What Parents Can Do
Note: This section will be expanding over time as the various topic areas are developed. Also, we welcome your contributions based on your own experience.
Educate yourself, and others
- Subscribe to the SOSI electronic newsletter, and encourage others to do the same.
- Start learning about sustainability via this website and attending sustainability events.
- Start a parent or parent/school staff discussion group. Read and discuss sustainability-related books together or organize a discussion course from the Northwest Earth Institute http://www.nwei.org/
- Organize a school event with guest speakers presenting sustainability and related information. Invite the school board members.
Make parent activities at schools more sustainable
- Encourage eco-friendly fundraisers. See idea list .
- Consider the resource inputs and outputs of all parent-planned activities, and try to reduce both.
- Find ways to reduce school-related parent miles driven, and when you are at school, do not allow your car to sit idling.
- Help your child bring waste-free, sustainable lunches.
Connect your school or district to Sustainability
- Encourage your school and district to connect with the Sustainable Oregon Schools Initiative.
- Establish a supportive school or district relationship
- Present your ideas to a person or group within the school district and gain their support. That might be the principal, the parent-teacher organization, a teacher, a district administrator, school board member or other school or district staff person.
- Find other interested parents and do the same.
- Listen to their feedback about your ideas.
- Start a Sustainability Team at your school or district.
- Organize a sustainability presentation for the school board or other staff group.
- Initiate meetings between outside sustainability experts and their school counterparts.
- Help school/district staff to create a sustainability plan:
- Assess the current sustainability status. This can start within a specific area, but should eventually be organization-wide.
- Work with others to set goals.
- Plan activities to achieve the goals.
- Create a system to track and manage progress.
Work with kids
- Facilitate an after school student group such as an Earth Club or Roots and Shoots Club. http://www.rootsandshoots.org/
- Connect teachers to community resources that can help move sustainability into the classroom.
Initiate projects within specific topic areas
- Set goals: Select a topic area(s) of interest, explore that section of the SOSI website, set goals and develop an action plan. SOSI staff can help identify resources to help.
- Become a 4H Wildlife Stewards volunteer and organize a project at your school. http://4hwildlifestewards.org/volunteers/index.htm
- Organize a walking or biking school bus for your neighborhood.
- Study the “Take action” section for school personnel and identify areas and projects that you could lead.