Take 3 Programs

GROUND SWELL #Take3forNSW

We love exploring NSW! In 2021, 71.8 million visitors* enjoyed holidays and adventures in the State’s beautiful and diverse environments, spending $22.3 bn on 91.6 million overnight stays. It’s good positive economic news for tourism destinations and businesses, but an unfortunate downside to tourism success is what’s left behind – visitor litter.

Calling all tourism folks! Hot on the heels of last year’s First Wave pilot program, we are delighted to launch Ground Swell, a program designed to empower NSW tourism businesses to take the lead, develop and implement action plans to address litter and plastic waste generated by visitors – to make a difference in keeping beautiful tourism destinations litter-free.

Between March – November 2022, the Ground Swell team will lead participating tourism businesses on a litter reduction journey. In three quick and clear phases we provide businesses with a solid foundation to be able to:

understand existing litter hotspots specific to your business and your area
blend litter reduction solutions and source reduction best practice into your business operations
see the impact you make – you will be amazed!
lead with confidence in your community and know you’re making a difference
benefit from sustained litter-free success

You will have the opportunity to meet like-minded operators, share challenges and solutions and benefit from receiving a Take 3 for the Sea Official Supporter package worth $5000.

Join us! Let us know your business is interested – please provide your contact details here and we’ll come back to you with more information.

Ground Swell is funded by the EPA. There is no cost involved to participating businesses.

The Project’s aim is to assist the tourism community in reducing litter in visitor hotspots by 30% and to phase out problematic and unnecessary plastics by 2025. These targets are in line with the NSW government commitment to reduce litter in visitor hotspots by 60% by 2030. Take a look at Take 3’s The NSW Visitor Economy Litter Prevention Strategy.

*Source: National Visitor Survey, Tourism Research Australia.

‘This project is a NSW Environment Protection Authority, Waste Less Recycle More initiative funded from the waste levy’

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION

YOUTH LEADERSHIP

Take 3 for the Sea is delighted to once again be partnering with SC Johnson to deliver a youth leadership program that develops young people into passionate, educated and self-determined young leaders who have the tools and knowledge they need to spark environmental change.

The Youth Leadership program is an extension of the online learning program that was developed in partnership with SC Johnson in 2020 and will integrate project-based learning materials with opportunities for personal development while preparing students for leadership.

Open to secondary school pupils in Australia and New Zealand, aged 12-16, the students will attend six inspirational weekly workshops with Take 3 education staff and mentors. Two Youth Leadership courses are on offer – one in term two and one in three – and students are encouraged to register their interest ASAP.

The program is based on The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and 21st Century skills of problem solving, creativity, critical thinking, decision making and collaboration.

Due to significant interest from primary schools, a YLP package will also be created for class teachers to deliver to select students in Stage 3 (Years 5 & 6) in Term 3.

Please contact youthleadership@take3.org for more details or sign up here

ONLINE LEARNING PROGRAM

Take 3’s Online Learning Program provides teachers across Australia with a range of FREE online resources that address the solutions to global plastic pollution. Designed for delivery by teachers, the program sees students explore and strengthen their personal connections to the ocean.

The Online Learning Program aims to educate five percent of Australian schools, serving 30,000 students and 1,000 teachers from 300 schools. The program builds on the success of Take 3’s face-to-face education programs, which on average record a 92% reduction in waste in school playgrounds and positive behaviour change in participants.

Click here to access our free online learning program.

Take 3 for the Sea’s education department, in collaboration with Cool Australia’s team of learning experts have designed 12 lesson plans. All content aligns with the Australian school curriculum and support the three cross-curriculum priorities as determined by the governing body, Australian Curriculum. These cross-curriculum priorities are:

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures
Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia
Sustainability

Six short films have been developed by Take 3 to visually demonstrate the program’s content and inspire a deeper understanding of the materials. The films explore key themes in Take 3’s education curricula; connection, the ocean’s natural systems, human impacts on the oceans, and solutions at individual, local and global levels.

How to get involved

Take 3’s Online Learning Program is exclusively available on Cool Australia’s website. The resources are accessed by teachers through the Take 3 for the Sea – Project Based Learning landing page. Teachers then download the materials and deliver lessons to students in class.

To ensure your child has access to this program, contact their teacher or school and ask about Take 3’s Online Learning Program through Cool Australia. If you’d like more information about how to get involved, please email your queries to info@take3.org

This program would not be possible without our education partner, Cool Australia and our funding partner SC Johnson.

Special thanks to The Situation Room for their production of the six films, and thank you to our cast who helped us communicate our message so powerfully.

