You must sign-up for the free Water Stories Community platform. This platform is run through Mighty Networks. Once signed in, you can view the films, videos, and animations in the Films & Videos tab in the left hand column. Below this tab, you will find another tab titled Webinar Replays, this is where you can find webinar replays. We also have a YouTube channel called Water Stories, where we keep our film trailers, some animations, and webinar replays.
Yes you can! The films are available through the Water Stories Community website. As long as you are signed in to the community platform (hosted by Mighty Networks), then you can stream the films anywhere with internet connection. The films are not available for download, however, so please plan accordingly with your venue and ensure sufficient internet bandwidth.
Thanks to our wonderful Water Stories community, we have a handful of our films in several languages. If you are interested in helping us translate our videos into another language, please visit the About → Contact Us page and fill out the translation form. We look forward to hearing from you!
To share Water Stories content, you can invite your friends to join the community, and provide them a direct link to the content you’d like to share. For sharing to people who are not members of the community, whom you do not wish to invite to join, you can also easily share any of the content we have on our YouTube channel by sharing the link.
To reach out to us about participating in an event or conference, please visit the About → Contact Us page and fill out the Booking/ Media Request form.
We highly recommend taking our self-paced essentials course, so that you can help yourself! You can also join our community, and post a call for assistance in our Opportunities space. Anyone who may be able to offer you assistance at a discount or for free could then respond to your post.
Zachary Weiss, Raleigh Latham, and CJ Carter are the producers of the Water Stories Films.
Thank you so much for wanting to support us! You can make a single donation through the Giving Support page under the community tab above. You will be able to choose a single or recurring donation, set your own amount, and pay all in one place.
Thank you so much for wanting to support us! You can set up a recurring monthly donation through the Giving Support page under the community tab above. You will be able to choose a single or recurring donation, set your own amount, and pay all in one place. If you want to make a larger annual donation, please contact us directly to set up your donation with a team member by visiting the About → Contact Us page and filling out the Custom Donation Request.
Yes, membership to the Water Stories Community is 100% free to everyone. All you have to do is go to the community site, and sign up!
You can promote your own event through the Water Stories community by making a post in the relevant community space.
If you know of a story you think we should tell, please reach out to us by visiting the About → Contact Us page and filling out the Share a Story form.
To host a workshop, you must be either a Water Stories student or an Elemental Ecosystems client. Please reach out to a Water Stories team member to discuss hosting a workshop further.
To inquire about hosting Zach on your podcast or radio show, please reach out to us through our Booking/ Media Request form on the Contact Us page under the About tab above.
We are unable to put individuals in direct contact with the Water Heroes via introduction or the provision of private emails.
If you are having trouble with your student account, please email us directly at the email address indicated in your student materials. You can also reach out to us by going to About → Contact Us and filling out the Technical/Billing Support form.
You do NOT have to be enrolled in a course to join the community. The community is for everyone who cares about water and water cycle restoration!
Zach does not offer digital consultations. If you’d like to inquire about working with Zach on a project please visit About → Contact Us for a link to his installation company called Elemental Ecosystems.
We are not hiring anyone at this time. Thank you for your interest and we hope to see you in the community!
The Advanced Core Course takes 6 months to complete. During the first 5 months, new course modules are released every other week, giving a week in between modules to digest the material, for office hours, additional videos, and working on the actions for each module. During the last month, students will have the chance to complete any remaining workbook actions required for certification. The Essentials Course can be completed at your own pace over the course of one year. It is possible to finish the essentials course in as little as one month, but we recommend you give yourself 3-12 months to complete the course, depending on how quickly you like to absorb information.
Pathways can be thought of as your level of commitment and desired outcomes for the course. Practically it is the number of actions required for that level of certification. The Advocate Pathway provides a route for people without land access to learn the principles and practices of water restoration, in order to educate their communities and lead local initiatives. The Land Steward Pathway is designed for those working on their own landscape. The Professional Pathway has the most required actions for each module and is the hardest to complete. It is designed to provide students with the experiences they need to become water restoration professionals. Some access to land will be required in order to complete some of the actions. Actions requiring land can be scaled up or down depending on context, a front or backyard is a sufficient amount of space.
We offer a certification for each pathway: Water Advocate, Land Steward, and Professional. In order to receive certification, students must complete each of the required actions in the workbook for the given pathway. You may change pathways throughout the course in the event that you find some actions too challenging, or decide to pursue a higher level of certification than originally intended. Individuals with the Water Cycle Restoration Advocate Certificate can use it as a credential to let their community know that they have the knowledge required to lead community education and action, and advocate for better water policies. The Water Cycle Restoration Steward Certificate is designed to teach people how to steward land they live on or own. This certificate can be used as a self education tool, and also can be presented as a credential to those who are, or want to be employed as caretakers, land managers and stewards. The Water Cycle Restoration Professional Certificate is designed to prepare individuals to offer professional services as water cycle restoration experts. This certificate can be used as a credential to show that you have the education and training to offer professional services as an entrepreneur, or as an employee of a company that offers such services.
