May is Asthma Awareness Month
Participate in Asthma Awareness Month!
Each May, thousands of organizations across the U.S. join together for Asthma Awareness Month (AAM) in an effort to increase public awareness and improve the lives of children and families with asthma. Be part of this national effort to get asthma under control in communities nationwide!
Use the tools and resources identified below to plan and promote your program’s AAM activities and events.
Browse AAM Events
Check out the Events Calendar and use the widget on the right hand side of the page to search for AAM events in your community!
Join the national effort in promoting Asthma Awareness. Put this widget on your Web page. Click here for the code!
Identify Partners in Your Community
Search the Community Program Profiles on AsthmaCommunityNetwork.org to find programs in your area to partner with and host events. Promote your events by posting them on the Events Calendar!
Find and Share Resources
Search the Resource Bank to inform your program’s work. The Resource Bank has everything from checklists and asthma action plans to education and outreach materials and community health worker tools.
To search for what you need, use the advanced search feature:
- Visit the Resource Bank.
- Click on the “show advanced search” button.
- Check the boxes under “Resource Category,” “Resource Type,” “Language,” “Literacy Level,” and “Target Audience” based on your resource needs.
- Click the “search” button at the bottom of the page.
- To start a new search, click the “start new search button.”
To share your program’s resources:
- Visit the Resource Bank.
- In the green box on the page, click the "add your resource" button.
- Complete the fields and upload your resource.
- Make sure to click the "save" button at the bottom of the page to add your resource.
- To add another resource, simply repeat steps 1-4 above.
Check out these Top Five Resources:
- Guide to Asthma Policy for Housing and Schools
American Lung Association - School Flag Program
EPA Asthma Team - Asthma Clinical Guidelines Flip Chart
AH! Asthma Health - Asthma Triggers Coloring Book
EPA Region 4 - Environmental Improvements for Children’s Asthma: The Impact on Symptom Burden and Return on Investment of a Home-Based Environmental Assessment and Modification Project
American Lung Association of Minnesota
Plan AAM Events
Download EPA’s Asthma Awareness Month Event Planning Kit, which features new ideas for outreach and awareness activities, tips for working with the media, success stories and much more.
Add AAM Events
Publicize your community’s AAM Event on the AsthmaCommunityNetwork.org Events Calendar. Make sure to designate it as an "Asthma Awareness Month" event so others can easily recognize that your event is part of this national effort.
Have Multiple Events?
Add each event separately to maximize your marketing impact. You’ll also be able to track how many people RSVP for each event.
Read and Share AAM Stories
After your event takes place, let other AsthmaCommunityNetwork.org members know how it went by writing a blog post. This is a quick, easy way to share your successes with the community. You can even upload pictures from your events! Your stories can also help others in planning their own successful events.
Asthma Change Package
The System For Delivering High Quality Asthma Care
This change package is a guide for achieving breakthrough improvements in community asthma care. It provides quick access to a tremendous knowledge base on program strategies and approaches that drive improved health outcomes and program sustainability. It is built on strong evidence: the University of Michigan Asthma Health Outcomes Project (AHOP); the chronic care, program improvement, and social change literatures; in-depth analysis of highly effective asthma programs; and lessons from the more than 250 members of the Communities in Action. Synthesis of this research base reveals a dynamic system—the System for Delivering High-Quality Asthma Care—that drives successful asthma program design, delivery, outcomes, growth, and longevity.
What is the System for Delivering High-Quality Asthma Care?
The System for Delivering High-Quality Asthma Care is a conceptual framework that identifies the core elements of successful asthma programs and the processes that drive their implementation, continuous improvement, and endurance. The System is flexible and any asthma program, regardless of its size, institutional home (e.g., health plan, health care provider, community program), budget, target community, or level of development, can use the System to guide its work. How you apply the System will depend on where your program is in its evolution. As programs mature, the System evolves with them. The applicability to your program and your understanding of different elements of the System is likely to change over time. Early on, you may focus on using the System as a guide for getting started. After several years, you may focus more on using it to make your program last.
How Can I Use the Change Package?
The links in the toolbar on the right, present the change concepts and strategies that successful asthma programs have applied to incorporate the System for Delivering High-Quality Asthma Care into their programs. ‘First Things First’ and ‘Making It Last’ headings appear in the table to help programs at different stages of development focus in on the System components and strategies that may be most relevant to their situations. It is important to recognize, however, that this System is dynamic. Its effectiveness results from the ongoing interaction between its components. The most successful and enduring asthma programs continually pursue all of the System components, deepening, refining, and enriching these components as their programs mature. Community asthma programs that achieve breakthrough results are works in progress and most put the components of success in place over time. High-quality asthma care is a marathon and not a sprint.
This Change Package is designed to capture the current knowledge base. The Communities in Action Network updates this document as real-time learning and information exchange drive the ongoing improvement of asthma care. This release is version 3.