EPA Lead Program Grant Fact Sheet City of Rock Hill EPA has selected the City of Rock Hill in South Carolina for a National Community- Based Lead Outreach and Training Grant. The City of Rock Hill's urban core is home to many families with both small children and elderly relatives living in older, often substandard, housing, and unaware of the dangers of lead based paint. The Urban Rock Hill Lead Awareness Program will educate, train and empower homeowners, tenants, landlords, and professionals in the importance of Lead Safe Work Practices in order to provide healthy homes for the future of the urban core. The City of Rock Hill will: • Partner with 16 organizations that will participate in community outreach and education activities • Provide information and expertise on identifying potential sources of lead in the neighborhood housing stock • Help neighborhood residents understand all potential sources and health hazards related to exposure to lead • Help neighborhood residents understand the ways in which lead poisoning can be prevented, especially with regard to children, who are particularly vulnerable. 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 ------- |