As Water Cycle Restoration is an emerging professional field, there are very few organizations world-wide that offer professional training programs in water cycle restoration, and none of them are traditional universities. Nevertheless, we do hope to gain accreditation in the future as our program grows and as the field becomes more broadly recognized. We stand firmly behind our certificate, and our students, and will always vouch for their performance and achievements in our program.
After completing the course you are given the opportunity to join the Alumni Membership, this is our professional level support. For a much lower monthly price ($48 per month for graduates, $98 per month for non-graduates) you gain access to monthly professional development sessions with Zach to get feedback on your specific projects and challenges. You'll also gain from the information shared in helping resolve the challenges other students face. It's a great opportunity to gain long term mentorship with skilled and experienced practitioners. You also gain access to the course and more than 50 hours of additional bonus content available only to Alumni.
For the Advocate pathway you do not need to have any land access. For the other pathways, you do not need to have a large piece of land, but you do need to have some land access. There are activities that require you to make models and practice some land applications but these can be done at any scale. A front yard or backyard would suffice for these. If you do not have any access to land including a yard, we recommend connecting with members in your local community or your city parks and recreation department to find a place where you can do some of the exercises like building a rain garden, for example. Part of the course teaches you how to make connections like this in your community and build mutually beneficial relationships.
You do NOT need to have access to heavy equipment to complete the course requirements. If you do have access to these things and wish to work on a larger scale as you move through the workbook actions, you absolutely can. But all of the land based requirements can be done with basic hand tools on a smaller scale. Students are provided with a list of necessary basic equipment.
If you are unsure if the course is right for you, please select the monthly payment plan so you can pay as you go. If you are unhappy with the course after you start it, you can cancel your membership without incurring further charges, but refunds are not offered for any payment that has already occurred. It takes a tremendous amount of effort from our team to produce this course and support each student, and it is important that the effort put forth to make this training happen is valued. We highly recommend taking your enrollment seriously, and approaching the course with a high level of commitment if you choose to enter the program.
Essentials Course: We do not offer payment plans for the Essentials Course because students are granted full and immediate access to the entire course library. Advanced Course: We have both one time and monthly payment options for the Advanced Course. We do not increase the price for people who choose the 6-month payment plan, because we understand that everyone has different situations and do not believe that folks who want to pay monthly over the duration of the course should be penalized for doing so.
We offer a limited number of Global Equity Scholarships for each round of the course. These scholarships do not provide free access to the course, but reduce the price of the course based on an applicant’s income and country of residence. We ask applicants to share honestly about their financial situation, tell us about themselves, why they are interested in Water Stories, and how they plan to use the certificate. We ask for these details to ensure that recipients are set up for success and so that we can support as many people as possible with the funds we have available. Our scholarships are funded by generous donors, and the number of scholarships we can offer depends on what is donated to the Water Stories Scholarship Fund by benefactors. https://www.waterstories.com/global-equity-scholarship
If you are interested in donating to our courses specifically, our Global Equity Scholarship helps provide the course at an equitable rate to people around the world with less economic opportunity. Water Stories matches all funds donated to provide scholarships to the top applicants. Your contributions make the Global Equity Scholarship possible, so we can provide this course at equitable rates to committed candidates worldwide! https://www.waterstories.com/global-equity-scholarship
The weekly time commitment of this course ranges in each module from 2 hours to 15 hours depending on the actions required within the module. Some of the later modules will require even more time to complete, sometimes reaching 20+ hours depending on how you choose to complete the action.
There are no prerequisites to take our current course offerings. You just need to come to the course eager to learn and ready to put in the work.
You will interact with other students in the online community and within the live virtual office hours. You may also be presented with the opportunity to engage with other students in any workshops that may occur during the course - which would be dependent on our workshop schedule and subject to additional costs as workshops are not included in the price of the course.
Office hours are held virtually. There are two options to choose from in order to support the different time zones we all live in. These generally take place on Monday evenings and Tuesday mornings in USA time zones. Each office hour session is focused on a specific module and the workbook items associated with it. Sessions last approximately two hours and occur bi-weekly during the course.
You can post your question beforehand, so you do not need to attend live to get your questions answered. Recordings of the office hours are then available directly through the course web app.
This course offers basic instruction on the operation of equipment, but does not offer comprehensive operational instruction for all heavy machinery. Much of the real learning comes from practice and working with a mentor, we provide guidance on how to find mentorship and the acquisition of equipment.
1) The Essentials Course provides students with access to all of the course content on our course platform, but does not include the workbook, office hours, mentorship, or a direct path to certification. Certification can be achieved by those who take the Essentials Course, but it requires future participation in a live cohort and the completion of the workbook actions after the Essentials Course has been completed. To learn more about getting certified after you’ve taken the Essentials course please visit the Core Course page. 2) The Advanced Course provides a student with full access to all of the course content, and includes a workbook, office hours, mentorship, and is a direct pathway to all three of our certifications.
While it is possible to take the course with a slow or spotty internet connection, we highly recommend making sure you have access to a high speed internet connection. The videos and live sessions can be difficult to watch and participate in if you do not have access to a good internet connection. Some students with poor internet connections at home set aside time to travel to a nearby location with public internet (like coffee houses or libraries) to watch the videos and participate in the live office hours. Unfortunately, we are unable to offer the download of our course content at this time.