Children's Memorial's community initiatives
Our commitment to the health and well-being of all children goes beyond the care provided by our physicians, nurses, and staff. Children's Memorial Hospital's mission reaches out and contributes to our local, national, and even global communities. Our undertakings which benefit these communities of children can be divided into the four pillars of the Children's Memorial mission: Patient Care and Prevention, Education, Research and Advocacy.
Hope for Haitian Children - State Senator Kwame Raoul recently traveled to Haiti, with a Chicago-based coalition, to help resurrect Grace Children’s Hospital. Raoul, who is a board member with the Chicago affiliate of International Child Care, went to Haiti in early 2010 with a volunteer team from Children’s Memorial, as well as architectural and construction experts working on the new hospital, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. When rebuilt, Grace Children's Hospital will provide needed care and services to children throughout the country. The vision of the trip was to share the experience of building Lurie Children's in helping plan, construct and operate a Haitian-driven and sustained women and children’s hospital and outreach health delivery system. The goal of the alliance is to significantly improve the health status of all Haitian children within the next five years with the hope that the process becomes a model for other developing countries. The coalition also brought 600 pounds of donated medical supplies to the stricken country.
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Patient care and prevention
Sickle cell donor program - About 400 children are treated at Children’s Memorial Hospital for sickle cell disease, the most common genetic disorder in the United States, which affects 70,000 African Americans. In a joint effort with American Red Cross Blood Services, hospital hematologists launched the cooperative sickle cell donor program, an innovative outreach initiative to increase the number of blood donations by African Americans to help children with sickle cell disease. With no universal cure, patients rely on frequent blood transfusions — usually 15 to 25 a year — to help prevent serious complications. Since September 2008, blood drives have been held at churches, schools and businesses. As a result of the initiative, dozens of donors have requested a “blue tag,” which indicates that their blood donation is a lifesaving resource for children with sickle cell disease. More about the sickle cell donor program »
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Confronting childhood obesity - The nationally recognized Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children (CLOCC) brings together hundreds of organizations and individuals to confront childhood obesity in Chicago. It fosters and facilitates connections between researchers; public health advocates and practitioners; corporations; policymakers; and children, families, and communities.
Among its projects, CLOCC promotes its 5-4-3-2-1 Go!™ message with the daily recommendations of 5 servings of fruits and vegetables, 4 servings of water, 3 servings of low-fat dairy, 2 or less hours of screen time, and 1 or more hours of physical activity to community-based organizations and agencies across the city. CLOCC is also working with the Chicago Department of Public Health on policy, systems, and environmental change to support healthy behaviors throughout Chicago. Other CLOCC initiatives include the Healthy Teacher Network to promote classroom-based healthy lifestyle promotion and evaluation work to measure reach and effectiveness of childhood obesity prevention efforts in Chicago. More about CLOCC’s programs »
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Preventing injury - Injuries, many of which are preventable, represent the leading cause of childhood hospitalization and death. The Injury Prevention and Research Center (IPRC) at Children’s Memorial strives to educate the public about injury prevention, improve public policy and foster protective environments for children, while it also coordinates all injury prevention initiatives within Children’s Memorial. Read more about the Injury Prevention and Research Center, and see an overview of Children’s Memorial’s current violence prevention efforts.
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Reducing sports injuries - Just as the number of children participating in competitive sports has increased dramatically over the last decade, so has the number of sports-related injuries among children. In response, Children’s Memorial’s Institute for Sports Medicine has created several programs to teach children sports injury prevention. These programs include a safe training practices program, knee injury prevention program for teenage girls and a similar knee injury program for Chicago Public Schools girls’ soccer and basketball coaches. More about the Institute for Sports Medicine »
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Serving children with complex medical needs - Children with special health care needs comprise 13-18 percent of all children under the age of 18 in the United States. These children and their families often encounter uncoordinated care and other significant barriers while seeking multiple health care resources. The Consortium for Children with Complex Medical Needs seeks to overcome these barriers by:
- Assuring a medical home for all children with special health care needs;
- Building alliances to facilitate increased access to care and services;
- Raising awareness through advocacy and lobbying; and
- Assuring youth with special health care needs receive transitional services needed to facilitate a productive adult life.
