Applying the Framework for Academic-Community Partnerships to WE ACT's Efforts to Reduce Garbage, Pest and Pesticide Exposures in Residential Apartment Buildings in New York City

In this presentation we describe WE ACT for Environmental Justice’s work to improve community environmental health in New York City using the COEC Framework.  WE ACT is the community partner for the Columbia University’s Center for Environmental Health in Northern Manhattan, funded through the National Institute of Environmental Health’s Core Centers program.  This case study focuses on efforts targeting garbage, pests and pesticide (GPP) issues in residential apartment buildings. WE ACT brought together residents, maintenance staff and building management to tackle the issues. WE ACT hired and trained seven local residents to assess GPP issues and trained more than 200 local residents on GPP reduction efforts. To sustain these efforts, WE ACT and its collaborative partners trained building staff on the appropriate methods for reducing garbage waste and integrated pest management. Residents also received training on strategies to minimize conditions that promote pests. In order to sustain these efforts, WE ACT continues to educate new residents and building staff. By using the COEC framework, WE ACT was able to understand and document their effort to work collaboratively with communities to collect local data and to provide information to community audiences. WE ACT also used the framework to evaluate the impact of the change on community and to share this progress with other stakeholders, which is expected to be helpful in planning and writing proposals for other funders.