About theSTEP Project

About the Sebastopol Toxics Education Program (STEP)

• About the STEP Project •

The Sebastopol Toxics Education Program (STEP) is an innovative city-wide toxics-reduction program in Sebastopol, California.

STEP's mission is to support reduced use of pesticides and other toxics all around Sebastopol, thus creating a healthier and safer town for everyone. Sebastopol is in Sonoma County, in northern California, about an hour north of San Francisco.

The project was officially started when, in May of 1999, the Sebastopol City Council voted to establish Sebastopol as a Voluntary Toxics-Free Zone. With this resolution, the City chose to avoid using toxic pesticides on City-maintained property, and to support voluntary reduction of pesticide use among residents.

To implement this resolution a volunteer citizen's group called the Sebastopol Toxics Education Program (STEP) was formed.

• The Next STEP newsletter •

Currently, STEP's primary project is a 2-page newsletter called The Next STEP, which is sent 6 times a year to all City residents in their water bills. This friendly, informative newsletter offers helpful information about the potential health and environmental harm of common household toxics - and about the viable, earth-friendly (and often less-expensive) alternatives one can use. We are now entering our third year of newsletters. Here's a sample of some of our topics:

* What Are Pesticides - And Why Should We Be Concerned About Them?
* Pesticides & Cancer
* Pesticides & Parkinson's Disease
* Children & Pesticide Exposure at School
* Controlling Ant Invaders
* Snails Be Gone!
* Eating Your Weeds
* Got Mosquitoes?
* Vinegar: Your Multi-Purpose Cleaner
* The Glories of Borax
* Sticky Barriers
* Nurturing Your Garden Non-Toxically
* Designing with Permaculture
* Healthy Homes for the Holidays
* And more!

These newsletters are distributed to a majority of the town at a very low cost, because the newsletters are: created by volunteers; copied on City machines; and included in the current water bill mailing, with no added postage required.

>> TO SEE CURRENT AND BACK ISSUES of The Next STEP newsletter, either:
* See our handy index by topic.
* See the official STEP page on the City of Sebastopol website, for a chronological listing, at <www.ci.sebastopol.ca.us/toxicseducation.shtml>.

>> TO STAY IN TOUCH: We also have two email lists to keep you in touch with The Next STEP.

(1) STEP Announcement List. For those who want to be informed when a new issue has been released, to remind you to check in your water bill or the website.
(2) STEP PDF List. For those who want to automatically be emailed a PDF file with the newsletter when it's released.

To sign up for either list, email <pd@patriciadines.info>. Be sure to indicate which list you're interested in and your name; your city and town; and how you heard about STEP.

We welcome story ideas and guest writers. For more information, see <www.healthyworld.org/STEPWriter.html>.

• Other Possible Projects •

We also see other ways STEP might act towards our objectives, and we invite area residents to work with us in creating related projects. For instance, some other project ideas we'd love to pursue include:

* Business Outreach - Support areas businesses and their customers to choose less-toxic options.
* School Outreach - Find out where local schools are in their pesticide use and either tell the good news of their less-toxic efforts and/or support them in reducing their use of toxics. Encourage educational curriculum about toxics and alternatives.
* Media Outreach - Write articles about toxics and alternatives, and the STEP program, for local periodicals.
* Grants/Funding - Investigate and pursue grants and other funding that will support our goals.

We're also interested in collaborative partnerships with people and groups working on projects related to our goals. More specific ideas for projects are in the Resolution's Exhibit A. To see the City's resolution, click here.

• Other Ways You Can Support STEP •

STEP is made possible by area volunteers. You can pitch in! For instance, you can:
* Send us your story ideas, questions, and success stories.
* Offer a couple hours of your time for mailings and other short projects.
* Write articles for the newsletter. (Either propose an article you'd like to write, or talk with us about some ideas we have that might fit your interests.). For more information, see <www.healthyworld.org/STEPWriter.html>.
* Offer your original black-and-white graphics for publication (with credit of course!). We're looking for fairly simple black-and-white graphics of nature, and humans in healthy interactions with nature.
* If you live in the town of Sebastopol, tell the City Council that you appreciate this project and why, including how it's helped you reduce your use of toxics.

• Program Results •

To get feedback from Sebastopol residents about the newsletter, we include feedback cards in the first issue of each year. This is a summary of the results of this survey in 2005:

* 94% said they find The Next STEP newsletter helpful and interesting. (This is up from 85% last year, with 20% more people responding.)
* Of those responding about pesticide use, 51% said they don't use pesticides at home or work and 49% said they do. Of those, about 48% use just natural pesticides, 19% just synthetic, and 32% use both. This is a notable shift towards natural pesticides. Last year, 37% used just natural and 31% used just synthetic.

* We were delighted that 84% of respondents said that this newsletter has helped them reduce their use of toxics. (This is up from 74% last year.) It was valuable and heartening to hear their examples &endash; from using soapy water on aphids to encouraging beneficial bugs in their garden to cleaning their drain less-toxically.

* Many also provided excellent ideas for future issues and appreciation for our work.

• Supporting Other Cities •

One of our intentions with this project has been to see if we could develop and test techniques that might support other cities in doing similar actions. If your city is considering a similar program, you can see the text of the City's Resolution, as well as the letter to Sebastopol residents from the City Council announcing the program and newsletter. Just click here. If your city is interested in using modified versions of the newsletter, or creating custom ones for your city, please contact us to explore what your interests are and see what we can work out, what costs might be involved, etc.

• For More Information •

To contact the STEP program, write: STEP, c/o The City of Sebastopol, P. O. Box 1776, Sebastopol CA 95473

ABOUT STEP

STEP's mission is to support Sebastopol citizens in reducing their toxic use and exposure,
creating a healthier and safer Sebastopol for everyone.

Newsletter Editor and Layout: Patricia Dines

Newsletter Editorial Team: Patricia Dines and Jim Gleaves

Newsletter Design Concept and Logo Design: Lyn Bouguereau

STEP Founders: Michael Black, Patricia Dines, Rebecca Dwan, Jeff Edelheit, Nan Fuchs, Craig Litwin, and Larry Robinson.

STEP, P. O. Box 1776, Sebastopol CA 95473

WEB: www.ci.sebastopol.ca.us

This page is on the Community Action Publications (CAP) website because we participate in and support the STEP program and want to make additional information available about its activities.

For more information about organics and other alternatives to toxics, see our Toxics and Alternatives Resources Page.

For information about Sonoma County and area toxics, organics, and environmental and political information and action, see our Sonoma County Resources Page.

Information courtesy of:

"Information Empowering Action for a Better World"

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