
Me, behind the podium, wildly gesticulating about the elimination of service delivery chaos at the 2017 Ohio Healthy Homes Network Conference.
In the 1980s, a group of parents met each other in the intensive care unit of Johns Hopkins Hospital, united by some terrible circumstances. Their children were undergoing chelation therapy for acute lead poisoning, which was traced back to their housing. These parents decided to form an organization called the Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning.
As they worked to find solutions, they encountered a confusing array of organizations that were ostensibly there to help them with their homes. Some were nonprofits, some were government agencies. They each had different sources of funding, and different restrictions. They each operated independently from one another. Parents encountered many challenges: filling out forms, getting on waiting lists, and having to take time off from work as they waited to meet different agencies and their representatives at their homes or offices.
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