EPA Lead Program Grant Fact Sheet Coalition Childhood Poisoning EPA has selected the Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning for a National Community-Based Lead Outreach and Training Grant. The Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning will partner with Coppin Heights Community Development Corporation and Coppin State University in Baltimore, MD. The project will deliver much-needed lead outreach and training opportunities to Coppin Heights, an urban, African American neighborhood that has been heavily impacted by lead poisoning historically but has lacked prevention efforts. The project will offer an intensive, multi- tiered combination of formal trainings and seminars, door-to-door home visits, and community events, which will be reinforced by messages from local media. Community residents will experience a wraparound and consistent influx of educational messages about lead poisoning prevention and the tools to take preventative action. EPA's National Community- Based Lead Grant Program EPA grants are helping communities with older housing reduce childhood lead poisoning. The funds enable communities to educate those at risk, provide lead-awareness training and develop local ordinances aimed at lead abatement. The National Community-Based Lead Outreach and Training Grants are aimed at promoting efforts to prevent or reduce childhood lead poisoning. In 2007 The Agency awarded more than $3.1 million in grant dollars to fund this ambitious program. Grant recipients range from city health departments to universities and colleges, community organizations, religious groups, and other non-profit organizations. EPA's lead program is playing a major role in meeting the federal goal of eliminating childhood lead poisoning as a major public health concern by 2010. Projects supported by these grant funds are an important part of this ongoing effort - and we are seeing their effects. By 2002, the number of U.S. children with elevated blood-lead levels dropped to 310,000 from 13.5 million in 1978, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For more information about EPA's Lead Program, visit www.epa.gov/lead or call the National Lead Information Center at 1-800- 424-LEAD. 2007 National Community-Based Lead Grant Program Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics www.epa.gov/lead ------- |