Community Action for a Renewed Environment: The Westlawn Partnership for a Healthier Environment

The Westlawn Partnership for a Healthier Environment was founded in 2008 with support from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's CARE (Community Action for a Renewed Environment) program. Westlawn is home to Milwaukee, Wisconsin's largest public housing development, and is an economically disadvantaged community with a wide range of environmental risks and related health problems due to environmental exposures. The Westlawn CARE Partnership is comprised of 26 different organizations, including Westlawn community members, local schools, local businesses, elected officials, institutions of higher education, city and state health departments, the public housing authority, non-profit organizations, and more. The Westawn CARE Partnership meets on a regular basis, has identified and prioritized the environmental concerns in the community, and has begun taking action to address those concerns. For example, indoor air quality was the area of highest concern to the Westlawn CARE Partnership due to high rates of asthma, especially in children, in the community. An early success of the Partnership includes the construction of asthma-friendly housing units in the public housing development, which are carpet-free, smoke-free, etc. Three community health workers have been hired to support the Westlawn CARE Partnership project. This presentation will discuss how the Partnership was built, the role of the community health workers in the Partnership, and how the Partnership will be sustained so that future Westlawn community members can benefit from improvements in the environmental health of the Westlawn neighborhood.