Lead poisoning continues to be a major public health issue for many communities, causing permanent and disabling health impacts that disproportionately affect children, communities of color, recent immigrants, and those living in low-income housing. CDC estimates that approximately 500,000 children in the US have blood lead levels at or above the blood lead reference value, and Congress has committed funding across federal agencies as a result. Multi-sector lead poisoning prevention efforts are needed to improve health outcomes in these communities. Such efforts include equity-informed, aligned strategies that bring together multiple stakeholders in a community, including those in public health and housing, to address this public health issue more effectively.

This session will introduce participants to a successful model for improving collaborative efforts focused on lead poisoning prevention within local communities. The Leadership Academy for the Public’s Health (LAPH), a program of the PHI Center for Health Leadership & Impact (CHLI), has sponsored over 180 teams and trained more than 800 public health leaders across 49 states and territories since 2012. LAPH has worked in partnership with the CDC's National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH) to recruit and train a subset of teams focused specifically on the issue of lead poisoning prevention through a new Lead-Free Communities (LFC) initiative. Using learnings from LAPH, LFC teams have applied equity-oriented principles to lead poisoning prevention work in their own communities, and have made gains in their collaborative partnerships and impacts.

Presenters will describe how the core features of LAPH programming can be adapted for individuals, teams, and organizations across the country focused on lead poisoning prevention. Presenters will highlight two LFC team case studies from Louisville, Kentucky and Madison County, Missouri that successfully passed local policy change and cultivated a successful partnership and messaging strategy in a deeply rooted coal-mining community.