Everyday, students like you across the country are exposed to the harmful toxic chemicals that schools use to maintain their grounds. In addition to potentially impacting your own health, these poisons are killing pollinators, decimating biodiversity, wreaking havoc on our soils, and contributing to our climate crisis. It's time for this to change.
We need you to bring this movement to your campus: To spread the word about the importance of native plants, raise the alarm about the harms of toxic pesticides, and help us transform school grounds into climate resilient, biodiverse spaces. Are you ready to join us?
Here are the ways you can get involved:
The Re:wild Your Campus Student Network provides a space for students (and community members) to connect and share ideas, jobs, internships, and knowledge. Hit a roadblock in your campaign? Share it with the Network! The Network is a great place to strategize with students and advocates across the country who are running into the same issues you are.
Members of the Network have access to Re:wild Your Campus staff for 1:1 meetings and access to exclusive educational opportunities. We're here to help you create real, tangible change as you work to eliminate pesticides from your campus.
Our Ground Up Advocacy Bootcamp is a cutting-edge, virtual training intentionally built for emerging community leaders. This two-day program emphasizes coalition building, multimedia training, campaign strategy, and volunteer recruitment in addition to herbicide-specific education. The Bootcamp takes a look at pesticides and their impacts on human and environmental health, all while providing participants with the advocacy and organizing skills to enact change in their communities. Participants walk away with a deeper understanding of toxic chemicals, what it means to rewild spaces, the intersection of human and environmental health, and how these issues tie back to social justice and climate change. Bootcamps take place biannually in the summer and winter. You can fill out our interest form here to stay up to date on our next Bootcamp. You can email us at campus@rewild.org if you have any questions!
If you're ready to start taking action, we suggest emailing decision makers at your school to ask for a meeting. It's important to include relevant stakeholders, like groundskeepers and sustainability staff. It is also important to understand that often groundskeepers do not want to be spraying toxic pesticides -- they just dont know about the alternatives yet. That is where you (and we!) come in. We suggest using this email template to reach out to grounds and sustainability staff at your school.