An education initiative concerning lead in an Arkansas community: results from pre- and post-surveys

The Arkansas People Participating in Lead Education (APPLE) Program is a collaborative effort between six Arkansas state, national and community organizations to provide lead awareness, training, and municipal legislation to needy communities in Arkansas. Under this program, APPLE organized and hosted well-designed, hands-on, and effective "call to action" lead awareness workshops for parents and community members in 10 needy communities over a 2 year period. Pre- and post-surveys were given to community members to access knowledge, attitudes and effectiveness of lead workshop activities, with demographic and another 13 and 11 questions on pre- and post-surveys, respectively. There were 709 adult attendees across the 10 workshop (Many children also attended.), with 460 completing pre-surveys, and 199 completed post-survey. Post-surveys were limited to four cities. The majority of those who completed surveys were African-American, reported as 78% on pre-surveys, with the majority also being parents (61%) and females. Although, 71% reported knowing that lead paint was bad for their health, more than 60% reported knowing little about lead exposure, and another 25% did not know the age of their residence. On the post-surveys, the majority of respondents found the workshop to be pleasant and informative (98%), while 45% had changed something in their lives to prevent lead exposure for a child and another 53% planned to make a change to prevent lead exposure for a child.