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Community IPM Program Receives EPA Urban Initiative Grant - February 2004

February 17, 2004

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA - Pests and pesticide use in and around schools and other urban dwellings often result in unhealthy indoor and outdoor environments. Reducing these risks through community outreach is the goal of a Penn State educational program recently awarded an EPA Urban Initiative Program Grant.

The Pennsylvania IPM Program's Philadelphia Community IPM Partnership was formed last year to conduct an integrated pest management (IPM) education effort based on service learning. "The partnership aims to build the capacity of students at the Shaw Middle School in West Philadelphia to recognize, manage, and prevent pest and pesticide related health risks by using IPM," says Teresina Bailey, Community IPM Outreach Coordinator. The goal is to then transfer the IPM message from teachers and students to the community at large through community outreach and service learning.

Integrated pest management, or IPM, aims to manage pests -- such as insects, diseases, weeds and animals -- by combining physical, biological and chemical tactics that are safe, economical and environmentally compatible.
Bailey and Nicole Webster, assistant professor of agricultural extension and education at Penn State, are developing the service learning project. Service learning provides youth with skills to promote self-confidence, citizenship, and leadership to deal with these situations. Service learning also helps to shape individuals by providing them with opportunities to truly connect with their communities. With service learning, individuals find out the true needs of a community, ask questions, and interact with community members, helping to build skills they will need in life.

The service learning project aims to build the capacity of students at the Shaw Middle School to recognize, manage, and prevent pest and pesticide related health risks by using IPM rationale and methods. Awareness of these risks and IPM solutions will be both taught and implemented at Shaw and simultaneously spread to the students' larger community through curriculum development and educational outreach and demonstration programs. Shaw students will create projects that will serve as a model for implementation of IPM in schools throughout the School District of Philadelphia and statewide.

The PA IPM Program is dedicated to partnering with others to overcome obstacles and to promote IPM education and use in both schools and urban communities. Partnerships for this project include people involved in education, policy and outreach from Penn State Education Partnership Program, Philadelphia Allies Against Asthma, American Lung Association, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia - Community Asthma Prevention Program, Cobbs Creek Community Environmental Center, Delaware Valley Earth Force, Philadelphia Department of Public Health - Vector Control, EPA Region III, Grace Community Christian Center, Health Promotion Council of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Inc., Lancaster Avenue Business Association, Penn State Department of Agriculture Extension and Outreach, Penn State Philadelphia County Cooperative Extension, Michigan Department of Agriculture - Pesticide & Plant Pest Mgt. Div., Mid-Atlantic Regional Asthma Initiative, Philadelphia Area Labor-Management Committee - Good Schoolkeeping Program, Philadelphia Department of Education, Pittsburgh Board of Education - Plant Operations, School District of Philadelphia - Office of Grants Development and Support, Schuylkill Environmental Education Center, Serious Teens and Adults Acting Responsibly, Shaw Middle School, Philadelphia.

To find out more about PA IPM's Community IPM effort, go to Web site http://paipm.cas.psu.edu/community.html
The Pennsylvania IPM program is a collaboration between the Pennsylvania State University and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture aimed at promoting integrated pest management in both agricultural and nonagricultural situations. For more information, contact the program at (814) 865-2839, or Web site http://paipm.cas.psu.edu.