Even if you don’t feel comfortable quite yet rocking your neighborhood boat or shaking up your city council, you can still start laying the groundwork for future changes by starting a neighborhood group, joining your neighborhood association, or sitting in on city council meetings. Get to know the people in your community and the issues they are concerned about. Once you’ve established yourself as a friend and committed citizen, introduce your own ideas.

Use MeetUp.com to find or start a group in your area. Just enter a topic and your zipcode to see if others are already meeting to discuss the issue or to invite others to meet. Meetup is the world's largest network of local groups. Meetup makes it easy for anyone to organize a local group or find one of the thousands already meeting up face-to-face. More than 2,000 groups get together in local communities each day, each one with the goal of improving themselves or their communities.

After you’ve made some allies, here are three ways to start creating a healthier community:

1. Reduce pesticide use by following the 10 Steps to Pesticide-Free Parks from the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides, joining the National Coalition for Pesticide-Free Lawns, or by promoting a Model City-Wide IPM Policy.
2. Get your city (or Park and Rec or Libraries or any institution) to buy healthier, eco-friendly products by using the Responsible Purchasing Network, the US EPA’s Environmentally Preferable Purchasing program, or a Green Purchasing Self Assessment Tool
3. Promote green cleaning with tools from the Federal Office of the Environmental Executive. They also host The Green Cleaning Pollution Prevention Calculator which quantifies the projected environmental benefits of purchasing and using "green" janitorial services and products. It is designed to forecast the environmental benefits of reducing chemical use by doing some or all pollution prevention measures typically involved in the routine interior cleaning of an office building. This tool also enables users to identify which green cleaning measures will have the greatest impact in reducing their use of hazardous chemicals and in preventing pollution.

Legislators are not mind readers and they certainly don’t know everything. They rely on you to contact them with your concerns and help educate them about issues so they can make informed decisions. Try to get in the habit of knowing who your elected officials are and how to contact them. Send letters with your concerns and thank you notes when appropriate (adding a picture or hand written note from your child adds a compelling touch).

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