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Four Grants Promoting Healthy Communities Awarded In Connecticut; Projects Funded in Bridgeport, New Haven, Hartford and Stamford

Release Date: 10/29/04
Contact Information:

Contact: Dave Deegan, EPA Press Office (617-918-1017)

For Immediate Release: October 29, 2004: Release # 04-10-31

STAMFORD, CT – Four projects in Connecticut have been awarded EPA healthy community grants totaling $120,000 in order to build on ongoing environmental and public health initiatives. The grants, announced today in Stamford, CT, were among 23 selected in New England. The programs receiving funding all aim to support a goal of creating healthy, livable and safe communities.

Grants of $30,000 each were awarded the City of New Haven, the Farmington Avenue Alliance in Hartford, the Connecticut Department of Public Health and the Bridgeport Community Health Center.

“From reducing lead poisoning to preventing asthma attacks, these groups are doing a great job of creating healthy, liveable and safe communities in Connecticut,” said Linda Murphy, director of EPA New England’s Office of Ecosystem Protection, who announced the grant today at the Stamford Community Health Center. "Today’s grants will help these groups build on their success so that more Connecticut residents can benefit from their work.”

The grants will fund the following projects:

City of New Haven ($30,000) – The Triggers Be Gone program aims to reduce asthma-related hospitalizations and emergency room visits and the severity of asthma by reducing exposure to environmental triggers like mold, cockroaches, environmental tobacco smoke and dust. The program plans to accomplish this goal through education and outreach to schools, families and other community members, as well as distribution of asthma reduction kits to families with asthmatic children.
Farmington Avenue Alliance ($30,000) – Building Healthy Communities Through Good Road Design is attempting to revitalize Farmington Avenue, a major commercial and residential corridor in Hartford. The project will work with the local community to plan an innovative road design, adding bike lanes and increasing walkability in two city neighborhoods, thereby improving the physical urban environment and reducing problems associated with poor health such as lack of exercise and poor air quality caused by auto emissions.
Connecticut Department of Public Health ($30,000) – A School Indoor Environment Resource Team will work to increase the capacity for state agencies, organizations and schools to collaboratively address indoor air quality problems in schools on a systemic basis by utilizing EPA’s Tools for Schools training program. Project partners will target small- and moderate-sized school districts as well as to schools in large urban areas. The project also includes follow-up and evaluation of program implementation in communities, which have previously received Tools for Schools training and development of a protocol to maintain the effectiveness of Tools for Schools training over time.
Bridgeport Community Health Center Inc. ($30,000) – Funds will be used to develop a community-based Asthma Network for Environmental Community Education program that will educate children with asthma and their families about indoor asthma triggers. The target population is a community within Stamford with a high rate of poverty, large immigrant population and asthma prevalence 200 percent than the city’s overall asthma rate. The project will address the micro-environments of children, specifically the home and day care centers, by bringing asthmatic children and their families into the “Breath of Fresh Air” network. Project partners will hold outreach sessions to bring asthma prevention education to day care centers and community gatherings. Families with asthmatic children will also be provided with in-home evaluations, medical case management, and trigger reduction materials.

In 2003, EPA New England initiated the Healthy Communities Grant Program to join together resources from nine separate programs, in order to more strategically address environmental issues affecting public health. The grant program competitively identifies top quality community-based projects that will achieve measurable environmental and human health improvements in communities across New England.

Healthy Communities Grants are targeted to invest action in environmental justice areas of potential concern, places with high risks from toxic air pollution, service sensitive populations, and/or are urban areas. The broad areas intended to be addressed include: Assistance & Pollution Prevention: Schools Sector; Asthma; Children's Environmental Health; Community Air Toxics; Pesticides; Smart Growth; Tools for Schools; Toxics; and the Urban Environmental Program.

More information on EPA New England’s Healthy Community Grants is available at: www.epa.gov/region1/eco/uep/grants_2004hc.html .

Related Information:
Indoor Air
Asthma
Tools for Schools
UEP Community Grants Program
Water Topics-- Clean Water Act, water
quality ...