Advancing Healthy Homes/Healthy Communities: Tackling Environmental Disparities
(2012 - 2014)
This project focused on expanding Loyola University’s capacity as a leading educational institution with a commitment to building a holistic approach in creating healthy homes and healthy communities free of environmental and social toxins. A visualization of these environmental toxins and their negative consequences can be viewed in our Burden of Unhealthy Housing Chart. CURL worked with the Center for the Human Rights of Children, Center for Urban Environmental Research and Policy, Loyola University Medical Center, and Loyola Law School’s Civitas Child Law Center to:
1.) Facilitate and assist in staffing a county-wide Task Force focused on addressing the problem of environmental and social toxins in underrepresented communities;
2.) Facilitate and assist in staffing a county-wide Task Force focused on addressing the problem of environmental and social toxins in underrepresented communities;
3.) Involve graduate and undergraduate students in work with community organizations to raise awareness in communities most impacted by environmental toxins;
4.) Develop a multimedia, interdisciplinary curriculum to improve knowledge among health care providers (social workers, public health workers, nurses, physicians, etc.);
5.) Gather data on the extent of environmental toxins within and among communities using computer-based geographic information systems (GIS);
6.) Promote annual interdisciplinary conferences and internal research symposia.
Research Team:
The Center for Urban Research & Learning, CURL