The Flagstaff Sustainability Leaders Course

The Flagstaff Sustainability Leaders course was developed by myself and Emily Shaffer. This is a 10-week intensive volunteer training course designed to educate Flagstaff community members about all things sustainability-related and providing action ideas to inspire volunteer projects focused on sustainability. The program is a combination of two previous volunteer training courses that was created in order to streamline programs for the sake of clarity for the public and to increase staff capacity. Once the course is finished, we will have 25 new fully-trained sustainability volunteers in Flagstaff!

 One of the electives from the training focused on protecting Flagstaff’s Open Space. For this, we brought in Leila Husain, a VISTA working in the Sustainability Section’s Open Space division, to explain the steps Flagstaff is taking to preserve natural areas within city limits. For this class, we took the bus as a group to McMillan Mesa. The photo is a view of the San Francisco Peaks from a trail at McMillan Mesa. This Open Space property is in the middle of the city, near Buffalo Park, and provides walkable access to natural areas for people in the Sunnyside neighborhood, as well as all people in Flagstaff!

​written by Jillian Goulet, Community Resilience VISTA