Event Inspiration and Ideas
- Coordinate a virtual watch party- watch film(s) focusing on children's environmental health and chat about them with your family, co-workers, or community
- Record a cooking demo focusing on kid-friendly sustainable snacks
- Lead an arts and craft session for kids using eco-healthy craft supplies
- Host a virtual town hall featuring a discussion of local children's environmental health issues
- Put together a panel of experts discussing:
- CEH policies
- Climate change
- Household eco-healthy practices
- Your CEH projects
- CEH in schools
- Voting
- Read an eco-themed kids book
- Lead kids' sing-a-long
- Give a tour of an Eco-Healthy Child Care© endorsed child care facility
- Host a "fireside chat" with your CEH hero
- Feature a CEH-themed AMA on your social media
- Present new CEH research
- Host a distanced dance party for kids
- Read an eco-themed children's poem
- Lead a "how to" on:
- Preventing climate change
- Safely disinfecting and cleaning
- Eco-healthy swaps at home
- Writing a letter or calling a representative
- Finding out more about your organization
- Getting involved in child protective legislation
- Lead a kid's meditation
- Teach a kids yoga class
- Arrange a meeting focused on children's environmental health with a school board, city/county council, or your state legislators
- Host an educational forum, workshop, or webinar on a children's environmental health topic
- Mobilize your community to start a Giving Circle for your favorite children's environmental health organization
- Request a CEH city or state proclamation
- Organize a stream clean-up
- Host an educational workshop
- Launch a new initiative concerning children's environmental health
- Share CEH resources with the kids in your life and talk to them about ways to stay safe from environmental hazards and protect others
- Get a group together, print postcards, and write to your representatives together, focusing on a CEH issue close to your heart
- Host a book or podcast club and discussion with a CEH theme
There are so many ways to get involved with CEH Day! The event or activity that you plan will depend on many factors:
- Who is your target audience? What do they care about? What are they struggling with?
- What are your goals? Your audience's goals?
- What is your budget?
- How much time do you have to plan?
- What are the COVID-19 related restrictions in your area?
- What locations or technology do you and your audience have at your disposal?
Big or small, planning a CEH Day event or activity will help your community members to make the connection between the environment and children's health. Knowledge is power. With it, families and caregivers can take steps to protect children from environmental hazards and champion policies that truly protect their communities. Want to start with some inspiration?
Fundraising for your CEH Day event may seem daunting so we’ve identified a few ways to make this process a little easier, no matter the size of your event:
- Create a detailed list of materials as well as the number of volunteers you
will need to execute the event. Next, divide the list into 3 subgroups:- items that you already have
- items you can borrow or get donated
- items that you will need to purchase.
- Reach out to community organizations and partners who may be willing
to donate materials or money to your CEH Day event (like kid's clubs, local environmental organizations business owners). There may also be community grants that you can apply for jointly with a nonprofit. - Email potential partners, call them, or message them through social media,
and follow up with an in-person meeting. - When asking for donations discuss how their donations can help the CEH Movement grow and effect change.
- Whether someone is willing to give you donations or not, ask them
if they know of anyone or any organization that would be willing to
help. - Take advantage of free press, such as suggesting CEH Day as a piece in a newspaper, or promoting it through social media using the #CEHday hashtag.
Once you've decided on your event, be sure to add it to the CEH Day Map of Events & Activities!
Consider requesting that your mayor or governor proclaim CEH Day. It takes minutes and can be useful in advancing local advocacy efforts.
If you are able to obtain one, be sure to arrange a photo op so that you can personally thank him/her/them and share the photos along with an announcement of the proclamation with your community.
Before the event:
- Ask local businesses to promote and/or sponsor your event.
- Gather volunteers to help run your event. (church groups, scouts, PTA etc.).
- Seek out attendees by connecting with local environmental and public
health organizations. - If you are hosting a community event that involves raising money,
encourage people to make teams. Add a little competition to boost
team performance!
During the event
- Urge attendees to commit to being involved in CEH year-round. Get ideas for this in the Proclamation Advocacy Toolkit.
- Provide a platform for people to share their own knowledge, questions, and stories about CEH. You can use the CEH Share Your Story platform.
- Thank all of the community members who helped make your
CEH Day event a success, both during and after the event (via social media, etc)!
Leverage Social Media
- Use as many platforms as you have the time and energy for, but prioritize those where your current supporters already spend a lot for their time
- Tag people and pages who are involved in CEH, or related fields. Search
for these groups via filtering by hashtags (e.g., #CEHday #ChildrenAtTheCenter #ProtectKidsHealth). - Make your posts pop! Use free online design tools such as Canva to
design fun colorful content and try to tell stories using fewer words and more images. - Create an event hashtag, use it consistently and tell others to use it too. Be sure to include the #CEHday hashtag so others can find you easily.
- CEHN has ready-to-use social media graphics and messaging that you're welcome to use!