BlueGAP Services & Education
Empowering change through storytelling, training, and collaboration.
Grassroot Connecting
Working to bridge communities and fostering connections from the grassroots level up.*
Education
Aiming to raise awareness of the hidden dangers of nitrogen pollution and its widespread impact on the world.*
Story Videos
Personal short stories produced using an environmental lens focused on well-being and livelihood as the core of he story.*
Event Collaboration
Co-creating a variety of events covering nitrogen pollution, water quality, environmental challenges, and other related themes.*
Digital Storytelling
Highlighting the work of community leaders, activists, and residents interacting with waterscapes.*
Systems Training
Helping community members connect the dots between important factors within their complex nitrogen problem.*
Grassroot Connecting
Many people do not know how, or have the means, to tackle the complex problem of nitrogen pollution in our waterways.
BlueGAP works to fill in those gaps by bridging communities upstream & downstream, and fostering connections from the grassroots level up. Our engagement with individuals and communities within and across watersheds focuses primarily on working WITH people that experience continuing challenges with nitrogen pollution.
We strive to fulfill a call to action that has been stagnant for far too long. It is time for people that normally are not included in discussions, planning, policy-making, and many more processes imperative to cleaning up our waterways, to have representation in seeking solutions. Through this authentic capacity building, our goal is to even out representation so someday this call for action will not be as urgent as it is today.
Education
BlueGAP aims to raise awareness of the dangers of nitrogen pollution and its impact on the world.
Our expansive network of knowledgeable academics, policy advocates, and grassroots community leaders educate and consult with people to help them reach a better understanding of this dangerous pollutant’s sources, impacts, challenges, and solutions.
Interested in an education consultation to leverage our services and/or materials?
Ways of Working with BlueGap Education Services
Co-Creation of Curriculum
Educational Modules
Data Visualization
Speaker Connections
Watershed Resource Consultation
When too much nitrogen seeps into our waterways due to anthropogenic activities (i.e., agriculture), the overabundance causes many environmental issues that have direct, negative impacts on human health, biodiversity, and earth’s climate.
As displayed in Fig. 1, nitrogen pollution in our streams, rivers, lakes, bays and coastal waters causes an overgrowth of algae, choking the ecosystem. This leads to a loss of food resources and habitats, pollutes our drinking water and the air we breathe, and so much more.
What is Nitrogen & Why Should You Care?
Nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas that constitutes approximately 78% of the Earth’s atmosphere. It is an invisible but devastating pollutant that travels through waterways destroying plant and wildlife and threatening people’s health and livelihood.
BlueGAP Video Scripting, Production, and Marketing
BlueGAP Video Services include scripting, production, marketing and advertising on BlueGAP platforms. Our production team utilizes various methods of documentary filmmaking to produce videos of varying lengths under 10 minutes, following the below steps.
Produce
BlueGAP performs in-depth research on the client’s unique storyline within overarching watershed themes and outlines key points to formulate client questions.
Direct
BlueGAP films, directs, and professionally produces the client’s on-camera interview in a fully equipped studio setting.
Script
BlueGAP then carefully constructs the studio recording into scripts, each zoomed in on key elements of the client’s real-life experiences.
Action
During video production, the BlueGAP crew captures B-roll, animations, visuals, interviews, and music to amplify the client’s messaging.
That’s A Wrap!
BlueGAP directors, producers, and editors collaborate with the client to produce final edits conveying the scripts’ narrative in the client’s unique voice.
Event Collaboration
BlueGAP Event Services are available for co-creating a variety of events covering nitrogen pollution, water quality, environmental challenges, and many other related themes. We are available for hosting, supporting, speaking, coordinating, and much more.
- Are you a “Champion” that wants to amplify your message about how your community can decrease nitrogen runoff into local waters?
- Are you an organization interested in showcasing BlueGAP documentaries for communities you work with or are interested in making a difference?
- Are you an institution seeking speakers for a water quality conference?
Digital Storytelling
Understanding the lived experiences of nitrogen pollution in each location is an important element of the BlueGAP process. We provide access to various educational digital products and are available to co-create new digital stories with clients.
BlueGAP’s Information System includes examples of humanities, fine arts, anthropology, environmental engineering, and environmental science graduate student projects whom integrated storytelling, oral history, ethnographic interviews, photos, videos, and maps to create interactive content that highlights the work of community leaders and activists, as well as residents interacting with waterscapes in the Tampa Bay area (drawn from a University of South Florida Waterscapes course projects) and Iowa (based on summer fellowship programs at the University of Iowa).
Interested in co-creating a digital story with us or leveraging one of our products?
BlueGAP’s System Training
Nitrogen pollution is a worldwide complex problem that exists at the nexus of environmental, economic, social, and policy spheres. Given this intertwined large web of connections, many people do not know where to begin to help mitigate the problem.
BlueGAP’s Systems Training addresses that need by helping people connect the dots between important factors in their complex nitrogen problem to understand key dynamics and identify the best leverage points to start taking action.
BlueGAP’s Systems Training simplifies complex issues for trainees by considering cause-and-effect relationships among factors within the bigger picture, as opposed to linear, straightforward paths that would ignore significant effects within the whole scope of the problem.
While exploring systems models with BlueGAP, trainees can learn how to depict factors and feedbacks that identify leverage points for informing action. Systems training is supported by BlueGAP’s commitment to storytelling.
By narrating the complexity of the social, economic, environmental, and policy aspects of nitrogen pollution in their communities, trainees become skilled in developing and discussing their own systems models and discerning which actions to push to inform change.
*Disclaimer: All services are dependent on current and active funding.
Help reduce nitrogen pollution Get Nvolved today
Happy New Year! 🎉
Wishing everyone a year ahead filled with joy, success, and amazing new adventures! Cheers to a new year of stewardship and commitment to protecting earth`s natural resources!
Happy New Year! 🎉
Wishing everyone a year ahead filled with joy, success, and amazing new adventures! Cheers to a new year of stewardship and commitment to protecting earth`s natural resources!
Community-led conservation efforts in culturally significant locations inspire local pride, environmental stewardship, and a lasting commitment to protecting shared spaces. Learn more from one of our community members in our full video available on our YouTube channel!
#Video #CommunityAction #CommunityConservation #ProtectNature #MakeADifference #EnvironmentalPride #Stewardship #StCroix #USVI #KelcieTroutman #BlueGAP
Community-led conservation efforts in culturally significant locations inspire local pride, environmental stewardship, and a lasting commitment to protecting shared spaces. Learn more from one of our community members in our full video available on our YouTube channel!
#Video #CommunityAction #CommunityConservation #ProtectNature #MakeADifference #EnvironmentalPride #Stewardship #StCroix #USVI #KelcieTroutman #BlueGAP
Want to protect the natural places you love? Find strength in your community!
#Reel #VideoTrailer #CommunityAction #CommunityConservation #ProtectNature #MakeADifference #EnvironmentalPride #Stewardship #StCroix #USVI #KelcieTroutman #BlueGAP
Want to protect the natural places you love? Find strength in your community!
#Reel #VideoTrailer #CommunityAction #CommunityConservation #ProtectNature #MakeADifference #EnvironmentalPride #Stewardship #StCroix #USVI #KelcieTroutman #BlueGAP
Happy Holidays!
Wishing you and yours days filled with peace, joy, and warmth. May your holiday be bright, your home be full of laughter, and your heart be full of cheer!
Happy Holidays!
Wishing you and yours days filled with peace, joy, and warmth. May your holiday be bright, your home be full of laughter, and your heart be full of cheer!