Community Spotlight – Children’s Health Fund: Healthy & Ready to Learn
On the blog we have a lot of fun. We check out fun fitness routines, fitness classes, family activities, fashion must haves and of course the FUN of New York City. Every once in a while we chat about volunteerism because it is a topic that is very close to my heart. Sometimes it seems as if there is no soul left in blogging and I hope to change this in 2015 by blogging more about wellness in the community and not just wellness in ourselves.
I have mentioned before about the amazing work that the Children’s health Fund does. As a refresher, the Children’s Health Fund is an organization that has mobile healthcare units all across the United States that provide pediatric services to children in under-served areas. I was able to tour the mobile unit twice and was equally impressed both times with the amazing things that are done for ill children. With books for the children to read while they wait, to top notch medical tools and world class doctors. One of best features of the mobile clinics is that they have all of their patient records digitally accessible so that patients can return for treatment at any time.
A couple of weeks ago, I was honored to be invited to the Children’s Health Fund’s Fall Reception held at the swanky 21 Club in Midtown. In addition to getting to chat with the staff of the Children’s Health Fund about upcoming projects, I was able to hear about the awesome new initiative that is changing the lives of New York City kids one by one.
Healthy & Ready to Learn Initiative
Across the U.S., we are witnessing a health crisis in the classroom . Health-related barriers to learning are keeping kids from doing well in school – and children living in poverty are getting hit the hardest. Building on decades of experience caring for vulnerable kids, Children’s Health Fund launched the Healthy and Ready to Learn Initiative in September 2014 to meet this crisis head on. Working together with educators, health care providers and parents, Children’s Health Fund is leading a growing movement to ensure that all kids are healthy and ready to learn.
We were able to hear from the principal of one of the schools where the program was put in place. She spoke about the hundreds of children that failed vision tests and how the Children’s Health Fund would be providing them each with 2 pairs of glasses for free. They also discussed the fact that kids in under served areas often miss the most days of school due to asthma and other avoidable and treatable illnesses. The Children’s Health Fund is currently working towards implementing this program in several more schools where the levels of absenteeism are high due to illness. Think about the awesome impact that this could make in schools all across the country!
ACROSS THE COUNTRY
The Children’s Health Fund National Network spans 17 states and the District of Columbia with 25 fixed site and mobile clinical programs. The mobile clinics visit 350 sites, including 159 schools, pioneering innovative ways to bring health care to students in the learning environment.
I had a great time at the Fall Reception, and I look forward to sharing more initiatives like this with you, my incredibly intelligent readers, in the future. We all have a responsibility to look outside of ourselves and see what we can do for others, and support causes like these that help the children that need it the most. You can find out more about the Healthy and ready to learn Initiative here.
What do you think about the Healthy & Ready To Learn Initiative? Have you heard of the Children’s Health Fund? Would you like to see more community/volunteerism focused content on the blog?
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Nellie Mommy. Fitness Addict. Socialite.
Schnelle "Nellie" Acevedo is a busy mom of two young boys (2 and 5), she is a career woman by day and a self proclaimed fitness junkie by night. Brooklyn Active Mama is a positive community that focuses on demonstrating to all women that you can always find time for fitness. She features a Weekly Wednesday Workout and a Friday Fitness Check-in series where she encourages her readers to check in and remain accountable for their fitness and nutrition goals weekly. Nellie also is a co-founder of the annual A Healthy U Conference which is a conference dedicated to helping women improve their mental, spiritual and physical health. In addition to getting in the gym 5 times weekly, Nellie is a licensed Zumba instructor in Brooklyn. Since beginning to blog Nellie has lost 27lbs (and counting)! You can find Nellie on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, & Google Plus. TwitterFacebookGoogle
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