FALL NEWSLETTER 2002

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Changemaker: Roberta Hazen Aaronson
Community Organizer and Founding Executive Director, Childhood Lead Action Project

“You have to have vision,” says Roberta. “You must also be tenacious, persistent and thorough.” PHOTO: DAVID O’CONNOR

More than 1,200 children were protected from permanent brain damage and other health risks from exposure to lead this year alone. Credit Roberta for ten years of leadership in a nonstop campaign of intensive community education and dogged advocacy.

            In 1992, when Roberta Hazen Aaronson helped found Childhood Lead Action Project, four out of every ten Providence children suffered from lead poisoning. At lower levels, lead poisoning causes reduced intelligence and behavioral disorders. At higher levels, the effects can include profound brain damage, kidney failure—even death.

            Roberta and Childhood Lead Action Project fought for and won legislation for better incentives and law enforcement to require owners to clean up poisoned buildings where children live. Today, the rate of lead poisoning among Providence children has been reduced by two-thirds. That’s more than 1,200 fewer Providence kids testing positive for lead poisoning this year than in 1992.

            Yet, we still have a long way to go. More than 1,600 of the children who will enter Rhode Island kindergartens next year were tested and found to have lead poisoning during 2001, nearly 12 percent of all entering students. Lead poisoning is still Rhode Island’s number one childhood illness.

            Lead is all around our children, especially in core cities where housing is older. Children ingest lead from paint chips and paint dust inside homes from the lead paint used until 1978. Lead particles from peeling exterior paint and emissions from the leaded gasoline sold until 1986 contaminate the yards where children play. Even a glass of water is likely to contain lead if it flowed through lead water pipes, which were used until the 1930s.

            This poison takes a huge toll. These three- and four-year-old children can look forward to vastly higher risks of educational failure, delinquency and criminal behavior as adults. Lead-poisoned children are 40 percent more likely to require special education services, adding huge costs to already tight school budgets.

            We can stop this damage to our children. And Roberta knows how. “You have to have vision. Lead poisoning is 100 percent preventable,” she says. In ten more years, we can make lead poisoning a rare disease instead of the most common childhood illness in Rhode Island. Parents can do a lot to protect their children, but ultimately the building owners are responsible for remediation. We need better carrots and better sticks.”

            “But vision is not enough. You must also be tenacious, persistent and thorough,” says Roberta. “Every detail must be followed through. I’m convinced that that’s how change happens in the world.”

            Organizing parents and other members of the community to recognize the danger and demand a public response has been the key to the progress made in Rhode Island over the past 10 years. Roberta and her staff have spent countless days and evenings talking to small groups of parents at PTO meetings, community associations, literacy and English classes—even baptism classes in churches.

            Lead-aware parents not only take steps to protect their own children, many now work to protect all children. Organized Parents Against Lead (OPALS), formed with support from Childhood Lead Action, advocates for lead-free housing, better laws and law enforcement and continuing public attention to the lead danger.

            Roberta’s own tenacity and effectiveness has earned national recognition. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency honored her with its Environmental Merit Award in 2000. Recently, she received the Lead Star Award from the National Lead-safe Housing and Indoor Environmental Health Conference.

            As a Professor of Social Work at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth until this past May, Roberta taught hundreds of future changemakers the art of community organizing. In addition to leading Childhood Lead Action Project, Roberta also helps other nonprofits through her firm, Grassroots Initiatives, which consults on organizational development, community organizing and program development.

            Roberta Hazen Aaronson typifies the changemakers among The Fund for Community Progress’s network of 28 member agencies.  JWH

David Lee, shown with his cousin, was poisoned by the home he lived in. Two years later, he still has symptoms. PHOTO: DAVID O’CONNOR

Reasons for Change

Two years ago Dante, David and Sonja Lee became seriously ill after living in a lead-contaminated apartment. Dante, then four, was hyperactive; David, aged two, was having trouble digesting food. And Sonja, the baby, began to forget the new words she had only recently learned to say. Tests showed their blood contained nearly three times the lead level considered to be poisoning.

            Under state law, their landlord was required to control the lead hazard in his building. But, he wasn’t required to renew the Lee family’s lease. Forced to find a new home, the Lees now live in a house owned by a relative. Before they moved in, they had to replace windows, touch up exposed lead paint and cover the soil in the yard.

