Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Wins EPA Asthma Management Award

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Community Asthma Prevention Program (CAPP) recently received the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) National Environmental Leadership Award for Communities in Action in Asthma Management, which is the highest recognition EPA bestows on a program and its leaders for delivering excellent environmental asthma management.

“We are honored to receive this award recognizing the sustained efforts of the CAPP team in Philadelphia,” said Tyra Bryant-Stephens, MD, Medical Director of CAPP. “We hope to continue to expand our reach to close all gaps that create asthma disparities in Philadelphia by working with our partners in every sector that impacts asthma control in children.”

CAPP offers free asthma education classes in familiar environments, such as schools, churches, daycare centers and community centers throughout Philadelphia. Classes are structured so both caregivers and children with asthma can learn simultaneously. The program equips families with asthma self-management education, in-home assessments for asthma triggers, remediation supplies and connections to community-based resources, which have led to reductions in asthma-related hospitalizations and emergency room visits.

For 20 years, CAPP has made home visits throughout the city with a special emphasis on West Philadelphia. The program has reached about 30 percent of the West Philadelphia community’s asthma population and has helped place community health workers in 10 West Philadelphia schools.