Antoinette Henigan’s home is getting an upgrade.

Her landlord is working to clear out rodents and cockroaches that have lived in her building, and she’s stocked her home with healthier cleaning products. It’s all so her nine-year-old daughter Edashia, who has asthma, can breathe a little easier.

The disease is under attack on Chicago’s West Side.

In a city where nearly 25 percent of children in poor neighborhoods suffer from asthma – compared to 12 percent nationwide – researchers with the Sinai Urban Health Institute and numerous community partners are hoping to give parents of children with asthma lasting knowledge to improve their kids’ quality of life.

“The endgame is to help the folks in the community manage their asthma better, and live long healthy, happy lives,” says Joel Massel, executive director of the Chicago Asthma Consortium, one of the initiative’s partner groups.

The program, known as “Healthy Home, Healthy Child,” is funded by a $1.3 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and targets families in North Lawndale. So far, 15 families, including Henigan’s, have signed up, but organizers hope to grow that number to about 400.

Helen Margellos-Anast, director of Sinai’s pediatric outreach program, says a team of community educators began making home visits – which organizers call “interventions” - early last month. They will make six visits to each family over the next year, working with them to better understand asthma and how conditions at home contribute to symptoms.

Henigan says the program is already helping her daughter.

“I’m glad because they’re showing me things I never knew to make her healthier,” she says, including how to administer medication and which cleaning products won’t aggravate Edashia’s asthma.

While Sinai has coordinated similar programs in the past, this is the first time it has been able to incorporate outside groups, including the Metropolitan Tenants Organization and Health & Disability Advocates. Margellos-Anast says the program also allows families to improve their homes to eliminate asthma triggers, such as dust, rodents and cockroaches.

“We’ve never been able to take that next step to improving the home environment,” she says. “with these two partners, we’re able to refer children who live in less than ideal situations to someone who can actually help facilitate a change, by working with a landlord and, if necessary, moving into legal issues.”

The program, which has a three-year grant is already seeing progress, says Gloria Seals, intervention coordinator.

“We’ve found that many of the families don’t recognize what a real trigger is,” but families are beginning to implement lessons brought to them by educators.

“The families are really excited about the fact that we’ve reached out to them,” she says.