Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) today announced the completion of its 100th home renovation for families enrolled in the Community Asthma Prevention Plus (CAPP+) Program. CAPP+ is a program under CHOP's Healthier Together Initiative, which strives to alleviate social determinants of health in the neighborhoods surrounding CHOP's Philadelphia Campus.
CAPP+ partners with community organizations and minority-owned business owners to address asthma triggers for families from CHOP's Community Asthma Prevention Program who own homes in West Philadelphia. The CAPP+ program recently expanded and is now offering repairs to CAPP families who are renters, with landlord approval.
"By working directly with our families, community health workers, and community organizations, we have helped 100 families target asthma triggers in their homes, even during the COVID-19 pandemic," said Tyra Bryant-Stephens, MD, senior director of the Center for Health Equity at CHOP and medical director of the Community Asthma Prevention Program. "CAPP+ has also helped families reduce visits to the Emergency Department, which are challenging for busy families and require time away from work and home. Our recent research shows the impact home renovations have on our families' lives, and we are so happy to be able to expand this program to help even more of them."
"The CAPP+ program and the major renovations that it allows amount to a huge burden lifted for so many families in our community here in West and Southwest Philly," said Councilmember Jamie Gauthier. "I'm so grateful to CHOP and all of the vital work they do every day as part of the Healthier Together initiative - and I look forward to the next 100 CAPP+ renovations!"
"Rebuilding Together Philadelphia could not be prouder of our work with CAPP to provide home assessments and repairs to reduce asthma triggers in the homes of children with severe asthma," said Stefanie Seldin, CEO of Rebuilding Together Philadelphia. Combining CAPP's community health workers for the asthma education with the RTP team for targeted homes repairs is what makes this program so successful."
In addition to helping families, CAPP+ has also helped many contractors obtain certifications to be able to bid on other projects in the city. In 2019, we announced a partnership with The Enterprise Center, to increase the number of contractors in Philadelphia and expand CAPP+. This program offers training and resources to local contractors interested in scaling up their business, while also helping create economic opportunity for minority contractors.
"We are proud to mark this critical milestone alongside our partners at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia," said Della Clark, President and CEO of The Enterprise Center. "CAPP+ has positively impacted the health of our West Philadelphia community members while simultaneously increasing demand and opportunities for local tradespeople of color. We encourage more large institutions to follow CHOP's lead and invest in inclusive procurement policies to achieve equitable growth."
Healthier Together is a $25 million, 5-year initiative that was launched by CHOP in 2019 to tackle the social determinants of health as a path to improving children's health. CHOP partners with government agencies, non-profits and community organizations to improve children's health in West and Southwest Philadelphia. In its first two years, Healthier Together leveraged 15 partnerships and collaborations and invested $4 million in the community.
