Outreach, where the people are

Episode 10 – Outreach, where the people are

SPEAKERS

Emily Harwitz (host), Xiomara Batin (guest), Erika Granadino (guest)

[INTRO MUSIC]

Emily Harwitz 00:02

Hi and welcome to another episode of I’ll Go If You Go! I’m your host, Emily Harwitz. If you like talking to people, making connections, and telling stories, then today’s double-feature is for you! 

First we’ll head to Berkeley to chat with Xiomara Batin, Community Engagement & Marketing Manager with GirlVentures. Then we’ll teleport up to the North Coast to hear from Erika Granadino, in the brand new role of Community Engagement Coordinator for North Coast Redwoods District. 

Though Xiomara works for a nonprofit and Erika works for State Parks, both of their approaches focus on getting out into the communities they serve and bringing programs to the people—all in the name of connecting with nature, increasing access to the outdoors, fostering environmental stewardship—ok, and a little fun!

Emily Harwitz 00:50

Hi and welcome to another— [Xiomara and Emily laugh]

Emily Harwitz 00:52

Welcome to another episode of I’ll Go If You Go. I’m here with our wonderful guest, Xiomara Batin and we’re here in the Botanical Gardens of Tilden Regional Park in Berkeley, right by the giant sequoia grove.

Xiomara Batin 01:04

It is beautiful. Let’s go. So my name is Xiomara and I work at GirlVentures a nonprofit based in Oakland, California. We take girls and gender-expansive youth out hiking, rock climbing, backpacking, and kayaking here in the Bay Area and also in the High Sierras and other places in Northern California.

Emily Harwitz 01:25

I know that you’re the Community Engagement and Marketing Manager at GirlVentures.

Xiomara Batin 01:29

Yes.

Emily Harwitz 01:30

What does that mean?

Xiomara Batin 01:31

That means that I have the privilege of sharing what we do with the community and getting more kids to get involved. So it means I get to table at events. I get to connect with community partners, such as Save the Redwoods League. I get to outreach at schools. I get to just really share our programming in any way that we can to get it out into the world.

Emily Harwitz 01:54

So basically, you get to tell stories about these fun trips that you bring girls and gender-expansive youth on, and get people excited about it.

Xiomara Batin 02:01

Yes, that is exactly it. I get to be really connected with my staff to tell the stories of like, what happens on the course I don’t get to see, as well as you know, directly get to meet with families and communities and you know, past and future participants to hear about their experiences and use that to share our message of what we do and why we do it.

Emily Harwitz 02:25

What’s the overlap, and maybe also differences, between community engagement and marketing?

Xiomara Batin 02:31

That’s a really good question, and I’m learning about that in real-time, which is really fun and exciting. So far, my experience has been that a lot of marketing is approached from a for-profit, traditional business way, and I’m trying to think about it in a way that really connects with community and nonprofit organizations, which, to me, feels really different. I’m just trying to navigate that world of getting support from people who’ve done traditional marketing as well as people who’ve worked with community in the nonprofit world, and finding like, what’s the sweet spot between the two things? I really believe in collaboration and not competition, and that I just want our communities to know there’s an abundance of resources out there for them to experience the outdoors.

Emily Harwitz 03:21

Yeah, that does sound like a really interesting space to be navigating.

Xiomara Batin 03:25

My role originally started as, I was Outreach and Volunteer Manager, and then over time, with the changes that were happening within the org, we brought on full-time development people, but we never had had really strategic marketing. So I always knew that my role in outreach was connected to development, whether I’m raising money or not, that I’m really connected to kind of being the face of the org in some way.

What it’s making me think of, this conversation is like, I studied anthropology with a focus in social justice, which was gender, ecology, and society. Within that, and one of my favorite parts of social cultural anthropology, is participatory research. So traditional anthropology is, you come in and you’re like, ‘This is a problem, and we’re going to tell you how to fix it,’ versus participatory research models, you come in and you listen and you ask the community, ‘What do you need? What are you working on?’ and often people already have the resources. They’ve already set things in motion, but it hasn’t been acknowledged in a formal way, that you’re already solving this problem internally. And so I kind of approach the work as, people have a desire to experience the outdoors, and they maybe already have and they don’t even realize it, because it’s not the stereotype that we think of when we picture an outdoorsy person.

Emily Harwitz 04:44

A very strong outdoors industry marketing image.

