Trenton Health Team to Identify Lead Exposure Hotspots through New Jersey Health Initiatives’ $1.2 Million Upstream Action Acceleration Initiative
by Trenton Health Team and its partners will combine existing data systems to identify high concentrations of environmental irritants in Trenton homes, particularly lead exposure, and drive appropriate interventions to improve health outcomes over the next two years.
Trenton (January 10, 2018) – Trenton Health Team (THT) announced today that they are among the 12 communities selected as a grantee in a new initiative from New Jersey Health Initiatives (NJHI) – the statewide grantmaking program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). The NJHI: Upstream Action Acceleration initiative supports community-focused, cross-sector coalitions to adopt and implement “upstream” environmental-, policy- and systems-change strategies, accelerating their work in areas identified as priorities to improve their communities’ health.
THT’s project, Accelerating Action for a Healthy Trenton, will link clinical records in the Trenton Health Information Exchange (HIE) with Isles, Inc.’s Healthy Homes data and geo-mapped property information to identify environmental causes of health problems, such as substandard housing. Once identified, THT will work with partners to drive interventions to reduce childhood lead poisoning, asthma and other respiratory conditions, trip and fall hazards, and other dangerous conditions.
“We are fortunate to be working with a great group of partners,” said Gregory Paulson, Executive Director of Trenton Health Team. “We expect that integrating our Health Information Exchange data in collaboration with Isles, Inc. to uncover environmental hazards in residents’ homes will lead to successful interventions and better health outcomes.”
“We understand that substandard living conditions are linked to devastating long-term health issues,” said Peter Rose, Managing Director of Community Enterprises at Isles, Inc. “Partnering with Trenton Health Team will help us more efficiently target homes that require intervention and help us make progress on reducing lead exposure and asthma triggers for Trenton youth.”
Through NJHI: Upstream Action Acceleration, 12 two-year grants totaling $100,000 each have been awarded to organizations to build on past or current strategies toward health improvement within New Jersey’s communities. Working “upstream,” these grantees will work collaboratively to achieve impact in addressing social, economic and environmental factors that are known to influence health. These factors include income, employment, early childhood development, education, housing, nutrition and the built environment.
“As we continue moving forward in making New Jersey the healthiest state, we’re learning from our grantee communities just how vital cross-sector collaboration is,” said Bob Atkins, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, director of NJHI. “We know that by partnering with diverse stakeholders such as residents, educators, law enforcement and elected officials, we can successfully address the factors that influence health.”
Grantees will be part of a learning network and participate in opportunities for peer sharing through in-person and virtual convenings. In addition to strengthening an in-state network of similarly-driven coalitions, these collaborative learning activities will help the coalitions implement their local projects and inform the field about practice-tested strategies to improve community health. Throughout the grant period, the coalitions will also receive ongoing coaching, resources related to their initiative focus areas and communications support to promote and share their successes, challenges and lessons learned.
To learn more about the NJHI: Upstream Action Acceleration initiative and the other program grantees, visit njhi.org. Periodic updates about the Trenton coalition’s progress will be available on Trenton Health Team’s project page on the NJHI website– njhi.org.
