Community Outreach (COEP)

Community outreach and education is essential to enhance the public’s knowledge, and to reduce misconceptions, about environmental issues and human health effects related to the environment. National surveys have long shown that there is a real need to better educate the public and community about environmental issues facing our ever more technological society. The National Environmental Education & Training Foundation (NEETF) commissions an annual Roper Poll to assess public knowledge about the environment and surveys the public’s attitudes and behaviors about environmental issues. When asked directly, most Americans say they know at least “a fair amount” about environmental issues and problems. However, when knowledge is measured via performance on a pre-tested environmental quiz (12 multiple-choice questions about recent environmental topics), most Americans correctly answer 8 or fewer questions. The responsibility of promoting better understanding of environmental and environmental health issues rests largely with public agencies, community leaders, non-governmental organizations, research centers, the media, and science educators. The NYU NIEHS Center of Excellence has long believed that Environmental Health scientists, because of their specialized knowledge and credibility with the public, bear a special burden to make their research known and understood by the non-scientific community, so that environmental knowledge, practical behaviors, and best policies can be engendered in our society.
For many years the NYU Community Outreach and Education Program (COEP) and the NYU NIEHS Center Outreach Program has successfully carried out numerous initiatives with the help and support of many of its Center members. Some past and/or ongoing initiatives are listed below and the details of some specific programs are highlighted following.

“Science in Action” Student Programs
Community Advisory Activities and Collaborative Efforts
Science and Community Interaction Forums
High School Student Mentoring
Web-based Environmental Health Education Efforts
NIEHS Center Speakers Bureau
Community Based Scientific Presentations

“Science in Action” Student Program

Our past experience in the South Bronx (New York) was one of the most extensive and far-reaching outreach and education initiatives undertaken to date by NYU Community Outreach. The NYU/EPA South Bronx Environmental Health & Policy Study: Youth Participation & Leadership Program was conducted in conjunction with an ongoing study of air pollution in the South Bronx being conducted by another Center member. The main goal of the South Bronx Environmental Health and Policy Study was to examine environmental and health issues affecting the South Bronx, with particular emphasis on the relationships between air quality, transportation, waste transfer activity, demographic characteristics, and public health. The South Bronx Environmental Health & Policy Study program was a collaborative project that involved the NYU School of Medicine’s Nelson Institute of Environmental Medicine (NIEM), the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service’s Institute for Civil Infrastructure Systems (ICIS), and four South Bronx community groups including The Point Community Development Corporation, We Stay/Nos Quedamos, Sports Foundation Inc. and Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, Inc. The objective of the Youth Participation and Leadership Program was to actively engage high-school students from the study area to learn from the project by training them in environmental science, policy and health, and by offering them a chance to work directly with scientists and policy experts in these areas. The Program consisted of three 8-week sessions that strengthened student skills in basic areas of environmental health, while focusing on specific environmental health issues relevant to the community, such as asthma. The NYU-NIEHS Center plans to maintain an ongoing multi-year relationship with these four community-based organizations located in the South Bronx, and will build on the high school environmental education program that has been developed there.

Advisory Activities and Collaborative Efforts:

