Question

write a project proposal for a fictitious or a real project.

Answer 1

Asthma Free School Zone

Project Proposal

Project Summary:     We are proposing a series of three (3) one-year interventions to provide air quality improvements and related educational services to community members in the target area. The proposed year periods are from July 1 to June 30. The requested support level is $50,000 per year.

Background: The Asthma Free School Zone is a tested model that has been found worthy of recognition and federal multi-year funding. At its core is the elimination of idling, the #1 source of urban pollution and a major factor in respiratory and cardiac illness. As a mobile source of pollution, tailpipe emissions can be reduced in communities where an informed citizenry understands the link between environment and health and is mobilized to protect both. In our community both PS 34 and PS 361 (East 12^th Street) have experienced dramatic improvements in the health and safety of their school zones due to early pilot efforts of the Asthma Free School Zone program. We would like to consolidate these benefits and extend them throughout the area from Houston to 14^th Street east of 1^st Avenue, with special attention to the area from Ave A to Ave D, between 14^th Street and 9th St. We will do this through a combination of:

1. Outreach and formal linkages through institutional memoranda of understanding;
2. Asthma and environmental trainings for schools and daycare staff and parents;
3. Designation of Asthma Free School Zones through posting outdoor signs of two types:

    AFSZ project signs, DOT no-idling signage;

1. Asthma and environmental trainings for tenant groups

(Campos Plaza, Greening A Block sites;

1. Asthma and environmental training for general public at Tompkins Park branch library
   1. Community outreach at annual Loisaida Day asthma-education presentation,

Sunday May 27, 2007, and in two successive years

1. Air quality measurements at schools and selected sites

Community Need:       In spite of a proliferation of asthma prevention programs generally, the Lower East is underserved, with not one major asthma initiative in effect in the District. By contrast, South Bronx, East and Central Harlem, Bushwick and Bed-Stuy\Brooklyn are awash in interventions. This spring, the Asthma Free School Zone is poised to begin a three-year federally funded citywide expansion phase. Under the terms of the contract, the first 95 sites for the program will be guided by the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) list of most at-risk communities and the NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) list of most congested corridors. According to these criteria, the Lower East Side – our community – will not be served, while the mentioned neighborhoods above will be offered AFSZ services. I believe, for variety of reasons, that the Lower East Side has not yet been recognized as having an equal asthma burden. Funding under the Con Edison settlement will help to redress this imbalance.

Cooperative Linkages:           We are pleased to be cooperating with the Greening A Block project. As we noted in our last submission to the committee, the Asthma Free School Zone is a perfect complement to the Greening A Block project, which, by its own estimates, is only 5% education. We have discussed the benefits each of our projects see in having the AFSZ target trainings for the tenant groups in buildings affected by their proposal. We are mentioned in this regard on page 7 of their May 22, 2006 letter proposal to the Committee. We will communicate closely with Greening A Block through the life of their project, should they be funded by the Committee.

Location of services: There is a map on page 5 of this proposal showing the location of the schools, day care centers and senior centers in CB 3. Under the requested funding we will be targeting such institutions as well as Greening A Block and other tenant organizations in Zones 1 and 2. We will give first priority to Zone 1 (9^th to 14^th east of Avenue A with special attention to the most easterly of these). Through other funding we will also respond to requests from other CB 3 schools radiating beyond Houston and 1^st Avenue.

We understand the Committee is most highly focused on a small area just below the Con Edison complex. Under this grant the AFSZ project will bring special benefits to this area, but it will also spill over to nearby blocks. Just as pollution does not stop at the edge of 10^th Street, mobile sources of pollution, such as cars, are equally fluid. Incoming traffic is less likely to idle in neighborhoods where informed citizens and their nearby neighbors not only turn off their own engines but also ask others to do the same. Further, where the health of children is concerned, the cutoff boundary needs to expand because children are more vulnerable to pollution than adults. A child on 5th Street may be equally affected by a certain pollution level as an adult on 10^th Street.

Some likely target beneficiaries in Year 1:

	Type	Name	Address
1	Public School	CHILDRENS WORKSHOP SCHOOL M361	610 East 12th 10009	*
2	Public School	EAST VILLAGE COMMUNITY SCHOOL M315	610 East 12th 10009	*
3	Public School	P.S. 34 FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT SCHOOL	730 E 12 St 10009	*
4	Daycare	ESCUELA HISPANA MONTESSORI INC.	185 Ave D 10009
5	Daycare	TENTH STREET TOTS	297 E 10 St 10009
6	Senior Center	JACOB RIIS SENIOR CENTER	152 Ave D 10009
7	Tenant groups	Greening A Block Buildings	10009
8	Public School	PS 94	442 E. Houston 10002
9	Public School	PS 188 Island School	442 E. Houston 10002
10	Public School	PS 196 Umbrella School	442 E. Houston 10002
11	Public School	PS 64	600 E. 6th 10009

* The table above shows seven public schools. Four are in Zone 2 (light gray shading key – as on the map on page 5) and these are newly proposed AFSZ schools. The three schools are in Zone 1 (dark gray shading key) are existing AFSZ pilot schools that will be maintained and offered new program elements.