            After two years of regular blood tests, iron supplements and a lead-free home, David still tests slightly above levels considered safe. All three children continue to show mild forms of the symptoms that first appeared two years ago. Their mother, Heather Lee, now works at Childhood Lead Action Project to help make sure other mothers don’t have to repeat her experience.  JWH

Sister Judy Soares PHOTO: JEAN DUFFY Sue Welin PHOTO: ANDREW DICKERMAN, THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL, REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION

In Memoriam

The Fund lost two of its most beloved Board members in July: Sister Judy Soares, a community outreach worker for Amos House, and Sue Welin, co-founder of Community Mediation Center of R.I. Both of these exemplary activists for social justice were in their 40s.

            Sister Judy chaired our Board during the mid-1990s as she courageously led a three-year court battle to maintain our independence, and she was with us for more than a decade. She helped to build our movement with her focus on shared values, relationships and collaborations. A Sister of Mercy, Judy lived her life with love, joy and simplicity.

            Sue joined us a few years ago but quickly made an impact with her intelligence, compassion and commitment. She lived in Warren with her husband Bill Mack and their four-year-old son, Austin. Sue was also an avid gardener, ceramic artist and musician.

            Everyone involved with The Fund is deeply saddened by their untimely deaths. A tree will be planted at Amos House to honor Sister Judy.

            An annual award in Sue’s name will be given to the individual or organization which has contributed the most toward nonviolence during the
 previous year.

            These extraordinary women continue to inspire us to take up the path they walked ahead of us. We need not continue to mourn their deaths, but instead we might better imitate their lives.  NHV

Catherine Channell, chair, Board of Directors, Shelter Services PHOTO: DAVID O’CONNOR

A Garden for the Spirit

The Director of Tanner House, Kate Baker, enjoys gardening. She has expanded her knowledge from organic vegetables to annual and perennial flowers. Since Tanner House has such a large yard, it was one of Kate’s dreams when she went to Tanner House two years ago to offer the opportunity for a garden to the residents. This year, someone responded. A resident who also loved to garden, and who had done much of it in his day, responded affirmatively when Kate posed the question at an early spring house meeting.

            Today the garden in the shape of a sun sits proudly in the center of the yard and can be seen from the street, where it catches the neighbors’ eyes and even inspired one woman to bring some geraniums over to be planted in the garden which she so admired. The gardener-resident, a Rhode Island School of Design graduate, worked with stone and brick to create a sun, complete with rays, which is the centerpiece of the garden. At its center are different levels of flowers in a carefully planned color scheme, cascading downward from each level.

            Brick and stone walkways surround the sun and with a gas grill and some patio furniture, which were generously donated, we are cooking, contemplating, and enjoying our summer here. A work of beauty and dedication, the garden is giving back to Tanner House, a project of Shelter Services, which is offering much needed support and a haven for growth and development.  KB

Working with Families
Transitioning Children with Special Needs into Managed Care

Many of our state’s families who have children with special healthcare needs face opportunities as well as challenges as a result of changes in Rhode Island’s Medicaid program. Soon, many of these families will transition from a fee-for-service system into managed care through RIte Care.

            Parents like Carla Rodriguez are hopeful for a smooth transition, but Carla says that any change, even for the better, can be scary. “My daughter Talia has a neurological disorder that requires frequent visits to her doctor. I’m finally at a point where I feel comfortable with her doctor and understand her treatment and prognosis. But I’m afraid of starting all over again—filling out forms, playing telephone tag trying to make appointments or ask questions, finding out whether my daughter’s doctor is in the new plan, referrals to specialists located outside Rhode Island, etc.”

            To help ease the concerns of parents as they transition to RIte Care, the R.I. Department of Human Services has collaborated with Rhode Island Parent Information Network’s Family Voices program (part of a national, grassroots network of families and friends of children with special healthcare needs). RIPIN will serve as the response center to take calls from families and others concerned about issues such as continuity of care, stability in healthcare provider networks, prior authorizations, and the myriad complex issues facing families of children with special healthcare needs.

            Carla says, “After talking with someone from RIPIN I felt so much better about the changes taking place in RIte Care. Change may be a hassle, but it’s not always bad. And I’m glad to know that RIPIN will be there looking out for all of us.”

            RIPIN’s programs empower, encourage, and support parents to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to become equal partners in advocacy and education for their children. For more information about RIPIN programs, including Family Voices, call toll free in Rhode Island 1-800-464-3399, x62 (English) or x41 (Spanish).  MBC

Changemaker: Brenda Clement
Housing Activist, Founder and Executive Director of The Housing Network of Rhode Island

From Woonsocket to Westerly, the thunder of hammers and the smell  of fresh paint enliven whole neighborhoods as new homeowners take possession. Urban areas once written off as beyond hope by bankers, realtors, government—even the people who lived in them—are bouncing back.

