Dream In Green, Inc.
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Environmental issues such as sea level rise and salt-water intrusion accelerated by climate change continue to threaten South Florida's future. Now more than ever it is critical that our community, including our children, change their behaviors in order to reduce the production of carbon dioxide (CO2), slowing down the impacts of climate change and conserve the County’s water resources, specifically the aquifer. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) states that environmental education is important because it allows individuals to explore environmental issues, engage in problem solving, and take action to improve the environment. As a result, individuals develop a deeper understanding of environmental issues and have skills to make informed and responsible decisions. Students lack understanding of the impact they can have on their local environment because these types of lessons are missing from the mandated curriculum.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Green Schools Challenge
The Green Schools Challenge is Dream in Green’s flagship program which is currently in its eleventh year, serving K-12 students, teachers and staff members in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, the fourth and sixth largest school districts in the nation respectively.
Through the Green Schools Challenge, students and staff are directly involved in designing and implementing energy and environmental solutions at their schools. Students come together as a Green Team to build a green foundation and complete fun monthly challenge activities related to energy efficiency and conservation, waste reduction and recycling, water conservation, alternative transportation, food efficiency and ‘green’ living (buildings and careers).
The objective of the program is to help schools reduce their carbon footprint while promoting long-term community sustainability.
WE-LAB
WE-LAB focuses on delivering urgent and highly relevant environmental education to community residents, teachers, students and parents. Through educational workshops, classroom learning, on-line community forums, and interactive tools, WE-LAB seeks to motivate community wide water/energy-saving behaviors and foster long-term environmental stewardship through money-saving actions. WE-LAB workshops (or “labs”) provide engaging science-based, Water-Energy Nexus information to South Florida residents explaining how decreasing the demand for energy and water can positively affect air quality and improve the water supply.
Where we work
External reviews
Photos
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Evaluation documents
Download evaluation reportsNumber of students showing interest in topics related to STEM
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth
Related Program
Green Schools Challenge
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Schools fill out a registration form when participating in the Green Schools Challenge that determines number of students participating in program that directly ties in with topics related to STEM.
Number of teachers recruited
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Green Schools Challenge
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of parents, community members, and non-teaching staff helping to set goals for the school
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults
Related Program
Green Schools Challenge
Type of Metric
Other - describing something else
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of students enrolled
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Green Schools Challenge
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Number of teachers trained
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Green Schools Challenge
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Teachers that actively participated in professional development workshops through out the program year.
Number of participants attending course/session/workshop
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults
Related Program
WE-LAB
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Water & Energy - Learning and Behavior interactive workshops hosted in various communities in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties.
Number of convenings hosted by the organization
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
WE-LAB
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Increasing
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Dream in Green (DIG) aims to create and implement more robust environmental literacy curriculum and workshops in South Florida. DIG is a community-based organization founded in 2006 in response to our founders’ desire to amplify and strengthen young people’s innate connection and desire to take action for our planet, and to create future change-makers within South Florida committed to environmental stewardship.
Our first program, the Green Schools Challenge (GSC) was created to utilize schools as a living laboratory for sustainability learning, engaging students, teachers, facilities staff and administrators in low-to-no cost activities to ‘green’ their school, while laying the groundwork for long-term behavior. Presently, DIG integrates environmental sustainability lessons through the GSC program working with Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) and Broward County Public Schools. The GSC is a long-term, whole-system approach to water, energy and resource-efficiency in schools. The program engages students in hands-on, educational activities that save water and energy, as well as exposes the school community to the links between water, energy, waste, environment, climate change and community sustainability. The impact of our program is that it leads to behavioral changes that promote environmental stewardship.
The Green Leadership Grants program began in the 2013-14 academic year to provide schools with the opportunity to apply for funding on a monthly basis (October through April) . These grants are particularly critical given budget cuts limiting schools’ discretionary funds to support hands-on learning. The grant program is also an important learning tool in and of itself. By asking students to conceptualize projects demonstrating various sustainability themes, write proposals, develop budgets and evaluation criteria, students learn important leadership skills centered around project management. To date, the program has provided nearly $40,000 in funding to M-DCPS. Our aim is to add more grant opportunities in the future.
Separate from the Dream in Green Academy, Dream in Green also administers the Water and Energy Learning and Behavior Workshops program, the genesis of which was started as a partnership between Dream in Green and Miami-Dade County’s Office of Resilience to educate residents about the critical interdependence between water and energy use. Now in its 6th year, Dream in Green has hosted 74 workshops reaching nearly 2,200 people throughout Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Our aim is to expand WE-LAB program to the low-income, Miami-Dade County affordable housing community- given the potential of this program to address disproportionate utility burdens experienced by disadvantaged communities, as well as the opportunity to drive efficiency changes within large multi-family buildings, and the programs alignment with the County’s building efficiency projects.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
One of the major strategies to assure that the target population participate in our Green Schools Challenge program activities is the organization and implementation of a Professional Development Training for teachers that will lead the implementation of the programs at their schools at the beginning of the school year. DIG uses the train-the-trainer model to efficiently disseminate the environmental education program to teachers at participating schools. This model enables DIG to train school representatives (teachers, admin staff and facilities staff), who in turn train other teachers and students at their respective schools on how best to implement the program. DIG works closely with the Office of Academics and Transformation in M-DCPS. This partnership helps to inform public school teachers about the workshops and provides incentives for teachers to participate, such as master plan points (MPP) for their professional teaching licenses and STEM points towards the school’s designation.
