Sustainable Community Stewards Volunteer Training

Sustainable Community Stewards Fall 2025 Training

Become a WSU Snohomish County Extension Sustainable Community Steward and learn what can and can’t be recycled, how to reduce waste, and why individual and community-level actions make a difference towards climate change. Become more engaged in your local community by enrolling in this fall’s training sessions.

Those who sign up will receive university-level training grounded in climate change science relevant both within Snohomish County and globally. The training shapes participants into informed community educators and prepares them for a volunteer commitment of at least 10 hours a year. A combination of engaging classroom presentations and discussions paired with behind-the-scenes field trips highlight this educational and community engagement opportunity.

Schedule

The training is every Wednesday evening starting September 10th and ending November 5th, from 6 – 8:30 p.m. There will be 6 in-person classes will be at the WSU Snohomish County Extension office at Willis Tucker Park, 6705 Puget Park Dr., Snohomish, and 3 classes will be on Zoom. Here is the schedule:

• In-person: September 10th
• Zoom: September 17th
• Zoom: September 24th
• In-person: October 1sts
• In-person: October 8th
• In-person: October 15th
• Zoom: October 22nd
• In-person: October 29th
• In-person: November 5th

Training includes an overview of environmental sustainability and climate change solutions with a deep dive into waste reduction and recycling right. The training features presentations on environmental justice, food waste prevention, and the circular economy as well as home composting and DIY eco-friendly cleaning product demonstrations. Classes will feature speakers from WSU Extension, Republic Services, Seattle REconomy, Zero Waste Washington, and more. Further, the training includes field trips to WM Cascade Recycling Facility, the Brightwater treatment plant, Cedar Grove Compost, Snohomish County transfer station, and an organic farm.

The course costs $60, with accommodations and fee-waivers available upon request. WSU Snohomish County Extension programs are open to all without discrimination. Register online at https://bit.ly/wsuscs25 

Register before August 15th for 10% off. For more information, visit the Sustainability Stewards website, contact Kellee.byard@wsu.edu, or call 425-357-6027.

Register here!

The fee on Eventbrite covers all 9 classes.

Community Educators

Once trained, volunteers then give back to the community by sharing what they learned through various events, projects and activities. Sustainable Community Stewards pledge to volunteer a minimum of 10 hours in one year.

One 2023 Sustainable Community Steward had this to say at the end of last year’s training, “I have loved this class! I am so much more aware of my impacts now. I think each day about what changes I can make and have made since I started the training. Great perspective, and new friends. Looking forward to the volunteer opportunities.”

Each person gets to select which projects they work on, with options like Styrofoam recycling events, Repair Cafés, Green Cleaning workshops, the sustainability newsletter, waste-sorting at events and more. We do not require any other training.