New Jersey's waters are a valuable and vulnerable resource. For the past 23 years, the AmeriCorps New Jersey Watershed Ambassadors Program has played an important role in raising awareness of how human activities can affect water quality, especially in the most densely populated state in the nation. Each year, a new group of 20 Watershed Ambassadors engages with community members, channeling awareness into action. That’s approximately 450 members who have devoted themselves to protecting New Jersey’s water resources. Visit the
Alumni page to meet all of the former Ambassadors.
The AmeriCorps NJ Watershed Ambassadors Program, is administered by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Water Monitoring and Standards. The goals of the program are to promote watershed stewardship through education and direct community involvement, and to monitor stream health through performing visual and biological assessments. Individual AmeriCorps members are assigned to each of New Jersey's
20 watershed management areas (WMAs) to serve as "Watershed Ambassadors" to their watershed communities. In addition to the 20 full time Watershed Ambassadors, 3 part-time Source Water Protection Ambassadors are assigned to a region in Northern, Central, and Southern NJ. The Source Water Protection Ambassadors serve 900 hours from September – May, conducting education and stewardship projects that relate to sources of drinking water.
AmeriCorps is a national service initiative that engages more than 70,000 Americans each year in intensive service to meet critical needs in education, public safety, health, homeland security, and the environment. Created in 1993, AmeriCorps is a part of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which engages more than 2 million Americans of all ages and backgrounds in service each year. For more information on the national AmeriCorps program, please visit their website at
www.americorps.gov.
