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B. Organizational Capability <br />1. Provide the mission statement and vision of your organization: <br />Mission Statement: <br />Keep Indian River Beautiful, Inc. (KIRB) is a 501 (C) (3) organization on a mission to unite our community <br />through environmental responsibility. <br />Vision: <br />The goal of Keep Indian River Beautiful, Inc. is to improve our community through environmental <br />awareness, education and hands-on involvement. We are a grassroots organization that engages <br />residents, encourages community pride and environmental awareness. We believe in preserving and <br />protecting the environment through waste reduction and made it a priority to assist the county in reaching <br />the 75 in 5 recycling goal mandated by the state. With the changes to recycling approved by the Board of <br />Commission, the County will need help to spread the word, educate residents on the new system and <br />encourage everyone to participate. Our staff provides free environmental education and volunteer <br />opportunities to all ages throughout Indian River County. <br />2. Provide a brief summary of your organization, including areas of expertise, accomplishments and <br />ulation served. <br />Keep Indian River Beautiful is a community improvement, environmental nonprofit organization that has <br />served all of Indian River County since 1996. <br />Our main focus areas are: <br />Litter. Prevention <br />- Indian River's Great American Cleanup - improves our community on group <br />at a time all year long. <br />- coordinating all local efforts for the International Coastal Cleanup in Sept. <br />- Cigarette Litter Prevention Program <br />- Adopt -A -Shore Program <br />Beautification/Conservation <br />- Native Tree Plantings <br />- Community Gardens/Beautification efforts <br />- Habitat Restoration <br />- Lagoon Friendly Lawn Program <br />- Environmental Awards Ceremony <br />Recycling/Waste Reduction <br />- Upcycle It! Thrift Store <br />- Borrow -A -Bin Recycling <br />- Event Recycling Management Team <br />- Recycling activities & Presentations <br />In addition to the programs, we have assisted the County Solid Waste for over 20 years to increase the <br />local recycling awareness and availability through education presentations, outreach events, encouraging <br />recycling for local events, innovative hands-on programs, and Upcycle education at our Upcycle It! Store. <br />In 2015 we increased our reach by over 100%, tripled our volunteer base and diverted 89% more material <br />from the landfill. In 2016, our community reach increased another 40% reaching over 72,000 people. By <br />2017, we have doubled many of those numbers again. We coordinated over 2,000 volunteers increasing <br />by another 40% over 2015. In 2017, we coordinated 2,400 volunteers at nearly 600 projects removing <br />30,000 pounds of litter and marine debris from 225 miles of roads and waterways in Indian River County <br />alone. We also diverted over 68,000 pounds of material from the landfill through our programs. In 2018, <br />KIRB coordinated over 2,500 volunteers at over 600 projects removing nearly 30,000 pounds of litter and <br />marine debris, planting over 2,000 trees and shrubs to stabilize our shorelines and replace exotics, and <br />consistently diverted over 64,000 pounds of material from the landfill each year. <br />Keep Indian River Beautiful matches $26.50 in services for every $1 received by this grant. <br />Our Executive Director has 15 years of experience in environmental programming & developing the best <br />management practices that made Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful so successful, the growth and success of <br />Keep Indian River Beautiful is set to continue. Our director has a tenured background in public relations, <br />creating new programs, building relationships, increasing volunteer participation and implementing single - <br />stream recycling education. <br />187 <br />