Eco-Healthy Child Care® Curriculum Adopted by the National Center for Healthy Housing

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NCHH is the premier source of training for healthy homes and healthy environments. I can think of no better partner for the Network to offer our Eco-Healthy Train-the-Trainer curriculum.

(PRWEB) July 31, 2014

The Children’s Environmental Health Network(CEHN) is excited to announce that its Eco-Healthy Child Care® (EHCC) program’s Train the Trainer (TtT) curriculum has been adopted by the National Center for Healthy Housing (NCHH).

EHCC is a national program that seeks to improve the environmental health of children by partnering with child care professionals to eliminate or reduce environmental health hazards found in child care facilities. The EHCC program creates healthier environments in and around child care facilities, and in doing so, creates healthier kids.

A key component of the EHCC program, the 5-hour EHCC Train the Trainer (TtT) curriculum, offers information on 11 core content areas: pesticides, poor air quality, household chemicals, lead, mercury, furniture and carpets, art supplies, plastics, arsenic, radon, and recycling. In each content category, the TtT participants are taught how to reduce a child’s exposure to toxics. The TtT sessions prepare child care trainers, health/nurse consultants and child care licensing staff to become an EHCC resource for their localized communities. Thus, child care providers have a local contact that can provide training and technical assistance and offer direction to helpful resources pertaining to children’s environmental health.

The National Center for Healthy Housing (NCHH) is the premier provider of healthy homes and healthy indoor environment trainings in the U.S. for public health and housing professionals. This past March, twenty-five of NCHH’s 56 training partners, including representatives from Children’s Mercy Hospital and Clinics in Kansas City, and University of Texas School of Public Health, gathered in San Diego, CA to participate in a full 5-hour EHCC training, conducted by CEHN’s EHCC National Director, Hester Paul, and CEHN’s Director of Training and Policy, Carol Stroebel. The EHCC TtT curriculum, now adopted by NCHH, focuses on educating key child care professionals about reducing children’s exposure to common toxicants found within and around child care facilities. The curriculum offers free or low-cost strategies that will improve the environmental health of children within child care settings.

“NCHH is the premier source of training for healthy homes and healthy environments. I can think of no better partner for the Network to offer our Eco-Healthy Train-the-Trainer curriculum,” said EHCC National Director Hester Paul. “We are honored that NCHH is adopting our curriculum, and we are eager to continue to work with NCHH and its training partners to increase awareness of environmental health and best practices by child care providers.”

“Parents want peace of mind that their children are safe at all times and in all places,” says NCHH Executive Director Rebecca Morley. “For two decades, NCHH has focused on keeping kids safe from hazards in their homes. We are delighted to extend our work to child care environments through our collaboration with the Children’s Environmental Health Network. This evidence-based course offers practical and feasible ways for child care providers to provide a healthy and safe child care environment.”

NCHH’s adoption of the EHCC TtT curriculum is a big success for CEHN. NCHH’s 56 training partners across the nation, including Pennsylvania’s IPM Program- Penn State University, and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill among others, will now routinely offer this training, greatly increasing the EHCC trainings delivered and audiences reached. EHCC staff will support this process with the $107,000 contract that CEHN has received through the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. CEHN is excited to continue expanding its efforts to support child care professionals in reducing children’s exposure to environmental health hazards. We thank our partners at NCHH for choosing to adopt the EHCC TtT curriculum.

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