Carolyn A. Kawecki, RN, MA, None, National Center for Healthy Housing, 10227 Wincopin Circle, Suite 100, Columbia, MD 21044, 410-772-2779, ckawecki@centerforhealthyhousing.org and Patricia Magnuson, BFA, MUP, Housing and Community Development Work Group, The Enterprise Foundation, 80 Fifth Avenue, 7th floor, New York, NY 10011.

Low-income neighborhoods are at high risk for childhood lead poisoning and other residential environmental hazards. The majority of children in low-income neighborhoods receive child care through home-based or family child care programs. Renovations to family child care homes thus have the potential to affect many more children than repairs to single-family homes. But low-income child care providers face special obstacles (e.g., too low an income to qualify for many housing rehabilitation programs, a need to sustain the business during renovation, lack of coordination between child care regulatory agencies and housing rehabilitation programs, etc.) The Home-Based Child Care Lead Safety Program, a unique pilot in Rochester and Syracuse, NY offers a model for addressing attitudinal, financial, and programmatic barriers to housing rehabilitation in these units. The two-year pilot rehabilitates 25 licensed home-based child care units, using a combination of federal, state, and private funds, to benefit the health of over 200 children. Activities include lead hazard reduction, improvements in energy efficiency and indoor air quality, and safety-related repairs. Intensive education for providers and parents of children served by the program occurs before and after repairs. Business opportunities are preserved through the creation of a lead safe child care relocation site. The program establishes new collaborations between local child care resource and referral agencies, community development corporations, and national experts in community development, affordable housing, and children’s environmental health. Next steps include dissemination of an implementation guide with model documents and practices to reduce replication costs in other communities.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of the poster session, participants will be able to
• Define family child care and distinguish it from other types of care
• Describe three roles family child care serve for low-income communities (i.e., quality learning environments, small business opportunities, support for neighborhood stability)
• Identify at least three risk factors for childhood lead poisoning and other environmental and safety hazards disproportionately present in low-income home-based child care settings
• Describe at least three attitudinal, fiscal, and programmatic barriers to addressing residential environmental hazards in low-income family child care
• Review at least five components of a pilot project to address residential environmental hazards in low-income family child care (i.e., collaborative partnerships, assessment protocols, business relocation planning, outreach and education, and funding)
• Articulate whether, and what features of, the model developed in the pilot might be replicated in their own communities

Keywords: Child Care, Environmental Health Hazards

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: Grants