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SUMMARY:USFWS Partnership Mentoring Program
DESCRIPTION:Deadline for Accepting Applications Extended Until 12/15/25\nFriends groups along with their FWS Partners have an opportunity to apply for the FWS Friends Mentor Program. The Fall Application is now available. Applications will be accepted until December 15\, 2025. \nWhat is the Mentor Program? In many ways\, it is just what you want/need it to be. Each mentoring relationship is different but\, in a nutshell\, Friends and their Refuge Management decide on the topics they would like to learn more about or have help with. That is part of the application. It could be training the board\, planning a joint project\, or\, after this long Covid winter\, a reboot to get your board and FWS staff excited about working together again\, for example. \nOnce you have submitted the completed application it will be reviewed by the FWS Friends Coordinator\, Linda Schnee\, and the Regional Friends Coordinators. If your application is selected\, you will be assigned a team of experienced and trained mentors\, usually one FWS staff and one Friends Board/Staff person who will work with you on fleshing out an agenda\, and then will come to your refuge to conduct a 2-day training. \nAt the end of that training\, your group will identify a set of 3 or 4 objectives that you want to accomplish in the next year. Mentors then check in with you on a regular schedule to offer help\, guidance\, encouragement\, and lots of cheers for the good work you are doing. \nSound like something that your group would benefit from? I’ve been on both sides of mentoring\, as a Friends mentor and as a board member of a group being mentored and I can tell you from personal experience that this program provides a couple of skilled “consultants\,” for a year\, free-of-charge to your Friends group and your Refuge. So\, what are you waiting for? Get that application going! \nShould you want to find out more about the benefits of this program check out the 2023 recording about the USFWS Mentoring Program.
URL:https://coalitionofrefugefriends.com/event/usfws-partnership-mentoring-program/
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SUMMARY:State of the System Report: Gratitude\, Grit & the Road Ahead
DESCRIPTION:As we approach the longest night of the year\, we pause to reflect—with gratitude for the wild places that ground us and resolve to protect them through whatever comes next. \nJoin Desirée Sorenson-Groves\, President & CEO of the National Wildlife Refuge Association\, for a timely briefing on the state of the National Wildlife Refuge System. With the fallout from the recent government shutdown still unfolding—and the threat of another on the horizon—America’s wildlife refuges are facing some of their toughest challenges yet. \nFrom deepening staff shortages to chronic underfunding and shifting policy winds\, the path forward is not without obstacles. But in these darker times\, new light begins to shine: innovative partnerships\, community-led conservation\, and a growing movement of people ready to defend our nation’s wild heritage. This webinar offers a chance to take stock\, find hope\, and recommit to protecting the lands and wildlife that sustain us all. \nPresenter \n\nDesirée Sorenson-Groves came back to the Refuge Association in October 2024 as the President and CEO. Her career has been focused on protecting and enhancing the National Wildlife Refuge System\, first as a grassroots organizer for the National Audubon Society\, then as the Vice President of Government Affairs for the Refuge Association. After 14 years at NWRA\, Sorenson-Groves became the Director of the Arctic Refuge Defense Campaign where she managed an Indigenous-led\, multi-pronged effort to stop any development in the Arctic Refuge. She comes back to NWRA after leading Defenders of Wildlife’s public and private lands programs as their Vice President of Land & Habitat Conservation. She has a B.A. in Geography from George Washington University and resides in Fort Valley\, VA with her husband and two Chesapeake Bay Retrievers.\n\nSign Up! \n 
URL:https://coalitionofrefugefriends.com/event/state-of-the-system-report-gratitude-grit-the-road-ahead/
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