Reich at education@pwsrcac.org.

More about the Council:

Future funding opportunities

There are two deadlines each year to submit proposals for educational project funding. You may subscribe to our email list for new Requests for Proposals to receive notifications when these are issued by the Council.

Whittier community engages with on-water oil spill response training

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Photo of two of the new Edison Chouest tugs, and an an oil spill response barge who were participating in the training.
Two of the new Edison Chouest tugs and an oil spill support barge participated in the training.

The Council held its fourth annual fishing vessel oil spill response training tour in Whittier, Alaska, on September 25, 2018. The Whittier community was invited to join the council from 11:30 to 1:30 p.m., on a Stan Stephens Cruises vessel to observe the training. Over 60 members of the public participated in the event, including 25 students from Whittier Community School.

Whittier student Abi, 16, stated about the event, “It matters because it keeps our oceans clean and helps keep people knowledgeable about how to respond to the spills. I might want to do it when I get old enough.”

The local fishermen participating in the training are contracted by the Ship Escort/Response Vessel System, also known as SERVS, to respond in the event of a Prince William Sound tanker or Valdez Marine Terminal oil spill. SERVS is Alyeska Pipeline Service Company’s oil spill response organization and coordinates annual oil spill response exercises in multiple Southcentral Alaska communities, including Whittier.

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Community Corner: Alaska youth explore the Sound

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By Lisa Matlock
Outreach Coordinator

As the skiff sailed across Cabin Bay, high-pitched twittering and piping sounds echoed over the water. Four football-shaped black birds with white wing patches on the water near the point seemed engrossed in calls emanating from speakers and several decoys sitting rigidly on the rock. One of the teens pointed and yelled, “There they are!”

Sam Stark, an Oregon State University researcher leading the teens on their bird adventure, smiled and congratulated her on her keen eye. Stark developed several activities for these lucky middle schoolers, to teach them how scientists work to restore populations of wildlife affected by a major oil spill.

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Peer Listening: Building resilience in communities affected by human-caused disasters

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Community Corner

By Lisa Matlock, Outreach Coordinator

Until 2010, the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill was the largest oil spill disaster in U.S. waters. That March, people around the world turned on the news to see our devastated wildlife and beaches. No one doubted that the environment of Prince William Sound and other downstream areas were hurt. What was not apparent to almost everyone was the short and long term damage to the people in the region’s communities.

Residents of Cordova attend the premier Peer Listener Training in Cordova in the early 2000s.

Technological disasters, such as an oil or chemical spill, a nuclear accident, or a large building fire or collapse, affect communities differently than natural disasters. A technological disaster is caused by humans, and there is a person or persons who can be blamed for the incident. Natural disasters have no one to blame. Natural disasters, such as floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes, can often be predicted and prepared for. Technological disasters are often unexpected.

After the Exxon Valdez spill, the council funded research on how technological disasters affect people living in the area compared to natural disasters.

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