Program Details

Practice Type:	Promising
Program Name:	REACH - Real Estate Awareness of the Connecticut Health Code
Organization:	Ledge Light Health District
Web site:	www.ledgelighthd.org
Overview:	This program seeks to educate and inform local real estate agents of the Connecticut Public Health Code requirements that relate to real estate transactions (water, on-site sewage, lead, radon) and how the Ledge Light Health District can assist the agents and their clients. The REACH program is also a model that local health departments, municipal building and zoning departments can easily adapt to their individual needs for outreach and education. Local real estate agents became aware of the Connecticut Public Health Code and how the Ledge Light Health District can assist them in serving their clients and local residents. Local health departments and municipal regulation departments have a customizable template to offer outreach to their residents for issues that affect their communities.
Year Submitted:	2006
Responsiveness and Innovation:	The REACH program addresses state and local health requirements/recommendations of real estate agents to disclose accurate information to their clients concerning drinking water, on-site septic systems, lead and radon issues of properties they represent. Ledge Light Health District employees and neighboring health department personal were informally polled regarding public health outreach issues that needed to be addressed. This revealed that no comprehensive program had been created to inform and educate real estate agents concerning health issues that directly affected real estate transactions and the health of their clients. Local real estate agents were also contacted by letter and phone regarding their interest in an outreach program and more than 25% of the agencies contacted replied with a desire to attend. The REACH program is an outlet to educate real estate agents in a basic understanding of the Connecticut Health Code as it relates to real estate transactions. In addition, it provides the agents with a physical contact with local health departments and we can assist the agent with information and health related property documents.
Agency and Community Roles:	The Ledge Light Health District (LLHD) has developed the REACH program to educate real estate agents regarding the health code, inform them of the health related property documents maintained by the LLHD and create an avenue for future outreach with ever changing information and programs. In turn, real estate agents have supplied the LLHD with property based health information and feedback to request further training and information on various health topics. In addition, the program can be adopted by other local health departments by simply changing the contact names and numbers or totally customizing it to the needs of the local residents. The real estate agents benefit by knowing who to contact for information and how to express that information to their clients in a concise and professional way, plus their questions and evaluations allow the Ledge Light Health District to further develop the REACH program. Local health departments and municipal regulatory agencies have been offered the REACH program to use as an easily adaptable template to promote connections and address the needs of their residents.
Costs and Expenditures:
Implementation:	The REACH program addresses state and local health requirements/recommendations of real estate agents to disclose accurate information to their clients concerning drinking water, on-site septic systems, lead and radon issues of properties they represent. Ledge Light Health District employees and neighboring health department personal were informally polled regarding public health outreach issues that needed to be addressed. This revealed that no comprehensive program had been created to inform and educate real estate agents concerning health issues that directly affected real estate transactions and the health of their clients. Local real estate agents were also contacted by letter and phone regarding their interest in an outreach program and more than 25% of the agencies contacted replied with a desire to attend. The REACH program is an outlet to educate real estate agents in a basic understanding of the Connecticut Health Code as it relates to real estate transactions. In addition, it provides the agents with a physical contact with local health departments and we can assist the agent with information and health related property documents.
Sustainability:	The REACH program can be sustained indefinitely due to the availability of 5 existing staff members (participating on a needed basis) who can update the program with changing information, offer group presentations at the facilities of real estate agents/residents, a limited cost in creating paper and electronic versions of the presentation and the use of presentation materials funded by previous outreach programs (laptop and projector). It is in the interest of the Ledge Light Health District to educate groups of local real estate agents so we can better serve out residents, minimize actual current and future regulatory costs from lack of agent knowledge and assist neighboring local health departments to adopt the REACH program for further community education. The breadth of issues in the REACH program make it attractive for grant funding from a vast array of outreach, health education, environmental health and preventative health based sources.
Lessons Learned:

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