Through a unique partnership between American Lung Association in Ohio and public television stations in Dayton and Cincinnati, we offer this CAARE for Care Providers project Web site dedicated to managing childhood asthma in day care settings and in homes.

The Community Asthma Awareness, Resources and Education for Family Care Providers Project (CAARE for Care Providers) delivers asthma education to an underserved population of adults caring for children with asthma in southwestern Ohio. Over 13 percent of Ohio's children will be diagnosed with asthma during their lifetimes.

The project partners in Dayton and Cincinnati include the ThinkTV Network – Greater Dayton Public Television, CET—public television in Cincinnati,  the Boonshoft School of Medicine, the Dayton Area Family Child Care Association, the Regional Air Pollution Control Agency,  Hamilton County Environmental Services and University of Cincinnati's Center for Continuous Professional Development.

To date, the project has trained nearly one thousand childcare providers in the basics of childhood asthma. It has created a mentoring network to help providers reduce asthma triggers in their childcare environments, and has developed a broadcast television campaign of informational and air quality spots carried in the Dayton and Cincinnati markets.

Childcare providers participating in the project generally succeed in:

• Learning to identify asthma symptoms;
• Learning to identify asthma triggers;
• Making reductions in asthma triggers in their child care environments.

Shalini Forbis, MD, past chair of the Ohio Asthma Coalition serves as the medical advisor to the project.