Six groups to split $1.2M in grants

Six local agencies will receive $1.2 million to help eliminate childhood lead poisoning across Rhode Island, according to R.I. Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch and Kurt L. Schmoke, a member of the board of the Washington, D.C.-based Children’s Health Forum.
This first round of grants from the Healthy Kids Collaborative – the statewide lead-safety initiative founded by DuPont Corp., as part of the former lead-paint maker’s June 2005 agreement with the State of Rhode Island, and administered by the Children’s Health Forum and the R.I. Attorney General’s Office – will provide $610,000 per year for two years for community-based outreach, education and training.
The site of their announcement last week was the St. Joseph Hospital for Special Care – a division of St. Joseph Health Services of Rhode Island, which will share in the new money. Joining Lynch and Schmoke for the announcement were Barbara Baldwin, program coordinator of the Pawtucket-based Healthy Kids Collaborative; Barbara Fields, chair of the attorney general’s Advisory Commission on Lead Paint and senior program director of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC); and representatives of the agencies receiving the grants.
The six organizations were selected by the Healthy Kids Collaborative based on applications submitted in response to the group’s September request for proposals (RFP). The organizations and their grants are: The Childhood Lead Action Project, East Bay Community Action Project, West Bay Community Action Project, St. Joseph Health Services of Rhode Island, Blackstone Valley Community Action Program and Thundermist Health Center.
A third year of funding also will be made available to each organization demonstrating satisfactory performance and ongoing need, the attorney general said. Meanwhile, he said, the Healthy Kids Collaborative will coordinate the agencies’ efforts and plan a public-awareness event each year together with the grantees. •