San Diego Regional Asthma Coalition
Monthly Local Asthma Coalition Spotlight
The coalition “spotlight” series highlights a different CAFA coalition approximately every month. The spotlights vary in themes: some provide a broad overview of coalitions’ work, others highlight one aspect of coalition success, and still others may focus on new tools developed by the coalitions or lessons learned. To view an archive of previous spotlight articles, visit http://www.calasthma.org/about_cafa/spotlight_archive/.
San Diego Regional Asthma Coalition
Founded in 1999, the San Diego Regional Asthma Coalition is a collaboration of over fifty diverse agencies and individuals including local health and social service agencies, health care providers, health plans, school districts, community-based organizations, local businesses and individuals with asthma. The current mission of the coalition is to provide leadership in identifying, developing, mobilizing and coordinating resources to prevent asthma and positively impact the lives of people affected by asthma in San Diego County.
Beginning in 2002, the coalition was fortunate enough to be selected as one the 12 community-based asthma coalitions to participate in Community Action to Fight Asthma (CAFA). A section of San Diego known as Mid-City was selected as San Diego’s CAFA site based on need and evidence of high childhood asthma rates. Mid-City is the central inner-city region of San Diego that is often called the “Ellis Island” of the West Coast and is home to over 40 different cultural groups. The National Latino Research Center at Cal State San Marcos and the Coalition’s Environmental Workgroup conducted focus groups and a door-to-door survey of 420 Mid-City residents to seek input and assess their perceptions, concerns and priorities. The community identified trash as their highest priority, followed by air quality and pests. More specifically, they pointed to a chronic problem with excessive trash and overflowing trash bins which resulted in environmental asthma triggers such as cockroaches and rodents. The full report can be accessed through: http://www.csusm.edu/nlrc/projects/CAFA/CAFA.FinalSurveyReport-03.pdf
The coalition therefore moved to work closely with neighborhood teams on reducing trash in Mid-City through numerous clean-ups and other events.
During their efforts, neighborhood teams also identified concerns with landlords not responding to repair requests. The lack of adequate repairs resulted in exacerbated problems for children with asthma by increasing the number of indoor asthma triggers, including excessive moisture, mold, and cockroaches. The coalition therefore co-sponsored several housing forums, which included presentations by the San Diego Housing Commission, Tenants Legal Center of San Diego and Neighborhood Code Enforcement to educate tenants on their legal rights. The coalition developed a matrix with names of agencies for various types of complaints and information on how to contact the agencies to file a complaint.
The San Diego Regional Asthma Coalition is building upon the experiences gained during its initial years to pursue more ambitious goals for the future. Among these goals, the coalition is seeking to ensure that asthma triggers are adequately addressed during official inspections of public housing. To that end, coalition members are currently speaking with the San Diego Housing Commission to address the inclusion of asthma triggers in their inspection checklist.
These are only some of many activities that the San Diego Regional Asthma Coalition has and continues to work on. The coalition is very fortunate to have such diverse and dedicated community partners working toward a common goal. More information can be accessed through the coalition’s website: http://sdrac.org.
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