Positive Force Consulting Serves Organizations Working to Build Sustainable Communities. Jennifer Hicks is the Principal and primary consultant of Positive Force Consulting. Click here to learn about the services offered.

Recent Clients Accomack County, VA Center for the Environment and Society at Washington College Chesapeake Climate Action Network Chesapeake Wildlife Heritage Chester River Association Delaware Center for Inland Bays Delmarva Low Impact Tourism Experiences Dorchester County Office of Tourism Eastern Shore Land Conservancy Nanticoke Watershed Alliance Sassafras River Association  Stories of the Chesapeake Bay Heritage Area  Town of Betterton, MD Town of Chestertown, MD

Positive Force Consulting was launched in January of 2004. Here's an overview of how it began.

As a college student in 1993, Jennifer Hicks had a desire to bring forth concerns about the environment to both the school and the surrounding community.  Working with a vibrant group of fellow students, she helped establish a chapter of the Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC) at Shippensburg University, still in existence today. Together they lead public education events, hosted speakers, and held a monthly recycling drive in collaboration with town leaders to encourage recycling on campus.

Graduating with an elementary education degree Jenn wanted to teach ecology and sought a position as an educator with Chesapeake Bay Foundation.  CBF gave her the opportunity to design innovative lessons that directly connected the classroom with the Bay and created three-day experiences that embraced the stewardship philosophy:  You must love the Bay to save the Bay.

Every student made a physical connection to a part of the eco-system on her trips (constructing a habitat in the marsh, making "mud angels", or "adopting" an oyster as a pet!), and every student took an action to protect the Bay (participating in an oyster restoration project, writing letters to their elected officials). Jenn saw positive changes in every child who left her program.   Later, she became a volunteer trainer and developed and lead several dozen community-based habitat restoration projects (tree planting, wetland grass planting, oyster restoration), established over 50 miles of riparian buffers, planted several acres of wetlands, and engaged hundreds of volunteers in active Bay restoration.  In addition, she contributed to the development of the CBF habitat restoration field guide.

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