Professional development opportunities for staff include understanding the risks, prevention strategies, and ways to respond to environmental hazards.
Resources for Professional Development
- Place Matters: The Environment We Create Shapes the Foundations of Healthy Development
- Choose Safe Places for Early Care and Education
- Integrated Pest Management
- Tribal Lead Curriculum
- Green Cleaning, Sanitizing and Disinfecting: A Toolkit for Early Care and Education
Tips and Strategies for Air Quality
- Offer staff professional development opportunities that include:
- Information about environmental hazards and prevention strategies
- Recognizing the signs of illness from environmental exposures, when it could be an emergency, and when first aid is needed
- Safe and proper storage, preparation, and use of chemicals, pesticides, and other environmental hazards, including arts and crafts supplies, and medicines. Remember that diaper ointment, insect repellent, sunscreen, and other products are still hazards if children can get to them.
- Attend an integrated pest management (IPM) workshop or use an IPM Toolkit.
- Explore these resources to learn more about preparing for, responding to, and recovering from an emergency that may affect the health and safety of Head Start environments:
Collaborating with Families
Sharing strategies with families about how to reduce exposure to environmental hazards can help them keep their homes, communities, and activities healthier.
Tips and Strategies for Air Quality
- Improve family health literacy to help families understand environmental health risks and how they can reduce them.
- Offer education and resources on environmental health topics, such as:
- Ways to reduce risk from extreme heat, including where their community cooling centers are located
- Environmental health risks and prevention steps related to the work and work settings of family and household members
- How to get help to quit smoking, and ways to reduce exposure to secondhand and thirdhand smoke in the home or other areas
- Keeping homes as clean and free of pests as possible
- Avoiding burning garbage or brush
- Checking the AQI and what to do when the air quality is unhealthy, including:
- Wear a comfortable, well-fitted mask when going outdoors (ideally an N95).
- Reduce the amount of time outside.
- Plan outdoor activities when ozone levels are lower, usually in the morning and evening.
- Exercise away from roads and highways. Pollution is usually worse near these areas.
- Reducing children’s exposure to lead
- Help families advocate for environmental health in their communities.
Learn More
- Educational Materials
- Protect Your Family from Sources of Lead
- How to Protect Your Children from Lead Poisoning
