Healthy school group honoured

Congratulations to Citizens for a Safe Learning Environment. This feisty Nova Scotia volunteer-run organization received a national Health Promotion and Innovation Award of Excellence from the Canadian Institute of Child Health (CICH) on National Child Day, 2005.
CASLE, a registered charity, is credited with improving school health and safety for every school child in Nova Scotia. CASLE's work has led to improvements in the way schools across Nova Scotia are operated, maintained and upgraded. New schools in Nova Scotia are also now being built with Healthy Schools Guidelines.

CASLE was begun just over a decade ago by a group of Halifax parents and teachers whose children were affected by their schools' indoor environments. While working to upgrade the conditions in their own schools, group members were surprised at the condition of schools in general and at the apparent lack of knowledge about both the newly recognized risks to health such as indoor air quality and mould growth, and even about well recognized health and safety concerns such as improper asbestos removal. “We decided to work to change the system, says president Karen Robinson, “and that is a long-term commitment.”

CASLE board members have previously won several awards provincially and locally.
See CASLE’s information packed website at www.chebucto.ns.ca/Education/CASLE and find out how to support CASLE’s work through tax deductible donations.