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Partners
Partners | Partner Roles and Responsibilities | Becoming a Partner | Sustaining Your Partnership | Current Partners
Use this public service announcement to promote responsible chemical management in your organization. Ask your EPA headquarters contact for more information.
Schools cannot undertake chemical cleanout and management programs without your support. Consider what your business or organization can contribute to school chemical management. Trade/Professional organizations, chemical suppliers and manufacturers, waste handlers, educational institutions, private businesses, and social service organizations are some examples of businesses and organizations that have the resources and expertise to share with a school or school district.
As a local business or organization, you can play an important role in creating a safe and healthy environment in your local school. Join with school personnel and other community partners to pool your expertise and resources to develop a program with these goals in mind:
- Remove potentially dangerous, unknown, outdated, and unnecessary dangerous chemicals from K-12 schools;
- Implement practices to safely manage chemicals and prevent future accumulations; and
- Raise awareness of the issues related to responsible chemical management in schools.
What's New?
Building Successful Programs to Address Chemical Risks in Schools (PDF) (173 pp, 1.5MB, about PDF)Becoming an SC3 Partner is a win-win proposition for you and the schools you assist. Your organization can benefit from becoming involved in school chemical management in the following ways:
Benefits to a Partner Organization
- Organizational pride and satisfaction from improving school health and safety
- Enhanced image as a leader in the community
- Recognition that comes with being part of a federal campaign that has the backing of the EPA and other agencies
- Heightened organizational visibility via recognition on high-traffic Web sites, in the media, and at recognition events
- Eligibility for credit for EPA’s Performance Track program (if applicable)
Benefits of Partnering with a School
Your organization may choose to partner with a school or school district and/or with EPA. Partnering with a school or school district can have its own set of benefits for your organization. There are a number of ways a school or school district may choose to publicly recognize your organization’s efforts to make schools safer:
- Presenting an award to partner at a public ceremony or school board meeting;
- Drafting a press release or contacting local media outlets to inform them of a partner’s efforts;
- Publicizing a partner’s assistance in a school newspaper or Web site; and
- Informing the U.S. EPA of a partner’s successful collaboration.
Benefits of Partnering with SC3
In addition to partnering with a school, your organization may want to consider signing an EPA SC3 Partnership Agreement. EPA helps partners find schools and offers guidance on how to work effectively with schools. The agency also offers a number of ways to recognize a partner’s efforts:
- EPA will recognize your commitment to promoting responsible chemical management in K-12 schools by presenting your organization with a plaque at a recognition event attended by the press and other media.
- EPA will add your organization to the Current Partners and Accomplishments Page on the SC3 Web site as an official national partner. A success story about your partnership with a school or school district will be posted so other schools, partners, and the public can learn about your achievements.
- EPA will routinely hold recognition events to recognize schools and partners in the coming years.
- EPA will include your organization in its national partner network where you will have the opportunity to:
- Learn about and share best practices and solutions to overcoming barriers in SC3 partnerships; and
- Build valuable business relationships with other partners.
- Periodic SC3 Partnership Meetings will give you a chance to provide input to EPA on the direction of the national program.
- EPA will work with your organization to incorporate your contributions into articles placed in trade association journals and related publications.
Explore the following pages to learn more about partnering for responsible chemical management in schools: