Last modified: Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Campus View Child Care Center receives Eco-Healthy Child Care certification
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Aug. 27, 2013
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Campus View Child Care Center, an Indiana University center that enrolls children from 6 weeks to 3 years old, received an Eco-Healthy Child Care Certification in recognition of its work to implement environmentally healthy best practices.
Eco-Healthy Child Care is a program of the Children's Environmental Health Network that supports child care facilities committed to creating a healthier environment and reducing children's exposure to health hazards. It provides guidance through emails, training and other outlets. Child care centers can become certified by complying with at least 24 of 30 best-practice guidelines.
The butterfly garden at Campus View Child Care Center provides a rich sensory and cognitive learning experience for the toddlers.
Before being aware of the certification, the staff at Campus View had implemented several environmental health measures, including replacing plastic ware, purchasing nontoxic and green cleaning supplies, and participating in an IU service-learning project to create a certified wildlife area near the center. Upon learning about the certification, staff realized many of their efforts counted toward the criteria.
Center director Linda Fields and infant-and-toddler teacher Amy Roche approached IU Office of Sustainability to help coordinate the completion of the additional best practices and begin a larger discussion about environmental health practices with the two other child care centers and two child care cooperatives on campus. Within two months, they were ready to have the checklist reviewed.
Director of Sustainability Bill Brown and Dan Derheimer, environmental manager at the Office of Environmental Health and Safety, toured Campus View to verify the guidelines had been met and provided the signatures needed to submit the checklist. As a result, Campus View joined 1,600 other certified child care centers across the country.
"Linda and her staff at Campus View Child Care Center made it very clear that they really do care about the health and safety of the vulnerable children in their facility," Brown said. "Their proactive approach turned this certification process into a pleasant process of discovery that I hope will be copied widely."
"The entire staff at Campus View Child Care Center is invested in providing the safest and healthiest setting possible for the infants and toddlers we serve," Fields said. "The Eco-Healthy Child Care program has provided us with helpful guidance in making decisions about how to improve our classroom environments as well as our outdoor environments."
In the coming year, quarterly meetings will take place among the IU child care centers, cooperatives and operational units that support them. Topics of discussion will include ways to implement best practices, providing an open forum for communication and the potential for certifying other campus locations.
Individuals interested in getting involved in future certification efforts should email eqlu@indiana.edu. More information is available online about campus child care and campus-wide sustainability initiatives.