Effectiveness of the AFSZ Program:             Based on the idea that education is the key to all behavioral change from within, the AFSZ program aims to be sustainable and replicable by training lay trainers to raise awareness levels in both school and community members. Because the AFSZ goes beyond the one-to one provider model, it has the potential to affect large numbers of people and influence public policy spheres-which it has done. The NYS Attorney General’s recent suit against the seven largest school bus fleets came about after conversations with the AFSZ office. Under these agreements, New York City air pollution is now being reduced annually by approximately 32,000 pounds of nitrogen oxides and 800 pounds of particulate matter, an amount equivalent to the annual operation of a small power plant. These agreements will save more than 179,000 gallons of diesel fuel each year and reduce fume exposure in more than 150,000 children, two-thirds of the more than 200,000 daily NYC school bus riders. And that number does not count children and parents who walk, school staff and neighborhood residents who benefit by the reduction of exhaust fumes trapped in our urban canyons. Yet, to date, citywide observance of the idling regulations remains irregular and so further outreach and education to promote adherence by drivers and “soft enforcement” by community members is required. Training and community education is the key to this.

Assessing Effectiveness of the Program: The AFSZ project is actively monitoring and evaluating community conditions, project processes and project outcomes. Approaches include:

Air quality testing: We have begun a program of testing of air quality at selected sites. This will be done on a before and after basis to determine if the effects of such measures and local enforcement of no-idling laws and training of community members such as crossing guards to soft-enforce such regulations is having an observable effect. We have already completed a preliminary baseline study at one site in cooperation with the Queens College Center for the Biology of Natural Systems. (See the attached Appendix 1 - Air Quality Monitoring at PS 61). The data presented in that report indicate an unusually clean atmosphere since there was significant rain - nearly 5 inches - that fell on 6 of the 10 days of testing, thus scrubbing the air. Because of the intensity of the level of effort required to do testing at the level of sophistication represented by the QCBBNS Mobile AirLab, and because we will wish to test often and easily, we propose to augment the Mobile Airlab air quality testing approach with use of an aethelometer, a simpler device that can give reliable readings of particulate matter at the PM 2.5 level, a key reading of relevance to respiratory health. We expect to acquire a such a device so that we will be able to assess community air quality issues as needed.   

Case studies: Example: PS 361 is one of our pilot schools. It is housed in the same building with PS 315. The building stands mid-block on a narrow one-way street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Before our program, twice a day eleven diesel school buses idled in front of the school for as long as 45 minutes waiting to pick up or drop off children. The line of backed-up buses extended into Avenue B, forcing cars to cross lanes in order to continue north. Vehicles became caught in bus congestion and attempted to squeeze to either side to get around them and past the school. Inside the building, teachers with street-facing classrooms had to shut their windows to prevent diesel exhaust fumes from filling the classroom air. Today, as a result of the AFSZ, there is no bus congestion on East 12th Street. Here are some participant comments about the 12th street situation and changes:

“Asthma, it is a very bad issue. [In] school [session] twelve school buses they line up every morning and at 2:30. It is an issue every school year. It was terrible… It was killing me. I was constantly going to the hospital.

            Wilma Espada, Crossing Guard at PS 361 and 315 - February 2004

My asthma is okay. Now it does not bother me. Because of the buses no idling, I don’t need my inhaler anymore.

Wilma Espada – Crossing Guard at PS 361 and 315 – May 2006

“Some factors we cannot influence and some factors that are clearly identifiable and we can do something about. I think this is a wonderful opportunity to do something about a factor here that is influenced through decreased pollution. And we hope to see a reduction of asthma in the hospitals and the clinic. The same way vaccinations have reduced the number of kids in the hospital a lot. This(the AFSZ) may be like a vaccination against asthma that may be beneficial to us.”

                        Andreas Cohrsseen, MD, Beth Israel Hospital and PS 361 parent, February 2004

We are worried because we think asthma in children and adults is on the rise. The (AFSZ) trainings really helped us. Now we know what to do, how to help kids having attacks. Now we are not so much in a panic. Now we know how to react.

Maria Velez Clark, Principal PS 361 – May 2006

Parents and children don’t routinely come to the schoolyard as they used to, saying they were asphyxiated by the bus fumes in the front of the building.

Mary Talbott, Parent Coordinator PS 315- May 2006

For other statements on AFSZ effectiveness see Appendix 2 – Comments about AFSZ.

Other Monitoring Instruments (Surveys, Structured Questionnaires, Service Logs):         Our monitoring scheme includes structured questionnaires to assess pre- and post-intervention knowledge, photographic evidence, service and event attendance logs. We are accountable to our funders for completion of activities and this can be assessed through the schedule of deliverables already submitted to the Committee. (See Appendix 3 – Budget and Deliverables)

Staffing:          The AFSZ project will soon hire additional staff. We will make every effort to hire a local person from a CB 3 neighborhood as a trainer and community outreach worker for the work proposed under this funding. This person will be trained to do PM 2.5 air monitoring, deliver environmental education and advocacy skill training to school parents and staff and community members. S/he will work through existing forums such as parent associations, tenant associations, the public library, senior and daycare centers, and precinct community meetings. This person will also work with the DOT and the AFSZ project staff to designate and post sites with outdoor AFSZ and NYC DOT No-Idling signage.

Core project staff will also work part time on this project. We estimate that the project director will spend approximately 15% of her time on AFSZ activities that produce benefits for this community.

Outside Technical Review:    There has been no outside professional technical review of our project. However, a detailed project proposal is with the New York City Department of Transportation and they are receiving funding from the State and Federal FHWA based on their technical review of the project plan. Further, the project has won two awards from the Environmental Protection Agency, a national award for excellence in Children’s health, and a Region 2 aware for Improving Environmental Quality. The AFSZ has also been proposed to the New York City Council for implementation to all city schools.