Xiomara Batin 04:48

Exactly, exactly. So I think of like the last one of the last big outreach events I did was a lot of young, young kids, and I would ask them, like, ‘Do you like the outdoors?’ And they g, ‘I don’t know.’ I’m like, ‘Well, do you like walking to your friend’s house?’ Like, ‘Yes.’ I’m like, ‘You like the outdoors.’ And so for me, that’s really important, is just bringing it to a real baseline level, that if you like to do anything outside, you like the outdoors, that you don’t have to fit a stereotype or have a lot of money or the right kit to go out in, that you can experience this in whatever way makes you feel comfortable, and that there’s so many opportunities to experience the outdoors.

Emily Harwitz 05:29

So it sounds like from a community engagement perspective, if we want to engage more diverse communities and just get more people outside, the outdoors needs a rebranding.

Xiomara Batin 05:39

I think that’s a really good way to put it. Like, truly, that we have, just in my experience, working with this org and connecting with other organization—there’s such a broad spectrum of what that means, you know, to be outside, and that you can be someone who likes to skateboard or double dutch or go fishing or walk Lake Merritt—like, these are all things that you do outdoors and that often, all you need is a pair of shoes and someone to go with you to have a really great experience. 

And I think it’s like the models that just, even when you think about fundraising, it’s very extractive or a lot of outreach or marketing can be like, ‘What can you give us?’-type of ad approach where I’m just not an extractive person. I believe in reciprocity, and so that’s kind of like my approach with it is, I’m happy to talk to you. I don’t expect you to sign up or donate money, but maybe you’ll be excited about it, and you’ll tell someone else about it like you may not be a parent with a kid that can do the program, but you definitely know kids, or you’re someone who wants to volunteer, or you’re someone who does want to donate money or resources to the org, and just go from there.

Emily Harwitz 06:54

Yeah, it’s more like gardening than mining.

Xiomara Batin 06:57

That’s a really nice way to put it, because you reap what you sow that’s for sure.

Emily Harwitz 07:01

So as a marketing manager, how do you go about doing that? How do you get out the word about GirlVentures? How do you market the outdoors? What’s your approach?

Xiomara Batin 07:14

My approach is like an ever-evolving thing, and I’m welcome to all tips that anyone may have to do this. When I started in the role, it was during COVID, so a lot of the traditional outreach methods that org had to use were just not possible, which was like going into schools and directly just signing kids up that way. So it became really digital, for the most part, in terms of using social media, making flyers and sending them directly to schools or community partners. And there’s still a lot of that, but now I get to meet people in person, which I really like the best, is going to table at events, at stores—like one of our partners is the Patagonia store in Palo Alto. They always invite me down to come for events or just on a Saturday. I really, really enjoy just getting to meet different people and sharing what we do, because it’s really not a hard thing to market, in the sense that people get it. Like, often I hear from people, ‘I wish I had something like this when I was younger,’ and that they’re excited just that it exists. So I think I really tap into people’s inner child, I feel like, when I have these conversations, where they kind of see their eyes light up. I think our best way of sharing it is just five people who’ve gone through our programs. We’re at a really sweet spot in the organization where we’ve been around over 25 years, we have people that are our instructors who have gone through the program themselves.

Emily Harwitz 08:50

That’s amazing!

Xiomara Batin 08:50

It’s incredible, and it’s really wonderful to witness that. I’ve been having fun starting to highlight some of our instructors and staff members, and so I just highlighted someone who, she had gone through our programs, and now she’s an instructor, and she spoke to that she wouldn’t be who she was if it wasn’t for GirlVntures. And that, to me, is like the best marketing tool, is someone who’s actually experienced it, and is a living example of the impact. 

I’m just sincerely always looking to make more connections. Traditionally, a lot of our outreach was directly with schools. It was very school-focused, like, we’ve got to get in the schools, we’ve got to get in the schools. And then when COVID happened, that kind of just went away. A lot of people left those jobs. The schools restructured. So it’s like, other community-based organizations, I think, are really key for outreach and marketing.

Emily Harwitz 09:43

So part of what you do is marketing the story of GirlVentures and the work that you do so that you can get invitations from these other organizations, or state or national parks to come and do programs there. But the other part of what you do is reaching out to community organizations yourself, right, to build those new partnerships.?

