Eliminating Inequities
RAMP is a Center of Excellence in Eliminating Disparities as designated by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
Legacy Grants
As a Center of Excellence, one of RAMP’s objectives is to strengthen and expand its partnerships and provide pilot funding to organizations to encourage building community capacity and organizational development strategies that initiate or enhance efforts towards reducing health disparities. RAMP is reaching that objective with the Legacy Grants Program; three one-year, one-time only grants ranging from $25,000 -$30,000 will be awarded annually to support effective strategies for reducing disparities among African American and Latino communities. RAMP will award the funds subject to availability and provide technical assistance to the Legacy Grantees.
Asthma is a serious public health problem throughout the world and the most common chronic disease among children. It is a an inflammatory disorder of the airways that affects 6.8 million children nationwide. In California alone, 1 in 6 children (1.5 million children) has been diagnosed with asthma. The chronic inflammation is associated with airway hyperresponsiveness that leads to recurrent episodes of wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and coughing, particularly at night or in the early morning. These episodes are usually associated with airflow obstruction within the lung. Asthma attacks can range in severity from inconvenient to life threatening. Scientists continue to investigate what causes asthma, although it’s clear that many factors, including genes, allergies, air pollution exposure, including tobacco smoke, and possibly viral infections early in life, play a role.1 Asthma attacks are often triggered by exposure to respiratory irritants, such as air pollution and tobacco smoke and some chemicals or allergens, such as mold, dust mites, and animal dander.
Understanding asthma – its causes, management of the disease, ways to prevent it, and what we can do about it – is only part of the story. Equally important is understanding that asthma has a tremendously discriminatory impact on some of our communities.
For example, African Americans have the highest asthma rates, and Latinos represent the largest numbers of underserved minorities. The hospitalization and emergency room visit rates for asthma are more than three times higher for African-American children than for white children. African American children are also five times more likely to die from asthma. Similarly, the rate of emergency room visits among Latino children is significantly higher than for white children; they are also hospitalized for asthma at a rate that is significantly higher than for white children. Although some genetic factors contribute to these differences, we also know that environmental, economic and social inequities contribute to the burden of asthma. Additional action is needed to correct these inequities.
RAMP has been designated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a Center for Excellence in Eliminating Disparities. Since late 2007, we have been expanding and focusing our work in new ways to reduce the inequities in African American and Latino communities in the Bay Area and beyond.
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