A Speakers Bureau of NIEHS Center members who give presentations to local civics groups and communities on topics of interest to the public was established in 2005. Dr. Judith Zelikoff, for example (Director, NYU COEP) spoke on the hazards of wood burning as part of the Ramsey (NJ) Environmental Commission seminar series. She discussed how wood burning could bring the indoor and outdoor particulate pollution levels above the safety standards. The Ramsey Governing Board selected this particular topic for presentation to the community, as it represents an important health issue for both local and state residents. Dr. Wirgin has presented several seminars on environmental issues related to PCBs to Stuyvesant High School (NYC) students at The River Project, a marine science field station that works to protect and restore the ecosystem of the Hudson River estuary through scientific research, hands-on environmental education, and urban habitat improvement. Many of our NYU NIEHS Center members, as well as numerous other notable scientists, have presented talks on relevant scientific topics at the Hudson Valley (NY) Science Café in Newburgh, NY. The Science Café, managed by Dr. Rossman, is an open-to-the-public monthly dinner gathering that includes a short scientific presentation followed by open discussion. Recent topics have included discussion on the World Trade Center disaster and human health, air pollution, genomics, epigenetics and genetic susceptibility to disease.
As science is being “squeezed” out of many schools nationwide, it is imperative that K-12 students be educated in the principles, concepts and careers in environmental health science, particularly in toxicology. Thus, we partner with the John’s Hopkins’ Center for Talented Youth Program to translate into theory and practice how toxicology “operates” in the real world. Each spring, thirty 5th and 6th grade gifted and talented (defined as students scoring in the 97th percentile and above on a standardized test administered in their state) students, along with their parents, attend our annual 2-day “Science in Action Program” held at the Sterling Forest Visitors Center located in the Frank Lautenberg State Park adjacent to our campus. They actively participate in “hands on” laboratory experiments on air pollution, environmental microbiology, and DNA/genomics, as well as engage in various nature field study activities. The overall goal of this collaborative initiative is to provide a culturally-diverse group of gifted and talented students with a deeper understanding of scientific processes and experimental methods. Employing a multi-disciplinary approach improves the students’ views of environmental issues and of science in general. In addition, this workshop serves to strengthen NYU’s partnership with Johns Hopkins’ long-standing and successful community outreach and education program. NYU NIEHS Center researchers also reach out to 5th-12th graders at a Y2K initiative held annually at nearby Stewart Air Force Base (Newburgh, NY) whereabout 3,000 students from all over New York come to increase their awareness about career opportunities. The NYU COEP program of the NIEHS Center will continue to serve as a partner for many of these outreach programs, and will also seek out cooperation in field science/data collection in such areas as air quality, water quality, and soil chemistry.
Another community outreach initiative is our partnership with the Bellevue/NYU Occupational & Environmental Medicine Clinic in New York City. The clinic identifies target communities based upon their patient groups, and the NYU NIEHS Center then can utilize their resources and expertise to provide unbiased and accurate information about environmental health risks associated with the specific New York City target populations, in particular low-income workers who may be at elevated risk for occupationally-related diseases, such as work-aggrevated asthma. Through these “bedside to bench” initiatives, community-guided, information-sharing, and educational actions, the NYU COEC will expedite the process of linking the NIEHS Center’s scientific expertise and research results with public needs and interests, especially those of local communities in and around New York City and its nearby suburbs in NY and NJ.

Community Forums

Of the numerous Community Forums conducted by NYU scientists, of greatest prominence were the three World Trade Center (WTC) Forums held in lower Manhattan in 2001 and 2002. After the September 11th attack in 2001, the NYU Community Outreach and Education Program was an active participant in efforts to inform the public about potential environmental health implications of the aftermath of the disaster. As there was much distrust of government pronouncements about environmental safety at this moment, time was of the essence for developing an effective outreach menu that would address the questions posed by the public. The goal of the NYU COEP in this case was to make the scientific information and resources of our Center available to the public and to address their concerns. The media, community forums, and a community newsletter all became vehicles to get accurate information out to the public.
NYU organized a public forum held at the NYU Washington Square campus entitled “Environmental Health Issues Related to the World Trade Center Disaster” to an audience of over 400 downtown residents. At this forum, the research results and plans of the various participating NIEHS Centers were presented. This was followed by a free-flowing question and answer period carried over one and one-half hours, during which time experts from the various NIEHS Centers applied their knowledge and expertise to try to answer the public’s many concerns and questions.

High School Student Mentoring

The NYU Community Outreach Program has a long-standing relationship with a number of high schools in the local New York and New Jersey area. Students are invited to come to our Institute, acquire a research mentor, and learn laboratory skills associated with environmental health science research. Two NYU faculty and NIEHS Center members, Drs. Zelikoff and Klein have been very active in this program and have been mentoring high school students of all levels for about 12 years. Many of these students have won regional science competitions, and several have been recognized as Intel and/or Seimens Westinghouse finalists or semi-finalists. High school students find their way to our program by networking with other students in their high school and/or by searching the Web to find a laboratory and NYU mentor with whom they would like to work. This program is ongoing and will expand to include additional New York and New Jersey high schools that offer advanced science programs.

Web-Based and Graphic Design Educational Efforts

One of the main pathways of interaction between Department faculty and the public has been through the NYU Internet WWW “topic-oriented” environmental problems reference page. The site lists more than 80 environmental issues for which Department faculty expertise can be obtained. Individual faculty research pages and/or other relevant web-links are provided to users visiting the award-winning site. America Online named this web page as one of the “Best Human Interest Sites on the World Wide Web”; the Outreach web page was also designated a Look-Smart “Editor’s Choice”.