Xiomara Batin 10:00

Yes, yes. That’s become something I’ve been thinking a lot more about as I’ve gotten more situated in the role. So often, say someone reaches out to us for an opportunity, and they’ll say, ‘Oh, can you think of any organizations that we should invite as well?’ So for like, tabling at a school or something—and that I really love, because even if we’re doing something kind of similar, it’s usually good, but I love it, especially with orgs that are, like, doing different types of things, that are bringing kids outside, because I like to come from an abundance mentality that there’s a lot of things available for young people and that they should have all these choices of things that they can do and that you could put together a whole really amazing summer by doing something with GirlVentures and doing something with another org, that there’s a lot of different options that you have to get outside.

Emily Harwitz 10:52

Yeah. And how do you find these communities to work with?

Xiomara Batin 10:56

That’s a good question. I’m still figuring that part out. You know, often it’s like, getting invited to a mutual event, doing outreach, and just seeing what percolates. So that’s like how I’ve met a lot of other people who work at other organizations, is just by being open to conversation and what’s possible. And, you know, looking immediately at what organizations are around where we’re based, going to events, is a really great way to meet other people. And my historical knowledge of what I know is available and around.

Emily Harwitz 11:33

So what projects are you excited about that you’re working on right now with GirlVentures?

Xiomara Batin 11:38

Well, I’m excited as I get more comfortable in this marketing role to learn the fundamentals of marketing and what that looks like in a traditional way, but how I can modify it for the nonprofit world. And I’m finding that our stories about our participants and staff, and especially those who’ve gone through our programs before is really exciting, and so I’m really getting excited to tell those stories in a really personal way from their perspectives of what resonates for them, the impact of the organization on them, because I want to keep showing what’s possible and having just more examples for young people of paths forward, you know, so be able to do outreach where I meet people who have a desire to want to work in the outdoors, but have never tried. 

I’m really excited to share your podcast and the work of Save the Redwoods League through our outreach and marketing and show other resources for young people. And just meeting people who are excited for our organization and want a path in and so doing outreach with them that really, like, they may not be able to work for us, but, here are all these other organizations that you should check out. These are other listserv, these are other places you should look for opportunities. Because working in this industry doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to be an instructor or Executive Director. You can be someone like me who wants to do outreach. You can be someone that wants to do marketing. You can be someone who just wants to support in some way. There’s a lot of opportunity out there. I had dreamed of working in other industries, and I’m so glad that I’ve stuck with this one, because this is the place where I want to grow, and so I’m excited to build campaigns around people who have participated in our programs and just share that out with them, so that young people can see, ‘Oh, I could do that too, and there’s many different ways I could do it.’

[MUSIC]

Emily Harwitz 13:49

I’m here today with our guest, Erika Granadino.

Erika Granadino 13:52

Hi Emily, thanks for having me. I’m the Community Engagement Coordinator for North Coast Redwoods District. I do a lot of different things. I think, as an interpreter, you kind of wear different hats, but the main thing is educational programming. So when you think of a park, people usually think campfire programs or a ranger taking people out on guided walks. So I kind of do all of that typical educational programming in the park. But then there’s the other side of things that maybe people don’t see. So we also run our social media accounts. Didn’t think I’d be a social media manager as an interpreter, but that’s something that I’ve learned to enjoy. And then, you know, I think the main thing is just engaging with the community and being able to facilitate experiences for people that connect them to our parks. I feel like that’s the main thing and what I’m really passionate about.

Emily Harwitz 14:50

What parks do you work in?

Erika Granadino 14:51

The beauty is I get to work in any parks that I make stuff happen in, and I think that’s awesome. But for right now, I’m working at Stone Lagoon. So stone lagoon State Park is has the Chah-pekw Visitor Center. It’s the first Tribally-run, operated visitor center in State Parks history. Very, very cool park. We got a grant last year. It’s called the Connect to Coast from the Coastal Conservancy, and essentially it was to facilitate these field trip experiences, but there, we don’t really have Interpreter I in that park, and so they really needed me to help coordinate those field trips. But I’ve been getting to work with the Tribe, some of our Indigenous interpreters that are there, also with our lifeguards.

Erika Granadino 15:40

So the field trips are super, super cool. The students get to come for four hours. They get to visit the visitor center, get a tour, learn about the cultural heritage of that place from Indigenous interpreters, which I think is awesome. And then they also get to do a cultural-based youth activity, educational activity of some sort. And then after they get to go with the lifeguards to go kayaking or paddling in the in the lagoon. But before that, they actually get aquatic safety training.