Brenda Clement finds hope in neighborhoods others have written off. PHOTO: DAVID O’CONNOR

            “I have a new house, a new baby. What else could I ask for?” says Ron Wahlers, a disabled worker and parent of three children. Ron is the proud owner of a home rehabilitated by Habitat for Humanity on Potters Avenue in Providence. Since moving in, he’s noticed lots of other houses on his street getting fresh coats of paint. Rehabilitation is contagious.

Creating a market for change
            Hundreds of first-time homebuyers like Ron never dreamed of owning their own homes before they enrolled in Homebuyer Education classes. Each class is offered by one of 14 participating Housing Network member organizations, all with strong roots and active housing creation programs in specific communities. Classes are conducted in English, French, Cambodian and Spanish.

            Educators trained by The Housing Network help prospective buyers understand how mortgages work and how lenders make decisions. By the end of the class, students know how much they can afford and where to begin looking. Graduates can rely on counselors from Network member organizations to help bridge the gap between people who rarely visit a bank and bankers who rarely visit the neighborhood.

            “Home ownership is the anchor for neighborhood revival,” Brenda explains of the Network’s decision to invest in homebuyer education. “But, first we had to create the market.” Only 37 percent of Rhode Island’s urban residents own their own homes, compared with a national average of 68 percent. This year, Brenda expects the number of graduates from 180 separate Homebuyer Education classes statewide to exceed 3,000.

A moment thrown down by God
            Brenda’s commitment to the affordable housing cause began with a peek into the back seat of an abandoned car during a neighborhood cleanup in Pawtucket twelve years ago.

            “Looking back, I see it as one of those moments God throws down at you,” Brenda recounts. “Someone had been living in that car—and there were toys in the back seat. Children had been living in a car, not a mile from the home where I was raised in comfort.”

            At her church, Bethany Baptist, Brenda talked about what she had seen. “And immediately, an opportunity appeared, literally right next door. There was a derelict house next to the church.” The congregation decided to fix it up and provide low-income families with children a place where they could stabilize their lives and prepare for a better future.

            Brenda had been a staff attorney at the Rhode Island Supreme Court and was teaching in the paralegal program at Johnson and Wales University (as well as serving as a Pawtucket City Councilor). But it was her volunteer work helping people find homes that became her most passionate interest.

            Brenda became founding Director of the Pawtucket Citizen’s Development Corporation. A few years later, when Brenda and her colleagues at other community development corporations around Rhode Island decided they needed a joint statewide coordinating body, Brenda became the founding Executive Director of the Housing Network of Rhode Island. Today, her legal training helps her stay on top of the complexities of affordable housing policy and projects.

“Maybe our time has come”
            The Housing Network does much more than Homebuyer Education. The Network efficiently provides sophisticated technical support, training and program development that would be too costly for its 24 member agencies to develop separately.

            The Network was on the front ranks of the successful fight to preserve the Neighborhood Opportunities Program during the 2002 General Assembly session. That program represents the first public investment in affordable housing ever made the by the State of Rhode Island.

            Homebuyer Education has been phenomenally successful in introducing new buyers into the demand side of the market. Yet the supply of available houses for lower income buyers is extremely tight. According to national data, it takes 700 new housing units to keep pace with every 1,000 new jobs, yet Rhode Island has added only 466 units per 1,000 jobs.

            Brenda continues to keep the faith. For over a decade the Housing Network’s members have been saving neighborhoods one building at a time. Only now can the cumulative change be seen.

            “Maybe our time has come,” Brenda says. “Maybe we are beginning to see that beautiful neighborhoods with a sense of style and place are our greatest assets as a state.”  JWH

Save the Date: Thursday, October 3
Dinner Roast of Sister Ann Keefe, SSJ
Master of Ceremonies: Oskar Eustis
Rhodes-on-the-Pawtuxet 5:30-9:00 p.m.
$40 per person RSVP to 401-941-7100

Sister Ann Keefe, SSJ collaborated in founding or is a member of the following organizations: Providence ¡City Arts! for Youth, Aids Care Ocean State, Community Boating, Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence, Taming Asthma, Southside Broad Street, Annual Good Friday Walk for Hunger, Providence Neighborhood Housing Corporation, and NONVIOLENCE WORKS

PROGRESS is published to inform friends of The Fund for Community Progress about the activities and concerns of its member agencies. Gifts to The Fund have a definite impact on solving problems of poverty, hunger, homelessness, mental illness, housing, discrimination and other issues of injustice. PROGRESS stresses the importance of your continued support as together we "build a better community."