Community Involvement Resources

This section looks at the connections between your school and community. It includes how students reach out into the community to learn and to provide service and how community members contribute to the school.

Action and Implementation

Schools qualifying to be a Green & Healthy School must have students participate in at least one healthy, safety, or environmentally related experience in the community and have community members play an active role in education at the school.

The resources below can provide you with ideas on how to meet these requirements.

Reaching Higher

If you choose to go further after your school becomes a Green & Healthy School, the following resources can also be used to help you meet the Reaching Higher requirements.

Action Projects and Service Learning

There are a variety of ways students can get involved in their community while having a positive health, safety, and environmentall sound impact on the environment around them. The following resources will help you start an action project in your school and give you some ideas.

• Green Works [exit DNR]
• Service Learning: Beyond the Classroom [PDF exit DNR]
• Taking Action (fee $7.00) [exit DNR]
• Taking Action - Wisconsin DNR [PDF 1284KB]
• Volunteer for Change: A Guide to Environmental Community Service [PDF exit DNR]

Community Members Role

In addition to getting students out into the community, schools should also bring members of the community into the school. Community members, organizations, and businesses in your community can serve as great resources to help students learn about health, safety, and environmental topics and bring an aspect of “real life” into the classroom. Ask local water/utility companies, firefighters, police, nurses, doctors, nature centers, or waste and recycling specialists to come in and share their expertise.

• Environmental Organizations and Projects in Wisconsin [exit DNR]
• NatureNet [exit DNR]
• Wisconsin Health Careers Speakers [exit DNR]

Community Sites

Community sites such as nature centers, natural/wildlife areas, police stations, fire stations, public health centers, recycling centers, and water treatment plants can help educate students about environmental topics. Check out what types of community resources you might have near your school and ask if they have tours or educational programs for schools. You’ll be surprised to find out that many do.

• Children's Health Education Center [exit DNR]

Display Wisconsin Green & Healthy Schools Results

Becoming a Green & Healthy Schools takes some time and work but produces great results. Share your successes with your community. Here are just a few ideas: write an article for the local paper describing what you’ve done as part of the Green & Healthy Schools Program and present some of the data you’ve collected, present your data and accomplishments at a school board meeting or a town/city meeting, or create an exhibit at your school identifying the changes and programs your school has initiated as part of the Green & Healthy Schools Program. Take pride in your achievements. Sharing them with others in your community will not only help your schools to be recognized, but will help others to follow in your footsteps.