I also get to go up to Jed Smith [Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park]. I’m helping to facilitate with the Tolowa. They’re doing Tvm chaa-me’ Day. So getting to work with some of our Tribal partners up north, and very excited—like I said, I’m new to my job, so I’m excited to see what other organizations and with other partners that we can work with. But yeah, just very excited to be working in different parks now and getting to visit the coast, but also getting to be inside in the forest.

Emily Harwitz 16:45

So these programs that you’re describing, did you design them?

Erika Granadino 16:48

Yeah, basically. This is a new position, so I’m kind of just making up things as I go. I don’t really have any predecessors or programs to follow, so I’ve just been coming up with things on my own.

Emily Harwitz 17:02

Just based on what you think would be fun, or based on—

Erika Granadino 17:04

Based on what—I mean obviously, like, I think if you do something based out of passion, it’s always going to come out best, but out of what I see the needs are. So one of the programs that I’ve been working with the Humboldt County Office of Education is a pilot program. It’s called Parks, Goes After School. So what I’ve been doing is, I’ve just been going to after-school programs and doing a campfire-style program for students. That’s been really fun, and just seeing what I can do, where the people are at, being able to engage people in a different way. I’m not tied to a park anymore, and I think that not everyone has the privilege or access to go to these parks or go to these places, even living in Humboldt County. Like, I’ve done field trips, done programs where people or kids will be like, ‘This is the first time,’ or ‘No, I’ve never been to these places,’ you know. Doing this job for four years, just seeing what the needs are, and, you know, of course, within my capacity. 

That was one of the things that I noticed, especially for some of these schools, like I remember having assemblies. That was the best part of like being in school, is like having these educators that come and do a special assembly. So that’s kind of where the idea came from, was just, not a lot of kids can go to our parks. We often have a lot of problems with transportation, even schools that have the money and they just can’t find a driver or won’t have access to a bus. So there’s a lot of other obstacles for people getting to the parks. So that was where that idea came from.

Emily Harwitz 18:46

And how do you measure that it was successful?

Erika Granadino 18:48

I think it was successful in the terms of, quantitatively it’s just the numbers, because every time I go out, I have at least 50 kids. But also, I think just successful in the sense that I am bringing a resource to these kids that maybe haven’t been to our park. Also, getting to teach them in a different way from what they’re used to, in a fun and engaging way. And hopefully, you know, getting them to care about parks. But I think it’s successful because they have fun. They also stay at the end. I think that’s also a good measure of success. And then their engagement, right? They’re very engaged. They’re asking all these questions, and then a lot of these teachers reached out for me to come again. So I think that there’s several ways that I’ve measured the success. 

[MUSIC]

Emily Harwitz 19:54

I want to back up for a second, because before the break, you also told me that you’re involved with the District Recruitment Committee for recruiting people to work for California State Parks. Can you tell me more about that and like, how do you reach out to people? How do you get people excited about working for state parks? Or if they come to you, what do you tell them?

Erika Granadino 20:12

As being a State Park agency, we often get a lot of inquiries from local schools, especially colleges, high schools to do tabling for career, college recruitment, job fairs, that sort of thing. But there was never really anybody that’s job is to do that. So I think for a long time it just kind of fell on whoever had the time. So it wasn’t something that really started off until it became like a job that I took on as part of my community engagement coordinator job. So that was one of the things that the district really needed. We get a lot of inquiries, and we just didn’t have the staff to go out, because the rangers are on patrol, people are out doing their jobs, and it’s no one’s job to do that. So that was something that was very important, especially because we are a big fountain of jobs here in the North Coast. I mean, if you think about how many parks there are in our district, and how many just public lands, like we do give a lot of jobs. So I think it’s very important to be able to go to these places, anda lot of them already reach out so I don’t really have to do that. I thinkit was just more having somebody that can take that on. 

So what I do is, it just depends on what kind of recruitment event it is. I’ve created PowerPoint presentations. So if it’s kind of more of like, you’re going to a class, or you’re going to, for example, the California Conservation Corps. I’ve gone and, you know, done up like a presentation that way. But mostly it’s just showing up to job fairs, printing out what jobs are currently available, having some sort of other staff from different departments to also help facilitate because there can’t just be one and there’s so many different kinds of jobs in State Parks. So it helps to have someone from law enforcement or maybe someone from natural resources, so people can get a good breadth of the different kinds of jobs and careers there are for State Parks, because interp is just one. 

