Oakland lawmakers have long understood the disproportionate impact of lead poisoning on the city's Latino and immigrant communities. Yet, even with a $24 million budget to address the potentially deadly problem, abatement efforts remain slow and ineffective. El Tímpano’s reporting project answers the question of why lead poisoning remains prevalent in Latino immigrant communities, despite awareness of the dangerous contaminant and the millions in funding available to fix the problem.
This investigation is driven by community engagement. Through workshops in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood, El Tímpano staff will test community soil samples for lead, and allow the engagement to inform feature stories on lead contamination in homes. The team will also use its SMS platform to engage with more than 4,000 Latino immigrant subscribers through text messaging to gather more information about their experience with lead abatement and offer tips on how to protect themselves from poisoning. The resulting stories will provide a fuller understanding of how systemic failures in health systems, housing, and state and local politics affect Latino immigrants and their children, and investigate how city and county officials have used funds allocated toward lead abatement.
