For forty years, Houston Audubon has been a leader in land conservation, habitat restoration, natural science education, and environmental advocacy. Through conservation initiatives, educational programs, volunteer activities, and special events, Houston Audubon provides the community with a multitude of opportunities to directly impact the conservation of birds and their habitats. Houston Audubon is one of only a few Audubon Chapters to own and manage land as bird sanctuaries. Our land conservation efforts began with 17.5 acres in west Houston in 1975. Today, we own and manage 3,362 acres spread over 17 sanctuaries in five counties.

Our Mission
Ecycle Houston is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to provide vocational training and employment opportunities for senior citizens and disabled individuals. We seek to turn disabilities into abilities and to utilize the knowledge and skills of the elderly. While operating under a zero landfill policy we work towards keeping hazardous waste out of Houston’s soil and water environments.

Training & Employment
We believe that having a job offers much more than just an income. It offers independence, dignity and self esteem. We believe that this opportunity should be available to everyone and our services are designed to meet an individual’s needs and readiness to work. Through training, these individuals are able to lead more independent and productive lives.

Recognizing the increasing number of people with disabilities who are prevented from attaining employment due to a lack of training and skills. We aim to help eliminate any barriers to their success and fully prepare them for transition into the workplace.

The goal of our senior-focused program is to help bring the senior population gently into the age of computer technology. It’s certainly true that seniors can benefit from computer technology as much and in the same ways as any other age group. But as an added benefit, learning to use computers to communicate, gain knowledge, and have fun helps the older population bridge the technology generation gap and gain a new sense of confidence and self-worth. We are devoted to improving senior citizen's quality of life through computer education.

Ecycling
The use of electronic products has grown substantially over the past two decades, changing the way and the speed in which we communicate and how we get information and entertainment. Our growing reliance on electronics is illustrated by some remarkable figures. According to the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), Americans own approximately 24 electronic products per household.

Our goal is to educate consumers and others on why it is important to reuse and recycle electronics and what the options are for safe reuse and recycling of these products. State and local governments, manufacturers, and retailers, who are already aware of the pressing need to better manage these materials, are providing more opportunities to recycle and reuse this equipment. Recycling these materials prevents toxic materials such as lead, mercury, and cadmium from entering the soil and ground water, which can harm the environment, natural resources, and wildlife habitats.

A free monthly screening series, Community Cinema features films from the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Independent Lens.

In over 50 cities nationwide, screenings are followed by lively panel discussions that bring together citizens, organizations and public television stations to encourage dialogue and action around important and timely social issues. Last season, over 40,000 people attended 500 events nationwide.

Transition Houston is an optimistic and energetic response to the dual challenges of climate change and peak oil at the local level. The Transition Movement supports the transition from oil dependency to local resilience by equipping communities with creative adaptations in areas such as food, energy, health, education, spirit and economy to generate a road map towards sustainable living.

Transition Houston serves to build on the wisdom of the existing resources in Houston’s diverse community to inspire, network and train localized communities to consider and adapt Rob Hopkins’ transition model. Together we can unite pools of ingenuity and skills to unleash the collective genius of our own people in finding self-determined solutions.

Transition takes action by:

* Raising awareness of peak oil and climate change and related issues.
* Building resilience across a wide range of areas and scales, and doing all we can to ensure general environmental resilience.
* Providing access to good information in ways which are playful, articulate, accessible and engaging, and which will enable people to feel enthused and empowered rather than powerless.
* Empowering communities with tools to relocalize its resources and reskill its members.

Transition Houston meets on the first Monday of every month at 7 p.m. at Urban Harvest, 2311 Canal St., Houston 77003.

For more information, please email us at transitionhouston@gmail.com or join our collaborative forum.