A training video is produced and distributed to facilitate program training. This activity is necessary in order to reach teachers that are not part of the public school system or that are not able to attend the workshops scheduled. This video is also part of the presentation that is available for schools if they request a visit from DIG staff to present the GSC program to their staff during scheduled faculty meetings. It is also helpful in explaining the program to parents and community members.
In addition to the in-person training and training video, DIG staff are also available to complete site visits to any school that requests additional help and information. This also allows DIG to address all teachers of a single school versus one or two that would be able to attend the training. Another vital resource is for DIG to provide money for schools through our Green Leadership Grants (GLG). The GLG are designed to empower students participating in the GSC by providing grants to support Green Team’s ‘green’ initiatives that require additional financial resources. Students in 2nd to 12th grades learn to brainstorm ideas, manage budgets, work as a team, and execute projects that will have a long-lasting impact on the environment. This added support is necessary to assure that schools in low-income neighborhoods or in under-resourced classrooms can participate in integrating environmental improvements.
In order to expand our WE-LAB program, DIG has started to identify Community Development Corporation (CDCs) nonprofits as community-based organizations focused on revitalizing the areas in which DIG seeks to target through these project- typically low-income, underserved neighborhoods that have experienced significant disinvestment. To achieve the maximum impact, workshops have been and will be tailored to each specific audience by taking into account the language spoken, needs, risks and limitations of low-income households in MDC.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
DIG is staffed by professionals that have a vast experience in curriculum development, educational implementation and lesson planning and/or scientific content knowledge as related to water conservation and quality, along with considerable knowledge of scientific principles as related to environmental and climactic changes.
Our GSC program is mainly run remotely and managed by one full time staff person, the program manager, that has been at DIG for the last two years. In addition, the Executive Director provides administrative support with curriculum development to make sure that activities align with current M-DCPS standards and contain relevant and evidence-based content. DIG also hosts various interns and volunteers from local colleges (Miami-Dade College Honors College and Earth & and Ethics Institute) and universities (FIU’s Tropical Conservation Internship program and UM’s Rosentiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science). DIG also contracts a graphic designer with over 15 years of experience that helps create and monitor the main webpage where the program is promoted.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Dream in Green’s success has grown due to the strong partnerships forged with community institutions over our nearly 13-year history. In particular, MDCPS and the Superintendent’s office are integral in assisting Dream in Green in its annual recruitment efforts by sending a briefing about the program to all public school principals, encouraging their enrollment and allowing our professional development trainings to serve as a continuing education course, a requirement of their employment. Additionally, the District provides support with the incorporation of the school board’s STEM pacing guides into our guidebooks to assist teachers with cross-referencing the topics, and to ensure our content enriches required STEM curriculum. The GSC has grown from a three-school pilot in 2006, to last year’s implementation within 114 pre K-12 schools. In its 13th year as an environmental education provider, DIG continues to grow and expand into more schools and even neighboring counties.
Since its inception, DIG has directly served approximately 74,000 students, with an additional 30,000 K-12 teachers, school staff members and community residents exposed to the program’s environmental content through school-wide initiatives, assemblies, after school and community events and educational workshops in Miami-Dade County. The GSC has saved MDCPS approximately $2.8 million in energy costs while conserving 29.2 million kilowatt hours of electricity through simple, no-cost, behavior changes like turning off lights, computers, and unplugging electronics. These student-led initiatives helped reduce or offset approximately 44.6 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions – which is the same as taking 2,961 homes off the electricity grid for an entire year.
DIG has been administering the Water and Energy Learning and Behavior (WE-LAB) Workshops program, the genesis of which was a partnership between Dream in Green and MDC’s Office of Resilience, in various communities to educate residents about the critical interdependence between water and energy use. Now in its 7th year, Dream in Green has hosted 75 workshops reaching nearly 2,400 people throughout Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We ask the people who gave us feedback how well they think we responded
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Dream In Green, Inc.
Board of directorsas of 08/02/2023
Mark Peck
Magic Leap
Lisa Martinez
L.M. Genuine Solutions LLC
Term: 2020 -
Nicholas Gunia
Alterna Corp and K. G. International
Meital Stavinsky
Holland & Knight
Gwendolyn Foote
Retired M-DCPS teacher
Michelle Salas
Lady Green Recycling
Mariana Espinoza
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? No -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
No data
Gender identity
No data
Transgender Identity
No data
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 06/23/2021GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.