Healthy Homes for All is an outreach program that works with rural Latino families around issues of health and environmental quality. Through multiple in-home outreach visits, NCRCAP outreach workers target and address health and safety issues within the home such as safe drinking water, childhood lead poisoning prevention, wastewater disposal, household hazardous chemicals, pesticides, and the identification of indoor allergens and asthma triggers.

Healthy Homes for All's comprehensive educational curricula is tailored to address the primary concerns and issues facing each individual family. NCRCAP is able to arrange testing for water contaminants coordinates testing to detect lead in paint, dust and soil. All the services within the Healthy Homes for All program provided at no cost to participating families.

Why is the Healthy Homes for All program important?

The need to extend such an outreach program to the rural Latino community in North Carolina was demonstrated through a survey of farmworkers and other rural Latino residents regarding health and housing concerns completed by NCRCAP during the summer of 2002. The survey data pointed to the need to get basic public health and environmental protection information, particularly regarding drinking water quality and septic system maintenance, to native Spanish speaking residents in rural North Carolina. The goal of the Healthy Homes for All program is to provide the tools for rural Latino families, a population that largely lives in substandard and crowded housing, to effectively increase the health and safety of their homes.

 

Healthy Homes for All - Education

The educational activities within Healthy Homes for All address well water protection, septic system maintenance and water conservation, lead poisoning prevention, and chemical hazard reduction in a form that engages Latino parents and their children. Through one-on-one work with families in their homes, Healthy Homes for All helps parents and children identify health and safety hazards within their home environment and develop strategies that can reduce or mitigate those hazards. Healthy Homes for All uses many different educational methods, such as flip-charts, children's stories, and board games, to foster healthy practices in the home.

The program is geared towards households that have children under the age of six since these children are at a crucial stage of development and therefore more susceptible to the health risks posed by water contaminants, lead-based paint, and other environmental health hazards lurking in the home. Small amounts of harmful chemicals, like lead contaminated dust or elevated nitrate levels in potable water, can be very harmful to children yet may not have any visible health effect on adults.

The outreach material in the Healthy Homes for All is mobile and versatile, and can be presented during outreach presentations, festivals, and in-house counseling.

Healthy Homes for All - Testing

In addition to the educational activities, Healthy Homes for All provides or coordinates testing of health hazards in the home. If the family is concerned and/or the home has possible lead sources, NCRCAP has a strong partnership with NCDENR (North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources) Division of Environmental Health, who provides a thorough lead inspection of homes where known or suspected lead contamination exists. NCRCAP also arranges testing of drinking water for families who live in homes with private wells. Water tests include testing levels of lead and nitrates, as well as the presence of bacteria in the water. All testing is provided at no cost to participating families.

 

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