I think that’s what I really like to talk to people about, is the different types of jobs that there are here. Because if you’re an office girly, you can get an office job, you know, if you like to be out, if you want to be a forester, you like doing burns, you can be a forestry aide. If you like to talk and be a person that’s always communicating, educating, you can be an interpreter. So I think that’s what I really like to emphasize to people—it’s like, it depends on what you want to do. There’s so many different options, and I give them the resources to get help, because I think that’s the main thing with navigating the state park system. Just the website itself, it can be kind of hard to actually find the link that takes you to the job application or the exact place you want to go. So giving them the resources that are available that you wouldn’t really know otherwise. So doing that, and just like getting to share my own story of how I got to where I where I am, and I think that’s also very powerful, because a lot of the times they just want to ask you, like, how did you get your job?

Emily Harwitz 23:27

Well that’s what this whole season is about!

Erika Granadino 23:29

Yeah, yes!

Emily Harwitz 23:30

One of the main barriers to entry for jobs like this, in general, even knowing what’s possible, knowing what’s out there.

Erika Granadino 23:37

Yeah, no, that’s definitely—I mean, I didn’t know this was a way to work, until I was scrolling that, like I was telling you, when I was scrolling one day on social media, and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s a job. Oh, that’s kind of related what I studied and what I’m doing. Let me apply to that.’ So, yeah, I think that a lot of times, people just don’t know what’s out there, or you just have an idea that it’s you’re a ranger, right? Kind of the old school way of thinking that the ranger did the interp, the ranger does the campgrounds, the ranger does the maintenance. But no, I mean, it’s very much grown from what it used to be back in the 20s and 30s and 50s. You know, now we have environmental scientists, wildlife biologists. My fiance works in the trail crew. So if you like doing construction work, but you don’t want to be in the city, you want to do it out in the trails, you can be outdoors. 

So I think that’s the best part, is just getting to really give resources, but also let people know of the different career paths that there are in parks, and getting them to be stewards of these places. Because by working in the State Parks, you’re helping maintain these places. You’re helping to follow the State Park mission, and so I think, in a way, they’re also being stewards of these places so—and really rewarding jobs, because you can see the work that your district is doing, and I really do think it’s a very rewarding job. 

One of the other projects that I’m working on is a summer campout that I briefly mentioned, and I think that really signifies the type of programming that I really want to do. It’s just bringing families to the redwoods for two nights, and we’re going to go hang out by the river. I mean, I don’t think that it’s like a structure. I think it’s just an experience, bringing these families from Fortuna, Eureka, Arcata area, Latino families with their kids, with grandma, grandpa, whoever wants to come. We got the entire group campground blocked for those dates, so it’s going to be a big space that is really close to the Eel River, so they’ll get to recreate and hang out. So those are the kinds of programs that I want to do. I really want to be able to connect more with different community organizations, but also being able to attend events that I think have been happening in our community for a long time. But again, whose job is it to go to recruitment events? Whose job is it to go to fairs, right? So it’s no one’s job, but now I think it’s mine.

Emily Harwitz 26:03

Outreach, marketing, and community engagement are all about building relationships. Everyone has something in common, and that’s a great place to start. You meet people where they’re at and then bring them along—or go together. Kinda like what we’re doing here with this podcast!

[OUTRO MUSIC]

Emily Harwitz 26:21

Thanks for joining us on I’ll Go If You Go, a Save the Redwoods League podcast. This season is produced by Leslie Parra and hosted, edited, and sound engineered by Emily Harwitz. Thank you to Adam Kaplan for tech support, and Caleb Castle, Marcos Castineiras, and Mary McPheely for graphic design and media support. Theme song and music by Nhu Nguyen and Anni Feng. You can find seasons one, two, and three wherever you listen to podcasts or on savetheredwoods.org where you can also find transcripts of each episode.

If you like our show, please rate and review. It helps more people find us and join in the conversation. For behind-the-scenes and bonus content, follow us on Instagram @IllGoIfYouGoPod. If you have comments or questions, you can email us at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you and maybe even share your comments on the podcast. That’s all folks. Catch you next time!