By Ellen H. King
July 12, 2004

At the United States Conference of Mayors 72nd Annual Meeting immediate past President Hempstead (NY) Mayor James A. Garner and DuPont Senior Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel Stacey J. Mobley, awarded $500,000 to three cities for their lead-safety efforts. The USCM/DuPont Cities United for Science Progress (CUSP) partnership sponsors the Lead-Safe...For Kids' Sake Grant Program.

One award for $300,000 was presented to Miami (FL) Mayor Manuel Diaz. Awards for Distinction in the amount of $100,000 were given to St. Louis (MO) Mayor Francis Slay and Boston (MA) Mayor Thomas Menino.

CUSP's Lead-Safe...For Kids' Sake grants are awarded for mayors' proposals which create new and effective solutions to help make city neighborhoods lead-safe. Over seventy cities submitted applications this year. Grant recipients are able to use their award funds to implement critically needed lead-safe practices.

"In this, our third year of the grant competition, we continue our efforts in assisting cities in creating a lead-safe environment," noted Mobley. "This year's award-winning cities are examples of a nationwide commitment to creating a safer future for our children. DuPont is pleased to partner with the Conference in reinforcing the importance of innovative lead-safety approaches."

Conference Executive Director Tom Cochran added, "We are proud to have awarded a total of $2.25 million in lead-safety grants to our nation's cities since the start of the USCM/DuPont CUSP partnership. To further reinforce the excellent lead-safety progress achieved by past USCM/DuPont CUSP grant program winners, we are excited to announce the creation of a lead-safety best practices book. Released at this year's Annual Meeting, we have no doubt that these best practices will be the catalyst for even more lead-safety progress in cities

Miami (FL) will leverage their $300,000 Lead-Safe...For Kids' Sake grant into a larger Miami Unleaded initiative. Through this collaboration, several community organizations will combine resources to provide identification of pre-1978 housing by GIS Mapping, home visits by volunteers to educate, visually inspect, survey and encourage screenings, environmental housing inspections and distribution of vouchers for remediation efforts. Additionally, a citywide education and outreach campaign will conduct door-to-door surveys, messages on billboards, buses and incentives for kids and public service announcements on radio and Miami TV in English, Haitian Creole and Spanish. Community clinics will also be contacted to provide lead educational services to pregnant women and new mothers. Grant funds will be used for lead paint testing kits, program evaluation, direct services, outreach worker salaries and training and creation of promotional materials and advertising.

St. Louis (MO) will use its $100,000 Lead-Safe...For Kids' Sake grant to address the enforcement and compliance needs of the Lead Safe St. Louis (LSSL) Compliance Program. While St. Louis has an extensive lead-safety program in place, grant funds will be used to bridge the gap between lead hazard cases that have been referred to court and those that have actually been prosecuted. The city will use the grant to provide city courts' prosecutors with additional personnel to handle lead hazard cases and assist city inspectors in instituting compliance laws. Funds will also be used to increase the number of building inspectors cross'trained to identify lead hazards.

The Boston Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program (BCLPPP) will use its $100,000 grant to develop programs to increase culturally sensitive, lead-safe educational strategies with immigrant populations in Boston. Programs will include in-service trainings to doctors and nurses; working with faith-based organizations to increase awareness and education efforts on childhood lead poisoning; conducting door-to-door outreach by workers who speak the appropriate language; and overall city-wide education, prevention and coordination efforts with city agencies. Through these initiatives, several immigrant populations will be reached to assist them in changing behaviors to reduce lead exposure to themselves and their children. Funding will also be leveraged with State and CDC resources that already support outreach workers, environmental services, and medical intervention and follow-up services to high prevalence rate areas and new immigrant populations.

Since CUSP's inception in 2002, a total of 41 cities have benefited directly from the CUSP partnership through either grant monies or classroom experiments. CUSP visits cities across the country and teams up with mayors to assist them in creating healthier, safer and more innovative and economically vibrant cities through science-based solutions. To learn more about the CUSP partnership, log on to www.cusponline.org and usmayors.org or contact CUSP Managing Director Ellen H. King at 202-861-6798 or by e-mail to eking@usmayors.org.