Through funding from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region IV, Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health collaborated with the Baldwin County Advisory Panel to assess the community's perceived exposure to pesticides, asbestos and lead (PAL) and develop health education activities to address children's environmental health in rural Georgia. This initiative developed a coordinated community and government partnership to address exposure to pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), asbestos, and lead faced by children at home, school, and play. This presentation will describe the development of the advisory board, the involvement of advisory board members, and measures of institutionalization of the initiative within this diverse community. The advisory board helped make community-driven and informed decisions throughout the initiative. The board members contributed comments and discussion about the community assessment and educational opportunities through the board meeting, a delphi survey, interviews, and other short assessments in addition to defining sustainable measures for the initiative. Strategies to increase participation of the advisory board included regularly scheduled meetings, agenda items for each meeting, status reports on the initiative, short seminars to educate the members about environmental health issues, and using their community contacts to facilitate project events. The coalition of different community agencies represented by the advisory board brought recognition to the initiative, material resources through the EPA, settings for the health education events, and community volunteers to assist in teaching children about environmental health threats. Lessons learned and recommendations for working with community coalitions will be discussed.
Learning Objectives: 1. Describe methods to develop and maintain a community coalition to promote children's environmental health in a rural community. 2. Describe strategies to increase active participation of the advisory board members. 3. List lessons learned from two years of experience in working with a community coalition
Keywords: Community Collaboration, Environmental Health
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.