All News Releases By Date

Franklin, NH Receives EPA ‘Healthy Urban Communities” Grant

Release Date: 02/26/04
Contact Information: Contact: Andrew Spejewski, EPA Press Office, (617) 918-1014

For Immediate Release: February 26, 2004; Release # 04-02-15

BOSTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s New England Office announced today that a project in Franklin, NH has been awarded a grant of $16,911 through the agency’s new Healthy Communities Grant Program.

The grant to the New Hampshire office of Community and Public Health will help pay for the High Risk Homes Initiative in Franklin, which has very high rates of childhood lead poisoning and asthma and has been ranked as the highest risk town for children by the NH Child Potential Index.

The program will work to address both childhood risks through a home visitation and education program. Six homes will be visited based on lead testing results and asthma referrals from the Health First Family Care Center. Each home will be visited twice so health hazards can be identified and mitigated. In addition to the home visit program, workshops will also be held to educate families about lead poisoning and asthma triggers in the home.

Launched last year, the regional Healthy Communities Grant Program aims to identify competitive community-based projects that will achieve measurable environmental and human health improvements in communities across New England. A total of 25 grants were awarded across the region.

“All of New England’s residents deserve to live in neighborhoods with clean air, open space and healthy homes and schools,” said Robert W. Varney, regional administrator of EPA’s New England Office. “This grant to Franklin will help the community in its efforts to create a more-livable, safer environment.”

In addition to the Franklin project, EPA has given $30,000 to the Asthma Regional Council of the Medical Foundation, a collaboration of governmental and non-governmental entities, for a project to reduce childhood asthma around New England. Through this project, called the “Regional Collaboration to Address Asthma and the Environment, the council will coordinate efforts to monitor asthma trends and correlate trends to indoor and outdoor air quality. The council will bring together leaders from different levels of government, public and environmental health experts, academics, community development and advocacy groups. It will work with policy makers and health insurers to support programs to reduce indoor air pollutants. The Boston Urban Asthma Coalition, the Conn. Department of Public Health and the US Department of Health and Human Services are working with the regional council.

The Healthy Community grants are being awarded through a partnership of nine different EPA New England Programs: Assistance & Pollution Prevention; the Schools Sector; Asthma; Children’s Environmental Health; Community Air Toxics; Pesticides; Smart Growth; Tools for Schools; Toxics; and the Urban Environmental Program. For more information about the programs, visit the agency’s web site at www.epa.gov/ne.

Related Information:
EPA NE Grants
Asthma