Childhood Lead
Poisoning Prevention Coalitions in New York State:
Building Community Capacity
Funded by the New York State
Health Foundation
 Lead poisoning is the most
significant children’s environmental health threat in New York
State. Despite population-wide decreases in lead poisoning rates, rates
remain high in upstate New York, particularly among low-income children
living in older housing. To address this policy gap, diverse
stakeholders in Rochester came together in 2000 to form the Coalition
to Prevent Lead Poisoning (CPLP).
Through years of developing a robust
coalition, the CPLP has successfully promoted community awareness,
direct action, and local policy change. These efforts culminated in
passage of a local lead law in 2005 that is considered a national
model, and is currently being considered as a model for statewide
legislation.
This year-long project (January
2008-December 2008) leveraged CPLP’s experience in local lead
poisoning prevention to foster lead coalitions in three other counties
in upstate New York: Cayuga, Chemung, and Oneida (partners pictured in
photo on this page). Although these counties differ in many ways, each
of these counties has a significant amount of older housing in poor
condition, resulting in high lead poisoning rates. The University of
Rochester’s Environmental Health Sciences Center’s (EHSC)
Community Outreach and Education Core (COEC), a longtime member of the
CPLP, coordinated the project. The COEC partnered with community groups
in each of these three counties to draft a local Lead Poisoning
Prevention Needs Assessment. The local partners aided in identifying
and convening diverse stakeholders in their communities to form or
augment a lead coalition. Based on these initial steps, the local
partners planned a Direct Action project to take concrete steps to
provide lead education, outreach, and capacity-building. Reports of
these projects and their outcomes can be found through the links
below.
Throughout the project, the
Rochester-based CPLP provided technical assistance to each local
coalition based on its experiences in Rochester. The overall goal of
the project was to build a model for supporting the development of
local coalitions throughout the state.
Final Report and
Appendices:
Final
Report
Direct Action
Outreach Materials and Events
EHSC Partners:
Cayuga County, Cornell
Cooperative Extension
Chemung County, Catholic
Charities
Oneida County, Mohawk
Valley Community Action Agency
Monroe County, Coalition to
Prevent Lead Poisoning
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