Today we’d like to introduce you to Caroline Chomanics.
Hi Caroline, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
IDEAS began when a group of passionate university students made the choice to stop talking about environmental issues and begin the very difficult work of solving them. Founded in June of 2008 at the University of Central Florida (UCF), IDEAS began as a student-led organization called I.D.E.A.S. – an acronym that stood for Intellectual Decisions on Environmental Awareness Solutions. With a major focus on action, I.D.E.A.S soon gained recognition by fellow students for their tenacity and dedication to solving environmental issues on campus. In time, on and off-campus media recognized the student group for their impact and the concept organically spread around the United States. In 2011, IDEAS For Us officially became a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization called IDEAS For Us, Inc. and their work received the Champions of Change award from President Barack Obama.
In 2012, IDEAS began the lengthy process of becoming an official NGO of the United Nations and from 2013 – 2016 they held consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). In 2016, that status was upgraded and IDEAS now holds special consultative status and is a recognized observer organization of UNFCCC. In 2011, IDEAS For Us officially became a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization called IDEAS For Us and their work received the Champions of Change award from President Barack Obama. In 2012, IDEAS began the lengthy process of becoming an official NGO of the United Nations and from 2013 – 2016 they held consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). In 2016, that status was upgraded and IDEAS now holds special consultative status and is a recognized observer organization of UNFCCC. Our impact includes operating in 12 branches around the world, leading thousands of educational monthly IDEAS Hive community think-and-do tanks, allowing us to create thousands of eco-action projects since 2008 including planting over 60,000 trees, restoring over 56 waterways, educating over 85 solar energy installers, and removing over 19,000 lbs of trash from our environment. Fleet Farming also provides accomplishments as impact. Since 2014, we have converted 114,500 sq ft of lawns into gardens, harvested 7,710 lbs of produce, educated 5,280 volunteers, fed 5,140 locals, and created 20 school gardens.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
IDEAS For Us is works to develop, fund, and scale solutions to solve the world’s most pressing environmental challenges. This includes combatting the monumental challenge of the climate crisis, and this is no easy task. Not only are we faced with mitigating the effects through environmental, hands-on action, but socially we have a major task in communicating the gravity of climate change and the severity of the environmental need for action with our audience while making it a positive movement towards change. The solution for this has been our flagship program called The IDEAS Hive.
The IDEAS Hive (Hive) is a monthly interdisciplinary, intergenerational community Think + Do Tank across all of our 12 branches international and domestic that is designed to educate the public about sustainability and develop their ideas into local action projects. This event is free to the public and incorporates hands-on human-centered design elements to make it an engaging community think tank. These Hive events harness hands-on brainstorming through whiteboarding sustainable ideas with fellow attendees and presenting those ideas with the larger group. The IDEAS Hive meets in communities to grow stakeholders and educate them around the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Then at the end of each month, we host and engage in an environmental action project related to the sustainability topic for that month. Through our programming, we have accomplished projects such as creating floating aquatic wetlands, waterway cleanups, community garden builds, native landscaping projects, massive tree planting projects, and clean energy training events. One of our success stories generated from these sustainability meetings is our environmental solution called Fleet Farming, an urban agriculture program that transforms lawns into farms by bicycle with the help of local communities. This program is now featured on Disney+ by National Geographic and we celebrated our 100th IDEAS Hive meeting in November of 2020.
With the added challenge of a global pandemic, funding became a struggle when many of our foundations, businesses, corporations and other non-profits that we work with had limited funds toward environmental projects. Thankfully, leaders in the community joined our network of activists who see value in sustainable energy, water, food, waste, and ecology to reignite environmental action and education through IDEAS For Us. The fight for our environment continues and with that IDEAS For Us is experiencing the largest impact in 2021 that we’ve ever had which will be shared with the public in our annual report December 2021.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My name is Caroline Chomanics, Chief Operations Officer to IDEAS For Us and Program Manager to the urban agriculture program Fleet Farming. My job at IDEAS For Us is to lead as senior executive, overseeing the day-to-day administrative and operational functions of the non-profit. This includes staff management, intern management, grant writing, fundraising, event planning, accounting, customer service, big-picture planning, and day-to-day admin tasks. This position is my dream job. I get to work with an eager, passionate, creative team of environmentalists who truly care about creating quality work to make the planet a better place. We work alongside volunteers and partners who too are leaders in the community. Our work has a direct effect for the environment including plants, animals, and people. I personally specialize in horticulture as that is where I have the majority of my education and experience. I graduated from Valencia College with a degree in Landscapes and Horticulture technology as well as a degree in Environmental Studies and Sustainable Urbanism from Rollins College. I am known for living for four years at the 7 acres historic botanical garden in Gotha, Florida called Nehrling Gardens. Here, I lived in an 1880s historic home of the famous horticulturalist Dr. Henry Nehrling alongside my brother David Chomanics. I worked for the Henry Nehrling Society, living amongst the lush gardens, migrating birds, daily wildlife encounters, and Florida flora. It was a magical time to learn about the natural world while earning my horticulture degree. A bike ride away, an internship on a farm called The Edgewood Ranch allowed me to learn skills in growing food to soon join the team of Fleet Farming, a program of IDEAS For Us. That changed my life forever as I grew (pun intended) the Fleet Farming program, later being hired higher and higher to my role now as Chief Operations Officer. I have taught myself new skills (like grant writing, accounting, etc.) and learned from mentors in the community to be in a position to change the world. I am honored, unequivocally, to have the opportunity to lead tree plantings, shoreline restoration projects, native landscaping projects, urban agriculture through Fleet Farming, waste clean-ups, solar energy trainings, and all of the other amazingly impactful projects in Orlando and across the globe. This is all because of our dedicated team working together from an intentional place of hope and with a shared sense of responsibility for our planet. Together, there is so much that we can do. There truly is.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
In the next 5-10 years, I see the non-profit section receiving a lot of support towards environmental action. It is something that inevitably will become more and more of a need as climate change and other environmental challenges threaten our natural lands, health, economy, and our way of life as we know it.
At IDEAS For Us, we take this as an opportunity to support a positive movement towards action. Working side by side our communities in projects that are the most relevant and important for that specific area. That’s why our monthly IDEAS Hive and eco-action events are so popular amongst environmental activists. People have such a drive to do good in the community and IDEAS For Us is working to facilitate opportunities for people to take direct action together. Everyone can make a difference and we offer 4-6+ events every month in Orlando, Florida alone to support environmental action.
Contact Info:
- Email: contact@ideasforus.org
- Website: www.ideasforus.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ideasforus.orlando
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ideasforus.orlando/events/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ideastweetsus
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/IDEASForUs
Image Credits
IDEAS For Us Inc.
