Cal State San Bernardino has embarked on a partnership to link its outreach efforts with those of other members of the Southern California Consortium, including the San Bernardino National Forest, San Bernardino National Forest Association Urban Youth Conservation Corps and the Hispanic Serving Institutions USDA Southern California Liaison.

The group is known by the acronym CRECE, which stands for "Consortium Roundtable: Education, Community and Employment. Crece is the Spanish word for "grow."

The roundtable was created as an informal partnership to bring key stakeholders together once a month to discuss the future of youth from underserved communities in the Inland Empire, while emphasizing opportunities provided on public lands. The CRECE group is open to other community members and stakeholders to participate in planning events that will connect youth to higher education and activities on forest land.

"The roundtable is a great fit for our campus and the local community," said Tom Rivera, associate dean for undergraduate studies at Cal State San Bernardino. "We are very excited to be at the table with the Forest Service and community partners. Together we will be able to change the outlook for many of our underserved youth in the Inland Empire."

The USDA Forest Service Southern California Consortium is helping fund a student liaison that will act as the CRECE secretary during roundtable meetings and will be responsible to coordinate outreach events each academic quarter.

The community events are designed to increase awareness in careers in the natural resources field, while promoting higher education, especially to youth from underserved communities. The Southern California Consortium hopes to further these efforts by identifying outstanding student candidates from the Inland Empire to participate in student employment programs with the U.S. Forest Service and other federal agencies.

For more information, contact Tom Rivera at (909) 537-5044 or trivera@csusb.edu.