PROVIDENCE – Six local agencies will receive $1.2 million to help eliminate childhood lead poisoning across Rhode Island, according to R.I. Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch and Kurt L. Schmoke, a member of the board of the Washington, D.C.-based Children’s Health Forum.
This first round of grants from the Healthy Kids Collaborative – the statewide lead-safety initiative founded by DuPont Corp., as part of the former lead-paint maker’s June 2005 agreement with the State of Rhode Island, and administered by the Children’s Health Forum and the R.I. Attorney General’s Office – will provide $610,000 per year for two years for community-based outreach, education and training.
“As a result of our partnership with the Children’s Health Forum, we have initiated an outstanding model program whose goal is to make the awful and harmful effects of lead poisoning in our kids a scourge of the past,” Lynch said in a statement.
“The Children’s Health Forum is honored to be part of this groundbreaking lead-awareness initiative to provide funding where it is needed most – the community-based organizations that impact the health and safety of our children and families,” said Schmoke, who is also the dean of the Howard University School of Law and a former Baltimore mayor.
The site of their 11 a.m. announcement was the St. Joseph Hospital for Special Care – a division of St. Joseph Health Services of Rhode Island, which will share in the new money. Joining Lynch and Schmoke for the announcement were Barbara Baldwin, program coordinator of the Pawtucket-based Healthy Kids Collaborative; Barbara Fields, chair of the attorney general’s Advisory Commission on Lead Paint and senior program director of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC); and representatives of the agencies receiving the grants.
The six organizations were selected by the Healthy Kids Collaborative based on applications submitted in response to the group’s September request for proposals (RFP). The organizations and their grants are:
• The Childhood Lead Action Project, receiving $110,000 per year for two years to expand its staff so it can increase neighbor-to-neighbor outreach in Providence and support property-owner training classes.
• East Bay Community Action Project, receiving $110,000 per year to add a lead coordinator and expand its staff so it can increase outreach throughout the East Bay, from Newport to East Providence.
• West Bay Community Action Project, receiving $110,000 per year to increase outreach from the South County region to Cranston, add a lead coordinator and expand its education and case-management staff.
• St. Joseph Health Services of Rhode Island , receiving $110,000 per year to add a lead coordinator and a full-time lead counselor, so it can expand outreach and training in Providence .
• Blackstone Valley Community Action Program, receiving $90,000 per year to add full-time staff so the agency can expand its education, outreach and case-management activities in Pawtucket, Lincoln, Cumberland and Central Falls.
• Thundermist Health Center, receiving $80,000 per year for two years to add a project manager to oversee fee-for-service activities of participating organization, increasing their outreach activities in Woonsocket.
A third year of funding also will be made available to each organization demonstrating satisfactory performance and ongoing need, the attorney general said. Meanwhile, he said, the Healthy Kids Collaborative will coordinate the agencies’ efforts and plan a public-awareness event each year together with the grantees.
“Everyone here today is passionately dedicated to our shared mission,” said Lynch, “and I am honored to join with Kurt Schmoke as we empower local organizations throughout the state to combat exposure to lead and enable Rhode Island’s children to grow and thrive free from suffering from its damaging and long-lasting effects.”
The Healthy Kids Collaborative is a joint effort of the R.I. Office of the Attorney General (www.riag.state.ri.us) and the nonprofit Children’s Health Forum. For more information, call HKC at 305-3016 or visit www.chf4kids.org/healthy-kids-collaborative.
