Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Expands CAPP+ Program, Partners With The Enterprise Center to Provide Resources, Training for Small Contractors

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) is proud to announce a partnership with The Enterprise Center, in conjunction with Philadelphia Housing Development Corporation (PHDC), to build the number of licensed contractors in Philadelphia and expand CHOP’s Community Asthma Prevention Program Plus Home Repairs (CAPP+) initiative.

This effort will offer training and resources to local contractors interested in scaling up their business and create economic opportunity for minority contractors as the partners build a pipeline of PHDC-approved contractors for CAPP+.

CHOP, in partnership with PHDC, launched the CAPP+ Home Repairs Program in 2018. The program addresses the impact of unhealthy housing on pediatric asthma outcomes in West Philadelphia neighborhoods, where asthma affects approximately one out of four children. CAPP+ expands the focus of CHOP’s award-winning CAPP program to include home repairs aiming to further reduce asthma-related emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations by removing asthma triggers in the home.

“To-date, CAPP+’s pilot program has successfully renovated 10 homes with plans underway to renovate another 29 homes within the first phase of our program. We are confident that by helping to build the supply of qualified contractors in Philadelphia, we will be able to complete even more renovations,” said Peter Grollman, Senior Vice President for External Affairs at CHOP. “In the pilot phase of the program, the average time from clinician referral to the program to final home inspection was 111 days. With our new Enterprise Center partnership and scaled up workforce, we anticipate reducing this time dramatically so that families can get into renovated homes faster, with less disruption to their daily lives.”

“The Enterprise Center is partnering with CHOP’s CAPP+  program to provide technical assistance to participating construction and construction-related businesses remediating and repairing homes to fight asthma,” said Seulky McInneshin, PhD, Executive Vice President, The Enterprise Center. “We will provide resources to help contractors achieve all of the requirements needed to make them eligible to compete for PHDC jobs, including support to obtain a contactors license, offering classes in lead containment during repairs and opportunities to boost insurance coverage.”

“The Enterprise Center will funnel contractors through to PHDC and track metrics for 5 years to watch how the businesses grow,” added McInneshin.

“With the CAPP+ Program, we’ve created the need for a construction market that didn’t exist a year ago, and we need more qualified contractors in the pipeline,” said David S. Thomas, President & CEO, PHDC. “This is the ideal opportunity for someone who wants to grow their business; we are looking for trade specialists, as well.”

After successfully meeting all of the requirements for a PHDC job, the companies can also become certified as a women/minority-owned business, and be eligible to bid on additional construction opportunities throughout the city.

CAPP+ is a component of Healthier Together, CHOP’s umbrella initiative that focuses on some of the most pressing health and economic needs in neighborhoods surrounding the hospital’s campus.

Interested contractors can apply here: bit.ly/TECBusinessSupport