Neighborhood Organization for Pediatric Asthma Management in the Neighborhood Asthma Coalition: Community Organization

The Neighborhood Asthma Coalition has been developed as part of a broader Wellness Initiative in the target neighborhoods. This is organized around Wellness Councils in each neighborhood. Earlier funding of “Neighbors for a Smoke Free North Side” supported initial development of the Wellness Initiative. While administering the Neighborhood Asthma Coalition, the Wellness Initiative also coordinates other programs for the Grace Hill neighborhoods, including Woman-to-Woman (a wellness group emphasizing health themes for African American women age 55 and over) and Man-to-Man (a wellness group emphasizing health themes for African American men ages 18 and over). The Wellness Initiative also cooperates with other Grace Hill community services to provide problem-solving strategies and services for neighbors so that adverse personal circumstances can be minimized in neighbors’ efforts at achieving wellness. All of these components are at the disposal of Wellness Councils.
By design, a number of different committees expand the number of roles for neighborhood residents in governance and the number of ties to other programs within Grace Hill and outside the agency. Sildenafil citrate pink read In each of the four neighborhoods, neighborhood Wellness Councils were established under Neighbors for a Smoke Free North Side. With funding of the Neighborhood Asthma Coalition in 1990, these councils gradually adopted asthma-related issues in addition to other wellness issues. Grace Hill staff, Washington University staff, and guest speakers acquainted neighbors with health issues surrounding asthma and the Neighborhood Asthma Coalition programs and attempted to involve neighbors in the asthma program. An audit of the Wellness Councils during the Neighbors for a Smoke Free North Side grant found that, over 3 years, the wellness councils averaged 28 meetings per neighborhood. An average of eight volunteer neighborhood council members attended each meeting and an average of 21 different residents attended at least one meeting each year.
All-site Wellness Council meetings were instituted in March 1992. An average of 15 members from all four neighborhoods have attended the all-site meetings during this time period.