Explanation
BACKGROUND: The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires the return of all unspent grant funds from the Lead-based Paint Hazard Control Grant Program. The Round 12 Lead Grant agreement for Lead-Safe Columbus (LSC) was for the period October 1, 2005 to July 31, 2008, in the amount of $2,999,817. Units totaling 240 (exceeding our goal by 14) received direct lead based paint hazard removal at a cost of $1,595,065. The program also provided lead based paint risk assessments for 284 units, 58 more than our goal.
The production of our "sing-a-long" hand washing CD, as an outreach tool, produced greater results than we imagined. We have produced 15,000 CD's and distributed just under that amount to date. In Columbus and around the country, the CD has been distributed to homes, elementary schools, daycare centers and other places where small children are present. We expect that in time over 1,000,000 children will sing our hand washing song. We produced and aired a TV commercial with our hand washing CD on our area NBC station. The 30-second commercial aired 160 times over a 30-day period. It is estimated that we made 3,790,000 gross impressions during that time. As a result of the commercial we mailed out 515 CD's to people who called to request them, from 83 different towns and cities in 6 states.
The CD is also available for listening and downloading on our web site. Under our Round 12 grant we also trained 36 persons for lead contractor, lead worker and lead safe renovator certifications. Due to the impact of our Lead Safe Columbus activities, we believe that the City of Columbus could be the first major city in the United States to reach the goal of "no children being lead poisoned by 2010". Between 1996 and 2005 the City of Columbus monitored blood screening for 91,332 children under age 6. In that 10 year period we saw a steady decrease in the number of children with elevated blood levels. We are excited to say that...
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