Children's Law Center and IMPACT DC partner to improve asthma outcomes in Southeast D.C.

WASHINGTON—Children’s Law Center and Improving Pediatric Asthma Care in the District of Columbia (IMPACT DC) have been selected by a coalition of 12 funding organizations to participate in the BUILD Health Challenge, a national program that leverages multi-sector community partnerships in order to improve health for everyone. Their Washington-specific project, “Healthy Together Medical-Legal Partnership for Improving Asthma in Southeast D.C.,” will focus on improving housing conditions for children and youth suffering from uncontrolled asthma in Southeast D.C.
 
“Asthma is by far the most common chronic disease in children. And it disproportionately affects our most vulnerable children: Minority kids experiencing barriers with poor access to primary care who are living in substandard housing in the southeastern parts of our city,” says Stephen J. Teach, M.D., M.P.H., chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Children’s National Health System and principal investigator of IMPACT DC. “Helping these kids and their families succeed is our collective passion. This project will tackle one of the root causes of asthma flare-ups: Substandard housing conditions that play host to a range of asthma triggers, such as mold, rodents, cockroaches and dust mites.”

For 15 years, IMPACT DC has targeted kids and families disconnected from primary care who were overly reliant on hospital Emergency Departments for asthma treatment, Dr. Teach adds. The program partners with them to teach the fundamentals of good asthma care, including how to recognize symptoms, how to control asthma triggers and how to use medications properly. It also connects kids and families with primary care doctors. The project has dramatically increased school attendance and dramatically decreased Emergency Department visits at Children’s National due to asthma.

“Through our medical-legal partnerships, our lawyers regularly work side by side with pediatricians to find and fix the root causes of a child’s health problem,” says Judith Sandalow, executive director of Children’s Law Center. “We’re thrilled that this partnership will empower us to reach more families and work to find data-driven solutions to the systemic issues of housing and asthma that our clients face each day.” 

Children’s Law Center has a 20-year history of helping children and their families—including one of every nine of the children experiencing poverty in the city’s neighborhoods with incomes below the poverty line— tackle seemingly insurmountable problems each year.

Children’s Law Center and IMPACT DC are among 19 community projects selected to participate in the BUILD Health Challenge. BUILD awards funding, capacity-building support and access to a national peer learning network. The program emphasizes cross-sector collaboration among local non-profit organizations, hospitals and public health departments to address upstream conditions that create opportunities for better health. BUILD selected Children’s Law Center and IMPACT DC because of their Bold, Upstream, Integrated, Local and Data-driven (BUILD) ideas to improve the health of Southeast D.C. residents.

Over the two-year period covered by the grant, IMPACT DC and Children’s Law Center will work together— with guidance from BUILD advisers—to identify and implement innovative solutions to community challenges. Matching funds from Children’s National, combined with BUILD’s $250,000 grant, will further extend the partnership’s capacity to help pediatric patients with uncontrolled asthma living in Southeast D.C. access higher-quality housing.

“Every community faces its own set of challenges and opportunities when it comes to improving the health of its residents,” says Emily Yu, executive director of the BUILD Health Challenge. “With this award, we hope to catalyze the work of IMPACT DC and Children’s Law Center and bring together residents and organizations from across sectors to address the root causes of health issues in Washington—and ultimately transform how we think about health in America.”

Contact: Diedtra Henderson | Children’s National Health System | c: 443-610-9826/o: 202-476-4500

About Children’s National Health System

Children’s National Health System, based in Washington, D.C., has been serving the nation’s children since 1870. Children’s National is #1 for babies and ranked in every specialty evaluated by U.S. News & World Report including placement in the top 10 for: Cancer (#7), Neurology and Neurosurgery (#9) Orthopedics (#9) and Nephrology (#10). Children’s National has been designated two times as a Magnet®hospital, a designation given to hospitals that demonstrate the highest standards of nursing and patient care delivery. This pediatric academic health system offers expert care through a convenient, community-based primary care network and specialty outpatient centers. Home to the Children’s Research Institute and the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation, Children’s National is one of the nation’s top NIH-funded pediatric institutions. Children’s National is recognized for its expertise and innovation in pediatric care and as a strong voice for children through advocacy at the local, regional and national levels. For more information, visit ChildrensNational.org, or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

About Children's Law Center

Children’s Law Center fights so every District child can grow up with a loving family, good health and a quality education. Judges, pediatricians and families turn to Children’s Law Center to be the voice for children who are abused or neglected, who aren’t learning in school or who have health problems that can’t be solved by medicine alone. With 100 staff and hundreds of pro bono lawyers, it reaches one out of every nine children in D.C.’s poorest neighborhoods—more than 5,000 children and families each year. More information is available at www.ChildrensLawCenter.org.

About BUILD

BUILD seeks to create a new norm in the United States by addressing upstream factors affecting health. It is supported by a unique collaborative of local and national funders, which includes the Advisory Board, The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation, the Colorado Health Foundation, the de Beaumont Foundation, The Episcopal Health Foundation, Interact for Health, The Kresge Foundation, Mid-Iowa Health Foundation, New Jersey Health Initiatives, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Telligen Community Initiative and The W.K. Kellogg Foundation.  For more information, visit buildhealthchallenge.org or follow at @BUILD_Health.