What is the Healthy Air Network?
The Healthy Air Network is a coalition of organizations and community members dedicated to improving air quality, building climate resilience, and advancing environmental justice across Massachusetts.
Launched as a regional effort in Springfield, the Network grew into a collaborative, community-driven initiative that placed real-time air quality data directly in the hands of residents—supporting communities to better understand pollution, protect their health, and advocate for change.
As of November 2025, HRiA/MAAP’s role in supporting this phase of the Healthy Air Network has concluded.
The work continues through community partners who are integrating air quality monitoring, data, and advocacy into their ongoing programs and local initiatives.
Our Mission and Impact
The Healthy Air Network aimed to empower communities with accessible, real-time air quality information so they could advocate for healthier environments and more equitable policies.
Through community-based air monitoring, education, and partnership, HAN helped:
Expand access to neighborhood-level air quality data
Build community knowledge and leadership around environmental health
Strengthen partnerships between residents, organizations, and local governments
Support data-informed climate resilience and public health strategies
Today, that impact continues as communities use the tools, data, and relationships built through HAN to advance long-term environmental health and equity.
Why MAAP Was Involved
Everyone deserves the right to breathe clean air and live in a safe, healthy environment.
As one community member shared:
“Breathing clean air is a basic human right, essential for our health and quality of life.”
For others, personal experience drives their involvement:
“I’m here because of my son, who has asthma—and now I have asthma too.”
“I’m here to amplify the community’s voice in decisions that affect our health.”
“Air is life. Without it, nothing else matters.”
These perspectives reflect MAAP’s commitment to addressing asthma disparities by tackling environmental conditions and ensuring communities most impacted by poor air quality have the tools and power to advocate for change.
Community Partnerships and Continued Impact
Healthy Air Network leaders at the 2025 MAAP Summit
Pictured left to right: Kenzie Ballard (Groundwork Somerville), who spoke on behalf of the Groundwork Trusts on site identification and sensor installation; Alejandra Diaz (Groundwork Lawrence); Eric Andrade (Groundwork Southcoast); and Destiny Gonzalez (MAAP).
From 2024–2025, three Massachusetts-based environmental justice organizations—Groundwork Lawrence, Groundwork Somerville, and Groundwork Southcoast—partnered with the Healthy Air Network to expand community-based air quality monitoring.
Through this collaboration, each organization received funding, air quality sensors, and technical support to establish local monitoring networks and engage residents in collecting, understanding, and using air quality data.
While the funded partnership has concluded, this work continues in each community. Groundwork partners are actively integrating air quality data into climate resilience planning, youth programs, and local advocacy efforts.
What This Work Made Possible
Across these communities, the Healthy Air Network supported a shift from data collection to community-led action:
Lawrence: Community members and youth leaders integrated air quality monitoring into ongoing organizing and community science efforts, using data to inform local priorities and public education.
Somerville: Residents used air quality data to identify pollution hotspots, inform resiliency hub planning, and contribute to city decision-making on infrastructure and tree planting.
New Bedford (Southcoast): Residents and youth stewards built trust in air monitoring, used data to track events like wildfire smoke, and strengthened community-wide awareness—making air quality a shared local priority.
These efforts demonstrate how community-based air monitoring can move from data collection to sustained action—supporting long-term environmental health and more equitable decision-making.
Core Partners
The Healthy Air Network was led in partnership by: