Green & Healthy Homes Announces New Grants to Reduce Indoor Air Pollution and Help Combat Asthma
For immediate release: Wednesday, November 8, 2017
Contact: Morgan Williams Grogan
morgan.williams@berlinrosen.com, 202-836-9890
Awards to Community-Based Organizations Will Improve Indoor Environments and Health Outcomes
BALTIMORE – The Green & Healthy Homes Initiative (GHHI) today announced a new award to help community organizations develop programs to improve indoor air quality and reduce asthma cases across the country.
With funding from the Environmental Protection Agency totaling $200,000, this year GHHI will support organizations working to improve in-home environments and reduce incidences of asthma. Simultaneously, GHHI will work to secure additional Medicaid funding for such improvements, as well as develop an evaluation system called Environmental Management & Health Outcomes Metrics (EMHOME).
As a first step, GHHI will select up to five projects proposed by organizations working to reduce asthma in their communities. The selectees will form a cohort that, over the course of eight months, will receive pro bono technical assistance from GHHI and share data on designing and implementing asthma-reduction programs. Working together, the cohort will increase the number of home-visiting programs that identify ways to reduce environmental triggers that cause asthma. To learn more about applying for an award, please click here.
“Research shows that by individually tailoring ways to eliminate environmental triggers of asthma, we can successfully reduce asthma symptoms, the number of hospital visits caused by asthma attacks, and the amount we spend on medication and treatment,” said Ruth Ann Norton, President and CEO of the Green & Healthy Homes Initiative. “Unfortunately, asthma is a growing problem across the nation that worsens social inequalities, especially when it affects children and minorities. Through this innovative strategy, we can make a big impact in the fight against asthma while meeting people’s needs at the local level.”
GHHI’s campaign to reduce asthma is multi-faceted. In December 2017, GHHI will accept applications for one healthcare organization and one service provider to participate in a policy working group, which will focus on identifying policy issues and funding models in order to secure Medicaid funding for asthma-prevention projects.
Finally, GHHI will work to standardize and evaluate the effectiveness of asthma-reduction programs by developing a set of metrics. The Asthma Outcome Metrics Working Group will convene in January 2018 to develop an Environmental Management and Health Outcomes Metrics (EMHOME) system, which will determine ways to comprehensively weigh outcomes of these programs on cost-effectiveness, environmental hazard reduction, and improvements in quality of life.
For full details on award rules, please see the full Request for Information.
###
The Green & Healthy Homes Initiative partners with cities, counties and states across the country to make sure that every child has a safe and healthy home to grow and thrive in, free of lead and other hazardous toxins, regardless of their zip code or socioeconomic status.