Michelle C. Kegler, DrPH, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, 1518 Clifton Road NE, Atlanta, GA 30322, 404/712-9957, mkegler@sph.emory.edu and Sally Whitecrow-Ollis, MS, TEAL-Wyandotte Nation, Emory University, PO Box 250, Wyandotte, OK 74370.

Tribal Efforts Against Lead, or the TEAL Project, is tribal-university partnership to address childhood lead poisoning in a rural area contaminated with mine waste in northeastern Oklahoma. This community based intervention study is designed to evaluate the effectiveness of a lay health advisor intervention in reducing children’s blood lead levels and increasing preventive behaviors among caregivers of Native American children living in and near the Tar Creek Superfund site. Tribal partners include the: Wyandotte, Quapaw, Miami, Seneca-Cayuga, Eastern Shawnee, Ottawa, Peoria and Modoc and Shawnee Nations. Outcomes were conceptualized at multiple levels, including: individual, network, organizational and community. The evaluation design involves three cross-sectional population-based blood lead screenings and extensive caregiver interviews. The first was conducted in 1997, the second in 2000, and the third is currently underway. Supplemental evaluation activities included an extensive process evaluation, community leader interviews and organizational network interviews to assess collaboration and community capacity. This presentation will highlight the partnership, intervention design, process evaluation results, and selected outcomes.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe components of a community intervention in environmental health that targets multiple levels of change.
• Describe partnership activities in a tribal-university partnership to combat childhood lead poisoning.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
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.