Reef Ambassadors

The Reef Ambassador program is a ground breaking project, training community outreach volunteers to actively inspire, motivate and support their communities to better understand and help protect local marine environments.

Although RCA is not an advocacy organisation, we recognise the potential power of the right blend of science, optimism and concrete action that can empower passionate community members to support reef resilience in their local area.

Through this strategic, science-based and collaborative outreach network, we seek to build a network of passionate and informed community members, helping to translate our citizen science findings into meaningful action.

We are excited to announce we are running another course in April 2024. This will consist of 3 nights of online theory  (April 4, 11 and 18, 6pm - 9pm) followed by an in-person event in either SEQ, Whitsundays or Townsville, depending on where you are located.

Complete the online google form to register.  There is a non-refundable fee of $150 that is payable prior to commencement. 

Have an idea for an event? Or keen to help us grow this program in your area? Let us know! 

To be notified of future opportunities to be a part of this program, please sign up to our monthly e-news.

Check out the Get Involved page for more ways to help!

Read more about our Reef Ambassador program below.

 

 

Who is a Reef Ambassador?

Anyone with the drive and motivation to work as a community leader can be a Reef Ambassador. Could it be you?

Reef Ambassadors are reef role models who actively empower their communities to better understand and help protect marine environments at a local level. 

This program mentors volunteers to develop their knowledge and skills in reef ecology, communications, behaviour change principles, and project planning to support positive locally relevant action for the reef. 

We have launched Ambassador programs for Townsville, Whitsudays, Moreton Bay, the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast. 

Check out the volunteer position description for more details. 

We are actively seeking to expand this program--contact us if you want to get involved or help take this program to the next level and location! 

Ambassador Activities

What Do Reef Ambassadors Do?

Our Reef Ambassador community outreach and action volunteers help us deliver on our mission to empower more people to protect reefs and oceans. 

Ambassadors apply to the program and undergo training in our citizen science methods, along-side our reef surveyors, and also undertake a weekend workshop crash course in environmental education, project planning, event coordination, and behaviour change approaches.

Our trained volunteers co-develop the program activities in their region, helping us reach out to the community through:

  • Participating in regular community events
  • Organising educational movie screenings
  • Coordination Coast to Coral talk series featuring local coastal and marine topics
  • Being Ocean Action Agents and supporting local conservation projects such as joining The Last Straw and The Last Straw on the Great Barrier Reef campaigns, promoting sustainability initiatives in their schools and workplaces, 
  • And more--the possibilities are endless! 

The project has evolved since its launch in late 2015 based on feedback from our amazing Ambassadors who step up to do great work. They asked for more help in promoting change in their communities and we listened. Its been so exciting to see this program continue to evolve and adapt to meet the needs of communities. 

To keep up to date on our ambassador activities, keep an eye on our news and regional pages for all the latest stories!

Impact Factor

 

Following the initial pilot project, Ambassadors demonstrated increased confidence to motivate peers to care for reefs, boosted knowledge of reefs and reef health issues, and a sense of motivation, optimism and excitement about their role in reef conservation.   

  • Most participants indicated that the workshop increased their knowledge on: Subtropical reefs (85%), Reef threats (82%),
    Individual actions that can protect reefs (93%)
  • Post workshop confidence scores increased for: running hands-on education activities, reef monitoring, discussing reef health issues and motivating peers to act on conservation
  • Participants showed their ocean optimism, with volunteers reporting feeling motivated (99% of participants), optimistic (96%), excited (96%) and confident (86%) after the workshop

 

These results confirmed to us that this innovative program can make a real difference within the community. Just some of the work undertaken by our Ambassadors so far includes: 

  • Contributing to more than 60 community events helping to get the word out about local reefs and how people can help look after them
  • Helping to launch the Townsville Seaside Scavenge Chapter to seek new ways to connect people to the environmental challenge of marine debris
  • Assisting with the launch and coordination of the Coast to Coral monthly talk series in Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast, connecting hundreds of local community members with coastal and marine science in the region
  • Working with social scientist Dr Angela Dean from The University of Queensland to develop, deliver and evaluate key messages to implement targeted communications approaches to enhance outcomes
  • Joined the fight to reduce the usage of plastic straws in conjunction with The Last Straw on the Great Barrier Reef campaign

 

Keen to be part of developing this project further? You can check out our business prospectus  or email us at [email protected]. 

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