CLEARCorps Washington, D.C.

LeadSafe DC (LSDC) is a primary prevention program aimed at ending childhood lead poisoning in the District of Columbia. The program will reach nearly 1,100 families through educational home visits this year.      About 250 of these families have already had a child test positive for lead exposure between the level of 5ug/dl and 9ug/dl. The remaining families have a person at risk in their home (a child beneath the age of 6, or a pregnant woman) and live in a home built before 1978. All homes visited receive at least three dust swipe tests to determine if lead dust is present in the areas most frequently occupied by a child.

LSDC employs 4 part-time outreach workers (public health graduate students), a full-time outreach manager and a full-time program director. Additionally, LSDC contracts with the Mid-Atlantic Center for Children’s Health and the Environment for the purpose of providing clinician and health provider training related to case management and anticipatory guidance involving lead exposure. LSDC also partners with Health Services for Children with Special Needs, a health plan and hospital for special needs families, for the purpose of providing about 150 (included in the 1,100 total) home visits and screenings to these families every year. HSC also provides some funding to LSDC in this collaboration.

The LSDC program director also serves as chair of the Lead Elimination Task Force, a body of more than 25 healthcare experts, housing advocates, child advocates, academics and government officials who have played a leadership role in crafting new legislation that will reform the city’s response to lead exposure.   

LSDC is primarily funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control block grant to the D.C. Department of Health.