CHOP Cares Community Grants Awarded Spring 2018
The CHOP Cares Community Fund and Grants Program awards grants to CHOP employees to cover expenses for health-related projects that fulfill specific needs in one of the many communities CHOP serves. Read more about the CHOP Cares Community Grants awarded in the spring of 2018 and how they are impacting children and families in the community.
Enhancements to Vanguard School Take 5 Rooms
Robert Weaverling, CIA, CHC, MBA
Valley Forge Educational Services offers a continuum of educational and social accommodations for individuals with special needs, including Take 5 Rooms, in each of its Vanguard schools. Take 5 Rooms are a designated safe place for students to decompress, refocus and grow during highly stimulating situations. Dedicated to preparing children and adults with special needs to recognize their role as contributing members to the community, this project funds the beautifying and enhancement to the Vanguard Take 5 Rooms across four elementary, middle and high schools in the area.
Tobacco Dependence Program
Natalie Napolitano, MPH, RRT-NPS, FAARC
The severity of nicotine dependence and the health risks of smoking are well documented, yet the health effects of second-hand smoke, also known as environmental tobacco smoke, are often overlooked. The Tobacco Dependence Program (TDP) at CHOP is a hospital-based program that approaches parents and guardians, as well as patients who are identified as users of tobacco, to offer support in the form of referrals, one-on-one counseling and/or nicotine replacement therapy (NRT). This project supports the missions of TDP through NRT and raising awareness of the health implications of second-hand smoke.
Celebration of World Breastfeeding Week at Karabots Pediatric Care Center
The Karabots Breastfeeding Committee aims to increase awareness and cultural acceptance of breastfeeding and its many health benefits for newborns. One way to improve breastfeeding outcomes on both the individual and community level is to celebrate World Breastfeeding Week. CHOP proudly participates in local community events around the Philadelphia area and truly embraces this year’s theme: Foundation of Life. This project funds tables, services from local communities, educational materials, food, fun activities and giveaways at community events in celebration and support of breastfeeding across all cultures.
Improving Cultural Competency in Intimate Partner Violence Screenings
Ashlee Murray, MD, MPH; and Jessica Palardy, LSW, IPV Specialist
Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) has been recognized as a pervasive public health issue that impacts both men and women from every walk of life. Moreover, statistics show that households with IPV are 30% to 60% more likely to pose a threat of child abuse. In an effort to minimize the occurrence of child abuse in Philadelphia, and in compliance with the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommendations for routine pediatric and IPV screenings, this grant provides financial support for the purchase and translation of the IPV screening tool into the eight most commonly spoken languages in the CHOP community.
Scoutreach: Preparing Under-resourced Boys to Be Healthy and Contributing Members of Our Community
Cristopher Gantz, MBA
For more than 109 years, the Boy Scouts has encouraged its members to actively engage in the surrounding community while fostering healthy living and physical activity among youth. With roughly 2.4 million youth and 1 million adults involved in the organization, scouting creates lifelong friendships and a safe environment founded upon commitment, teamwork and trust. This grant enables deserving boys to participate in the program by alleviating the financial obligation for families that can’t afford the typical costs.
Healthy Hearing Community Education Program
Noise-induced hearing loss is a preventable condition that affects approximately one in every six children. Using personal listening devices and participating in noisy events are significant risk factors for developing this permanent condition. Each summer, Pennsylvania Care Health and Wellness brings the nation’s largest health festival and music concert to Penn’s Landing. This grant funds an educational booth at the event, staffed by the Healthy Hearing Community Education Program from CHOP’s Department of Audiology, to educate attendees with the goal of changing the attitudes of children and adolescents who might engage in risky listening behavior.
CHOP Garden/Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Partnership: Staff Development and Education and Garden Maintenance
David Scannapieco, COTA
Since 2011, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has partnered with the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) to maintain its Sea Garden, an outdoor, therapeutic green space accessible from the third floor of Children’s Seashore House on CHOP’s University City Campus. The garden fosters rehabilitation and healing and provides a peaceful respite area for patients and their families. The garden oasis promotes healthy and organic eating, self-expression through nature, and a deeper sense of mindfulness. This grant provides training for teachers, physical therapists, occupational therapists and child life staff in horticulture education and garden maintenance, preparing them to lead activities for patients and families.
