Join us for the Fall 2024 Director’s Community of Practice meeting on Thursday, October 17th from 1 pm – 2:30 pm at Starting Point’s Headquarters in the Founder’s Room.

Hear from Michele King, Starting Point’s Manager of the Lead Safe Child Care Project on the dangers of lead, and what you can do to keep children in your program safe.

Why talk about Lead?

Lead safety is a city-wide issue that impacts much of our aging infrastructure here in Cuyahoga County. The vast majority of Cleveland buildings were built before 1978, the year the use of lead-based paint was banned nationwide, including over 90% of the city’s rental units. Because of our aging infrastructure, lead poisoning rates in Cleveland children are nearly 4X the national average, leaving roughly 25% children under the age of 6 lead poisoned.

Exposure to lead can seriously harm a child’s health through brain and nervous system damage, slowed growth and development, learning and behavioral problems, hearing and speech problems, and more. Because the effects of lead poisoning are irreversible, it is crucial to prevent childhood lead exposure before harm occurs by removing lead hazards.

Ending lead poisoning requires an all-hands-on-deck approach, and child care is a critical piece to the puzzle (children spend a considerable amount of time in child care spaces, averaging at 32 hours a week). To end lead poisoning, we must tackle it from all angles. And while child care providers have often been overlooked in the fight against lead, new lead safe efforts are being designed to change that for good.

We all have a role to play in addressing this systemic issue. We will spend our time defining yours.

More about Michele King

Michele King is Starting Points Project Manager for the Lead Safe Child Care Program, a pilot program aimed at addressing lead safety in Cleveland Child Care facilities. She has been living and working in Greater Cleveland for 10+ years and has devoted her career to public service, specifically for Cleveland and NE Ohio’s underserved and most vulnerable communities. Her background in Public Sector Urban Planning, Environmental Justice and Strategic Policy Analysis provides her with a unique ability to manage the Lead Safe Child Care Pilot Program with a multidisciplinary approach. She is excited to bring her passion for public service into the youth and family services field, and to have a significant role in building system interventions that will interrupt elevated blood levels in children by leading this program.