YOUTH SUMMIT 2022

The inaugural Take 3 Youth Summit will take place at the Taronga Western Plains Zoo, Dubbo, NSW on 14 and 15 September 2022, with places available for 200 aspiring student leaders aged 12 – 16 from schools across New South Wales. This follows the successful Youth Summit held in June 2021, held at Taronga Zoo, Sydney over two action-packed days. At this event, Take 3 was joined by a passionate, intelligent and forward-thinking group of 150 students who were determined to make a difference to the plastic pollution crisis. Participants heard from young leaders in the field of conservation and developed Community Action Projects to engage their school communities in plastic pollution education.

This year’s Summit is titled Connecting Coast to Country: Youth Leading the Way, and its focus is on empowering young people to tackle the challenge of plastic pollution while simultaneously embarking on a personal journey to develop their leadership skills.

To find out more or to register interest, email Annie on education@take3.org.

SCHOOL EDUCATION PROGRAM

Take 3 delivers education programs in schools, surf clubs and communities around Australia. Take 3 educators raise awareness of plastic pollution and explore simple actions to prevent it. We’ve educated over 500,000 students from 1,000+ schools and counting.

Our approach is to provide students with a compelling reason to act before encouraging the development of original ideas to solve the global plastic pollution problem in their local community. Students are lead to develop solutions that will:

Implement source reduction initiatives to prevent litter in their school and community
Reduce waste sent to landfill from their school through a tailored and specific action plan
Track and share their impact to educate and inspire the broader community

EARLY CHILDHOOD PROGRAM

Take 3’s education programs are tailored to teach even our youngest citizens about ocean health and sustainability. Take 3 injects enthusiasm and excitement into learning about our oceans and incorporates the accredited Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF).

Through arts and crafts, storytelling, music and dance, Take 3 introduce the problem and inspires children to create imaginative solutions. Students become mini marine conservationists who can’t wait to communicate their new-found knowledge to their family, friends and community.

SURF LIFE SAVING CLUBS PROGRAM

Take 3’s Surf Life Saving Program educates Surf Life Saving Clubs (SLSCs) around Australia about plastic pollution with a focus on coastal and marine environments. Working closely with ‘Nippers’, Take 3 leads surf clubs to develop original solutions through learning, hands-on participation and clean up activities.

Take 3’s SLSC program has been delivered to more than 40 surf clubs around Australia, and has seen major positive impacts as a result. We’ve cleaned 1.7 million m2 of beach around Australia, and removed 9,700 tonnes of rubbish from those sites.

The program exemplifies the role of SLSCs as environmental champions and triggers systemic change throughout their wider community. SLSCs are provided with an initiative-based program that addresses aspects of the SLS EcoSurf Policy (and therefore contributes to fulfilling section 8.2 of the Quality Clubs Program).

COMMUNITY EDUCATION PROGRAM

Take 3’s Community Education Programs are all about bringing people together. Take 3 hosts film nights, talks, clean ups and special events to educate communities about plastic pollution and waste in a creative and engaging way. Our community programs are catered to councils, businesses and donors who wish to connect and give back to their community.

Adaptable to each community or client’s specific needs, Take 3’s community education activities are true celebrations of people-power, leaving participants feeling inspired, informed and motivated to take action in their own lives.

CONFLICT ISLANDS CONSERVATION INITIATIVE

In February 2020, Take 3 launched its official partnership with Conflict Islands Conservation Initiative (CICI) in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Plastic pollution and marine debris are critical threats to marine environments globally – problems which are exacerbated within developing countries including PNG, due to poor or non-existent waste management services. Local communities on the Conflict Islands rely heavily upon the ocean for sustenance and a healthy ecosystem to produce food. There are currently no recycling or garbage collection facilities in the Milne Bay, the largest marine province of PNG, where the Conflict Island atoll is located. The only way to remove the rubbish has been to burn it, bury it or devastatingly, discard it into the ocean where it is ‘out of sight’.

Take 3 and CICI’s partnership mission is to set up recycling systems on the islands, where collected plastics can be recycled into objects and sold to tourists visiting the islands or repurposed into fuel and gas to supplement wood stoves for villagers. This can aid in the reduction of deforestation on these tiny islands, can provide additional income streams to locals and ultimately, will help to protect the natural environment.

With Take 3’s support, CICI have commenced the CICI Plastic Pollution Initiative. Staff of the Conflict Islands conduct a plastic collection every Saturday where marine debris including lighters, plastic water bottles, toothbrushes and sandals are found, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of microplastics in the sand and that are imbedded into the soil on the island. All items are collected are tallied during the litter audit. The volume of plastic varies with the seasons and winds, but the program can remove between 10kgs and 500kgs of plastic waste from any of the 21 islands in a single clean-up.