The Environmental Alliance for Senior Involvement (EASI) is a national nonprofit coalition of environmental, aging and volunteer organizations established in 1991 as the result of a visionary agreement between the US Environmental Protection Agency and the American Association of Retired Persons. EASI's mission is to increase opportunities for older adults to play an active, visible role in protecting and improving the environment in their communities. EASI's national partners include over 300 national, state and local public and private organizations.
EASI identifies support for senior volunteer activities that address national, state and local environmental priorities. Through its national network of 12,000 local organizations, EASI selects local hosts to recruit, train and recognize senior volunteers who carry out a wide range of environmental activities.
Initiated in 1997, the first statewide Senior Environment Corps is the result of a partnership between the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Departments of Aging and Environmental Protection, the Corporation for National Service and EASI. Focused on water quality, the program has mobilized older Pennsylvanians to carry out quality-assured chemical, biological and habitat assessments and to collect the water quality data into an innovative electronic database accessible through the Internet.
In 1999 the Commonwealth of Virginia established the EASI Virginia Senior Environment Corps based on the Pennsylvania model. In 2001, EASI partnered with Oklahoma Blue Thumb to establish a statewide Oklahoma Senior Environment Corps.
EASI is headquartered in Catlett, Virginia and has offices in Arlington, Virginia; Washington, D.C.; Red Lion, Pennsylvania, and Denton, Texas. Its staff oversees government and private sector funding that is granted to local host organizations, providing support for recruitment, training, and supplying senior environmental volunteer programs.
From $10,000 start-up money in 1991, EASI's annual budget has grown to $2.7 million in 2002-2003. The first Senior Environment Corps projects in 1993 mobilized 26 older adult volunteers; in 2003 over 100,000 seniors will be involved in significant environmental activities through the Senior Environment Corps program.
EASI also provides how-to information on all aspects of senior environmental volunteer programs and helps individual Senior Environment Corps become self-sustaining. Through its electronic assets -- EASI's Internet site and server -- individuals and groups all over the world are able to communicate their ideas for new ways that older adults may make a significant contribution to sustainable communities.
EASI publishes an electronic newsletter, EASI Does It!, for 7,000 organizations around the world. EASI partners with the University of North Texas at Denton to produce the Sustainable Communities Review, a semiannual journal that merges traditional concerns for the environment with the social and cultural aspects of community life. EASI's other publications published in collaboration with its partners include brochures and manuals such as The Physician's Green Office Guide, the Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring Training and Field Manuals, How to Create a Successful Homeland Security Program, How to Establish a Successful Volunteer Senior Ranger Corps, Establishing a Successful Brownfields Revitalization Project, and A Green Home is a Healthy Home.
