Throughout New York State, hundreds of thousands of children suffer from asthma, a chronic condition particularly common among children in poverty. When we began investigating how we could help address this issue, we found that although many programs and organizations in western New York worked to help asthmatic children and their families, they often functioned in crisis mode, struggling from day-to-day, operating in isolation, and closing their doors or canceling programs when funding ended. A lack of coordination among organizations resulted in wasted resources, and because leadership across sectors had not emerged, there was no standardization of care and no uniform way to measure trends and results of existing pediatric asthma work.
In identifying these problems, we determined that we could help address pediatric asthma by encouraging and enabling long-term coordination among stakeholders.
With this in mind, an active group of committed participants began developing a purposeful, collaborative and outcome-driven community plan for impacting pediatric asthma in Buffalo through clear and feasible implementation strategies.
This Pediatric Asthma Action Plan describes the effects of pediatric asthma on the Buffalo community and includes information about joining the effort to combat this widespread community health issue.
Focus Area: Young Children Impacted by Poverty
Date Published: April 1, 2009