Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning: Making Homes Safe for Children
Lead and other home-based environmental health dangers and safety hazards put young children at risk of serious long-term problems such as learning disabilities, mental retardation and even death. Historically, Baltimore has had one of the nation's most severe lead poisoning problems. The Baltimore-based Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning combines direct service interventions, technical assistance, education and advocacy in an effort to assure that children are born into and grow up in homes that are safe and healthy, free of preventable threats to their well-being. The Annie E. Casey Foundation made a "bet" that this organization, which already had a successful track record of helping families and promoting policy changes, could use additional funds effectively to alter on a larger scale circumstances that threatened children in poor neighborhoods in the Foundation’s hometown and other communities of special interest.
- With leadership from the Coalition, the number of Maryland children diagnosed each year with lead poisoning or elevated blood lead levels has dropped by more than 94% since 1993, the sharpest decline in the nation. Prevention and intervention services have been provided to 12,500 pregnant women and families with small children, education programs have served nearly 200,000 residents, owners, and service providers, and a media campaign is reaching many more.
- The Coalition has been instrumental in securing many state and Baltimore City legislative and policy changes, including mandatory testing of children at 12 and 24 months in high-risk areas, requiring proof of testing when children enter licensed day care or enroll in Baltimore City public schools, and requiring inspection and repair of older rental properties as leases turn over. Eight of the Coalition's programs or protocols now are mandated for all recipients of certain grant monies from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
- Grants from the Annie E. Casey Foundation totaling almost $400,000 have helped leverage over ten times that amount for the Coalition's Safe at Home and lead hazard control programs in Baltimore. As a national leader on the issue of lead and home-based health hazards, the Coalition has been instrumental in securing and shaping major federal commitments to lead abatement and related initiatives.
For more information, read the full Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning Program Profile, which includes background on the program, why this was of interest to the Casey Foundation, and our return on investment.
Contact:
Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning
2714 Hudson Street
Baltimore, MD 21224
800-370-5323
www.leadsafe.org