Correspondence from Lee to Samuels Re: Children's Advocacy Institute Proposal
Correspondence
October 7, 1991
2 pages
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Case Files, Matthews v. Kizer Hardbacks. Correspondence from Lee to Samuels Re: Children's Advocacy Institute Proposal, 1991. af7ce967-5d40-f011-b4cb-002248226c06. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/abb72e6c-7d42-4bdb-a6c1-2760236ed848/correspondence-from-lee-to-samuels-re-childrens-advocacy-institute-proposal. Accessed November 23, 2025.
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Regional Office
A A Suite 208
NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE 315 West Ninth Street
AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. Los Angeles, CA 90015 (213) 624-2405 Fax: (213) 624-0075
October 7, 1991
Ms. Sara Samuels
Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation
Quadrus
2400 Sand Hall Road
Menlo Park, CA 94205
Re: Children's Advocacy Institute Proposal
Dear Ms. Samuels:
The NAACP Legal Defense Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) supports
the proposal of the Children's Advocacy Institute for funds from
the Kaiser Family Foundation to set up a Model Health Promotion
Program.
United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis
Sullivan has called childhood lead poisoning the "number one
environmental childhood health problem." While almost 1/5 of all
young children suffer from lead poisoning, 2/3 of young African
American inner city children do.
LDF, along with several other public interest law offices, is
litigating a lawsuit against the California Department of Health
Services for failing to administer blood lead level testing among
young, poor (Medicaid-eligible) children. Matthews vv. Kizer.
Although the federal Medicaid statute requires such testing, the
Health Services Department tests virtually no children, less than
300 of the 570,000 eligible children younger than six years of age.
Happily, the parties in the Matthews case are now in serious
settlement negotiations concerning increased testings. These
negotiations are premised in part on the ability of the Department
and groups like Children's Advocacy Institute to provide adequate
public education and. outreach to parents to insure adequate and
effective testing. Such educational efforts are especially needed
in light of the action of the federal Centers for Disease Control
today to lower the threshold level of lead poisoning to ten ug/dL
so that levels once thought to be tolerable are now recognized as
toxic. Centers for Disease Control, Preventing lead Poisoning in
Young Children (October 1991).
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oct. . 79.1991
Page 2
The proposed pilot project of Children's Advocacy Institute
in Oakland and selected San Francisco neighborhoods is especially
appropriate in light of the large stock of dilapidated housing as
well as impoverished minority communities in these areas, factors
highly correlated with lead poisoning.
LDF is therefore happy to support the Institutes! Model Health
Promotion Program. | ]
Wegtern Regional Counsel
BLL: jb
Encl.