Roger Mandle is the president of Rhode Island School of Design, one of the most prestigious art schools in the world .So why is Mandle working so hard to eliminate lead paint poisoning — a crippling condition that attacks a child’s brain?
It’s simple, said Mandle. A non-profit organization such as RISD has a social responsibility. If children are being poisoned by the lead paint in their homes and as a result are not meeting their potential in terms of cognitive development, then someone must do something. It’s about responsibility. It’s about leadership. It’s about doing the right thing.
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The right thing, according to Mandle, and a collection of health and education leaders in Providence, is setting an example.
“The bottom line is that we want our students to come out of their educational experience at RISD as good citizens of the world,” Mandle said. “We have to show an example. This was the way that we decided to express our commitment to the community.”
RISD is not alone in this endeavor. The art school is part of H.E.L.P, a community partnership of colleges and hospitals that also includes: Brown University; Butler Hospital; Johnson & Wales University; The Miriam Hospital; Providence College; Rhode Island Hospital; Roger Williams Medical Center; St. Joseph Hospital for Specialty Care; and Women & Infants’ Hospital.
H.E.L.P was established in 1994 because the institutions involved “shared the belief that a collective, policy-orientated effort would add depth to the spectrum of community service activities already under way at each.”
Since its inception, H.E.L.P has played a critical role in bettering the lives of urban youth. H.E.L.P has contributed $3.75 million in direct funding for programs that benefit the children of Providence — and leveraged $2 million in additional support from its member institutions, private foundations, and government grants. H.E.L.P has established a successful school-based dental program, and has also created a series of professional development programs.
In a sense, H.E.L.P has acted as a voice for children’s issues, a voice with considerable clout. Now, with a series of programs up and running and word getting out that H.E.L.P means business, the organization is using its clout to aggressively attack the city’s lead paint problem.
H.E.L.P has established the Lead Safe Center at St. Joseph Hospital for Specialty Care on Broad Street in Providence. The Lead Safe Center is a resource center for lead education, lead-safe housing information, and policy/advocacy initiatives to prevent lead poisoning. It will also serve as a vital link between families and property owners and lead abatement resources available through the Rhode Island Housing and Mortgage Finance Corporation (RIHMFC) under the state’s new $1.7 million lead abatement program.
H.E.L.P developed the Lead Safe Center in collaboration with parents, health care professionals, community leaders and representatives of the state Department of Health and the Department of Human Services. It is modeled after the Montefiore Hospital Lead Safe House in Bronx, New York, a multidisciplinary center operated by Montefiore Hospital. By the spring of 1999, the center is expected to open at a new home in a turn-of-the-century Queen Anne Victorian at the corner of Congress and Broad Streets. The house is undergoing extensive renovation, and will be developed by its owner, Greater Elmwood Neighborhood Services.
Providence — a city marked by an aging housing stock — has among the highest incidents of lead paint poisoning in the country. The degenerative effects of lead poisoning are irreversible. Lead poisoning hinders a child’s ability to learn — thus hindering that child’s ability to meet his or her potential. Perhaps most troubling to the medical community, is the fact that so many generations of families are being poisoned by lead paint. That phenomena alone is an example of why the medical community, for example, was so anxious to get involved in a program like H.E.L.P.
“There was no place looking at preventing this cycle in Rhode Island where generation after generation is being poisoned,” said Tricia Leddy, director of the Center for Child and Family Health at the state Department of Human Services.
Clinical lead poisoning is one of the most common pediatric health problems in America — and it is entirely preventable. How big is the lead poisoning problem in Rhode Island? Very big.
According to Rhode Island Kids Count, 34,389 Rhode Island children under age six were screened for lead in 1995. One in every five children screened had a blood lead level greater than 10 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood. Blood lead levels greater than 10 cause learning disabilities, hyperactivity, antisocial behavior, attention deficit disorder, hearing and speech impediments, and loss of intelligence. Higher levels of lead exposure can result in serious health problems and can lead to coma, convulsions, and death.
According to the same 1997 Kids Count study, it is Rhode Islands housing stock that creates such a problem — and nowhere is the housing stock older than in Providence. In 1978 the sale of lead-based paint was prohibited throughout the country, yet more than 75 percent of units built before 1978 are believed to contain some lead paint. RIHMFC, according to Kids Count, estimates that more than half of the 414,572 housing units in Rhode Island have potential lead paint hazards.
To Mandle, attacking the lead paint problem is a responsibility the organizations that comprise H.E.L.P have to their community. Classroom test scores will not improve, he said, unless community leaders step forward in an effort to make sure students have the opportunities they deserve.
“If a child is not well, he or she is going to have a difficult time learning no matter how hard they try,” said Mandle.
Louis A. Fazzano, president of H.E.L.P, believes the organization can play a critical role in the community by giving people a place to turn — and the expectation that they will find answers, not a bureaucratic run-around.
“We’re the only place where people can get at the institutions with a certain ease,” said Fazzano. “The goal is to send students to school ready to learn and to graduate students ready to work.”
Tricia LeddyDirector, Center for Child and FamilyFazzano said that the idea is to educate, and be more diligent in enforcing housing code violations. There is talk of fixing documented lead paint problems — by installing new windows in some houses — and then attaching a lien on the property so that owners will be forced to reimburse the state for correcting the poisonous hazard. Fazzano said the priority is to foster community spirit and to get all sides working together.
“We don’t want to drive people out of Providence,” he said.
Hillary Salmons, program manager at H.E.L.P, envisions a capital city with an improved housing stock — one that should attract the interest of real estate developers.
“It is going to be critical that we track which homes are abated,” said Salmons. “Then we can steer families to good, safe housing. I think it is going to create a market demand.”
Combating lead poisoning has apparently become a priority with the state. Gov. Lincoln Almond, during a press conference last week celebrating the establishment of the Lead Safe Center, announced that he would include $1 million in his Fiscal Year 2000 budget proposal for lead prevention and enforcement programs. Last month, the governor made $180,000 available for lead abatement activities in child care centers. Other initiatives proposed by the governor include the creation of a Lead Institute to abate lead in housing units and train workers to become state-certified lead abatement technicians.
Leddy is convinced that the H.E.L.P has the clout — and the conviction — to battle the problem of lead point poisoning. Members of H.E.L.P believe that it is a battle that will ultimately impact the state’s economy. Defeat lead paint poisoning and the likelihood of our urban schools producing skilled workers will rise. Lose the battle and we may continue to see companies head out of state, in search of a more skilled workforce.
Fighting the battle, according to H.E.L.P, is the right thing to do.
“The goal is to send students to school ready to learn, and to graduate students ready to work,” said Leddy. “This is about our students reaching their potential.”
