Paul Bass Photo
Santilli, Charles Thursday at WNHH radio.
Asthma is on the rise among low-income New Haveners, especially among women in the city.
So concludes a new study released by the Community Alliance for Research & Engagement (CARE), a not-for-profit that sends orange T‑shirt-clad canvassers to survey people about their health in the West Rock, Dixwell, Newhallville, Hill, Fair Haven, and West River/Dwight neighborhoods.
The new study — to be presented Thursday night to the Board of Alders Human Services Committee — showed the rate of asthma in the six neighborhoods growing from 20 in 2012 to 23 percent in 2015, the last time CARE canvassed.
Women have been hit particularly hard: 28 percent of African-American women, 24 percent of Latino women, and 36 percent of white woman reported suffering from asthma.
The study also found high rates of diabetes, obesity and hunger, with 35 percent of neighbors overall — and 50 percent of Latino neighbors —reporting having lacked food or money for food over a 30-day period.
Click here to read the study.
CARE aims to “empower” neighbors with data in these studies and then work with the community to help people eat better, exercise more, and tackle environmental and other impediments to healthful living, Deputy Director Alycia Santilli and Program Coordinator Leticia Charles said during an appearance Thursday on WNHH radio’s “Dateline New Haven” program.
For instance, neighbors can work with bodega owners to bring fresh fruit and lower-sugar drinks to stores, they said. They can also spread the word about care programs offered at neighborhood health centers, and develop more community gardens.
Charles spoke of how the community worked together to promote a healthful living environment when she grew up in the old Elm Haven public-housing high-rises in the Dixwell neighborhood in the 1960s and 1970s. A tenant group inspected apartments; tenants agreed to keep up their apartments. People could walk to buy fresh fruits and veggies, and fish right in the neighborhood at locally-owned stores.
“It was a community of love. Nobody would ever go hungry,” she said.
CARE’s quest to promote that kind of community in 21st century New Haven continues on Saturday, May 7, with a community forum based on the results of the new study. It begins at ConnCAT, 4 Science Park, at 9:30 a.m. It concludes with a “healthy and delicious lunch” at 1 p.m. For more information contact Charles .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Click on or download the above sound file to hear the full WNHH “Dateline New Haven” interview with Charles and Santilli.
This episode of “Dateline New Haven” was made possible in part through support from Yale-New Haven Hospital.