Pediatric Education for Prehospital Professionals: Filling a Need for EMS
Ten percent of paramedic services in Philadelphia are in response to medical emergencies in children. To ensure children receive proper care while awaiting medical attention, the Philadelphia Fire Academy, in collaboration with CHOP, has provided an educational outreach project to improve healthcare delivery to children of all ages. This grant enables our Department of Pediatrics to purchase necessary resources to certify participants in Pediatric Education for Prehospital Professionals upon completion of an evidence-based course on prehospital emergency care.
Promoting Alternative Lodging for Patient Families
Leanne Cimato, RN
Hosts for Hospitals, a long-standing partner of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, connects patients and their families with volunteer host families to provide exceptional housing with “family-centered care” during hospital visits. This grant focuses on outreach, recruitment and engagement efforts for volunteer hosts, and offsets the cost of lodging and at-home care to better accommodate patients and families whose needs were not formerly being met.
I HRT CHOP Career Day
Jessica Lalli
Within the Philadelphia School District, 12 schools offer a Health Related Technology (HRT) program, with curriculum that equips students with the foundational knowledge and skills necessary for higher education in various health vocations. To foster a close connection with our local community, the HRT program established a Health Education Seminar featuring CHOP professionals. This course broadens the classroom scope and exposes students to CHOP’s commitment to innovative research, exemplary clinical practices and professional development. This grant offsets the costs of transportation and medical equipment for every student in the HRT program.
The PCCYFS Annual Resource Caregiver Training Event
Laura Knightly
The Pennsylvania Council of Children, Youth and Family Services (PCCYFS) is a statewide membership association comprising child-serving organizations primarily focused on child welfare, juvenile justice and children’s behavioral health. In the midst of a child welfare crisis, the city of Philadelphia is in critical need of foster homes and individualized, higher quality training seminars. This grant enables the PCCYFS to host its annual Resource Caregiver Training Event, which teaches foster parents how to improve the overall parental experience for children in their care.
2018 Pennsylvania Health Care Fest
Injury is among the leading causes of death for children over the age of 1. Each year, CHOP treats more than 1,400 children for injuries that are easily preventable with proper education. In an attempt to reduce the number of injury-related deaths among youth, this project enables CHOP volunteers to educate families and their children on pedestrian safety at the Pennsylvania Health Care Fest at Penn’s Landing.
CHOP Sickle Cell Program Patients Attend Camp Dragonfly Forest
Catherine Hamilton, RN, BSN
Camp Dragonfly Forest is an overnight summer camp dedicated to providing a week of magic for children with chronic medical needs, such as autism, 22q deletion syndrome, asthma, hemophilia and sickle cell disease. Due to recent changes in ownership, the formerly free program has increased its costs to $650 per camper. This grant enables 16 campers with sickle cell disease to attend Camp Dragonfly Forest.
Aquinas Center Garden Expansion
Daniel Colbert, JD
The Aquinas Center in South Philadelphia fosters unity through diversity, support, knowledge and compassion in a multicultural, multilingual community of immigrants and refugees. The center’s Multicultural Community Garden and adjacent courtyard is an important green space in an otherwise urban corner of the neighborhood. Currently, the garden reaches more than 900 people annually by serving as a teaching garden for summer camps, yielding produce for a youth-led farm stand and providing harvest for communal meals. This grant supports the expansion of the garden and the construction of a greenhouse.
Philadelphia Youth Basketball Partners with CHOP’s Homeless Health Initiative: “All in” Fathers and Children in Shelter
Matthew Millar, RN, BSN, MBE, MPH
According to Temporary Family Housing Services, the city of Philadelphia is faced with a lack of paternal representation in family shelters, causing estranged relationships between fathers and sons. By partnering with shelters in Philadelphia, Philadelphia Youth Basketball, in collaboration with CHOP’s Homeless Health Initiative, provides at-risk youth and their fathers an opportunity to socialize, play and grow through organized competition and academic help. This grant provides 35 father-son pairs with a comprehensive program featuring academic enrichment, positivity coaching, occupational mentorship, basketball skill development and game play, and healthy, nutritious meals.