Community Engagement

As you put together your list, remember to look online, check your local newspaper talk with your local Chamber of Commerce, and discuss your project with family and friends. 

Community assets include:

• People - What are the skills or talents of community members? Identify the experts in your community. 
• Places - Schools, hospitals, community centers, and libraries
• Local businesses
• Community Groups/Associations - School PTA, United Way, gardening groups, etc.
• Local Organizations - Private, public, and non-profit
• Community Services - Public transportation, early childhood education center, etc.
• Anything else you can think of!

Engage a large enough number of people so that you can share the workload. You don’t want to get burned out or overwhelm anyone and two heads are better than one!

1. Decide what makes up your community - how wide do you want to stretch your boundaries?
2. Look back at the list of community assets you made. Isolate what kind of assets you want to include. These should be related to your project or idea. If you have a project related to community literacy, you’d want to consider schools, the public library, organizations that support literacy, reading specialists, librarians, etc.
3. Find out more about the groups/people you selected. Make a spreadsheet or chart of important information about each, including their location, available resources, any connection you have with them, and contact information.
4. Organize your assets on a map, if this would be beneficial. You may find just as much benefit from your chart.

In this interview with Daphne Wu you can find out how Middleton High School's Green Team was awarded the US Department of Education Green Ribbon District award in 2012.

What makes your school green & healthy? District wide, we really have a lot going on to support sustainability. Each classroom is encouraged to turn off lights, TV/monitors, and projectors when not in use, and there is an effort to track energy use for each classroom to provide feedback on energy savings from these activities. The school will be meeting about 20% of its energy requirements from the newly installed solar farm with Madison Gas and Electric. At the high school, there is a student organization, the Green Team, that provides leadership in the areas of gardening, sustainability, and waste management. The waste management committee's goals for this school year include advancing awareness of what materials can be recycled, and composting. The Sustain MHS committee is raising environmental education and reducing energy use, and the Gardening committee is working on the local MHS garden and finding ways to reduce food waste.

How are you involved in community and school environmental sustainability project? As the student representative of the city of Middleton’s committee for sustainability and the Pheasant Branch Conservancy, I have drafted a Sustainability Resolution for the school district that specifies goals for energy conservation, waste reduction, and environmental education in our schools. I am meeting with various members of the district administration teams to refine those goals and hopefully the Resolution will be passed by the school board by December.

Why is it important for your school community to set and achieve green amp; healthy goals?  I believe that environmental education is directly correlated to the strength of the education system. Students need to be well equipped to deal with environmental issues as we are the ones that will be most affected by things like climate change. Written goals are important to keep schools accountable for taking action, since schools are not required to follow any set plan for sustainability.

What would you like to see happen in your school to continue and enhance green & healthy practices?  I like to see a greater care for the environment demonstrated by everyone. I think that people know that it is important, but they don’t know how to take the care that is needed. Some people think small things are enough, like posting things to social media or using a reusable bottle – but that isn’t enough. We need greater factual awareness of how human actions effect the environment. We need a culture change in the way we do things.

How is being part of a green & healthy school community connected to your life outside of school and your future plans and interests?  I have always had a passion for environmental sciences that stems from many of my favorite memories of being outside. I am planning on majoring in business and minoring in environmental sciences in college. My family history – one of my grandparents was a coal miner – has also instilled awareness of how our environment affects our health, and the concept of environmental equality and justice. I hope that future generations will get to experience the same things that I have, and I will always look for ways to help my community, no matter where I am.

Visit the Community Action & Citizen Science page for ways to get involved. 

Choose something you are interested in and get involved. Ask your teacher for project ideas and more resources. 

Plant trees, shrubs, flowers, and vegetables to beautify a school or other local area. 

Include as many native plants as you can to help the wildlife where you live to thrive!

Check out How to Plant a Tree for a list of things to consider before planting.

Make a video and share it on your parent or teacher’s social media (with their permission) and tag your elected local and state officials. You could also send the video in an email or write them a letter. Not sure what to include? Watch this video for ideas!

Any time that we share resources, we reduce consumption and wastes. Think about:

• Lunch sharing tables that can reduce food waste and help with food insecurity. 
• Little free pantries  
• Little free libraries

If your school does not already recycle, this can make a huge impact!