Central Current reported this story with funding from the Health Foundation for Western and Central New York.
Two years ago, LeadSafeCNY brought hundreds of Syracuse community members to come up with ways to combat the city’s lead crisis.
Community members developed strategies to increase testing for lead poisoning and ultimately voted on which strategies deserved funding through the Central New York Community Foundation and LeadSafeCNY.
On Friday, a documentary about the process will air outside at the Everson Museum of Art at 6 p.m.
“We really wanted to be able to document that not only as a teaching tool for other foundations that may be exploring these types of trust-based practices but also to get more awareness drawn to the issue of lead poisoning,” said Qiana Williams, CNYCF Program Officer, Community Investment.
The Community Foundation began the participatory budgeting project in 2022 with 10 meetings across the city. The project took nine months and involved hundreds of residents. It allowed participants to determine how to spend $150,000 to increase the testing of children for lead poisoning.
The documentary captures how the project happened. Black Cub Productions produced the documentary. The organization filmed each meeting to create Voices Rising: Syracuse’s Fight Against Lead Poisoning.
“My hope in terms of addressing the issue is that we get more kids tested. We make more homes safe for children and families to be in, in the first place,” Williams said. “You shouldn’t have to use a child as the test to find out where the lead is, it should be the opposite.”
Ultimately, the community foundation received proposals from several nonprofits for how to spend the $150,000.
B.A.B.Y. B.A.C.K Inc., Peace, Inc., Syracuse Peacemaking Project, United Way of Central New York, and Village Birth International submitted proposals. Each group presented their ideas to increase lead poisoning testing to community members.
At the end of the deliberation process, more than 400 votes were submitted. Last May, Doula 4 a Queen, zenG Wellness, and Cafe Sankofa received the most votes and were announced as the grantees of the participatory budgeting process.
“There were a lot of grassroots members and affected families involved with the process, I think that word of mouth is still a very powerful tool,” said Williams. “I’m just hoping that it’ll bring more people together around the issue and make sure we’re carrying things through. The kids, they’re all our responsibility.”
The documentary, will air Friday at the Everson Museum of Art at 6 p.m.
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