The consortium represents a partnership between Children’s Memorial and other medical professionals, government agencies and community leaders. More about helping children with complex medical needs »
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Caring for society's most vulnerable youth - In 2004, Children’s Memorial entered into a community partnership to create a one-stop center to coordinate medical, social and housing services for Chicago’s most vulnerable youth. The Broadway Youth Center addresses the unique medical and psychological needs of youth who are homeless; those at-risk of acquiring HIV; and young people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. Led by Howard Brown Health Center, in collaboration with Children’s Memorial, Teen Living Program and the Night Ministry, the center is one of fewer than 10 such facilities across the country and the first of its kind in Chicago.
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Family support services - Through the work of the Family and Children’s Services, where programs range from social work, pastoral care, and ParentWISE to child life playgroups and an interactive closed-circuit television station, Children's Memorial continually demonstrates the value it places on care for the whole family. Funded by philanthropy and supported by hospital revenues, Family Services addresses the emotional, social and spiritual needs of the hospitalized child and his or her family. Among these are arts and recreation, tutoring, preparation for medical procedures, child-friendly care, family resources, culturally appropriate care, pastoral care, palliative care and bereavement programs, and much more.
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Education
Training the next generation of doctors serving kids - For more than 60 years, Children’s Memorial has served as the pediatric training ground for Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Our Pediatric Residency Program is one of the most sought after in the United States. Key aspects of the program provide residents with an exceptional faculty, opportunities to participate in significant research opportunities, options for specialization in a particular field of pediatrics, access to educational conferences, and Children’s Memorial’s tradition of camaraderie among staff. More about our residency program »
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Mentoring Latino youth - In an effort to introduce Chicago’s fastest growing population to promising career opportunities in health care, Children’s Memorial offers a six-week summer internship for local Latino high school students. Through community partnerships, students are recruited for this unique program where they can observe surgeries, help medical imaging staff examine x-rays and observe a day in the life of our Emergency Department. Students hear presentations from Children’s Memorial’s nationally renowned pediatric care specialists from a broad range of medical disciplines. Read more »
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Summer youth mentorship and promotion of literacy - This program provides high school students with the opportunity to learn about careers in medicine by working closly with a physician while becoming involved in community service and literacy promotion. More about the program»
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Training future advocates - Children’s Memorial pediatric residency program goes well beyond the hospital. An advocacy rotation includes residents’ community involvement in schools, day care facilities, Head Start programs and community health fairs. Since 1999, residents have also participated in the Delivery of Chronic Care program, started and led by parents of our patients. These parents introduce residents to what it's like to care for a child with a chronic illness and give residents the opportunity to visit the home of a child and observe his or her family's daily life. In 2006, a program was launched giving residents the opportunity to travel to Tanzania to deliver health care to the poorest of the poor. This program is designed to challenge their minds and ignite their interest in improving the health of children around the world.
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Providing HIV education and outreach - HIV-affected children face a major challenge: to successfully cope with all aspects of their condition in order to lead happy, fulfilling and productive lives. Children’s Memorial’s HIV education and outreach team helps educators create an environment that supports the health needs of children with HIV while respecting their privacy. Children’s Memorial’s internationally recognized HIV experts collaborate with the Chicago Public Schools to provide educational training and printed resources for principals, teachers and school nurses, as well as workshops on blood-borne pathogens and universal precautions for school personnel. We work with schools to develop policies for principals and school administrators regarding inclusion and management of HIV-positive children. Workshops teach educators how to incorporate HIV prevention into their curriculum, and HIV prevention training is now offered to groups of student leaders who share this information with their peers. More about HIV/AIDS education efforts »
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Supporting children with cochlear implants in school - Under the leadership of the Children's Memorial's Division of Otolaryngology, the hospital and Chicago Public Schools (CPS) have partnered to improve auditory classroom learning for children with cochlear implants and other hearing impairments. School-based consultation provided through Children’s Memorial is enhancing levels of teacher competencies across all CPS deaf and hard of hearing classrooms. In addition, Children’s Memorial has sponsored a summer training program to enhance skills for early intervention and school-based providers of aural (hearing) habitation therapy. More about the cochlear implant program »
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Supporting students with epilepsy - Children’s Memorial’s Epilepsy Center has gained nationwide attention for its groundbreaking research and the extensive scope of its services. Further, because children with epilepsy are two to four times less likely to finish high school, they developed an education outreach initiative to ensure that the 10,000 children with epilepsy who attend the Chicago Public School (CPS) system and the thousands more in suburban schools receive the help they need. They develop individualized educational plans for children with epilepsy to ensure that they are supported within the school system, conduct trainings for school nurses on seizure management and offer other informational and advocacy services. The Epilespy Center's handbook, Seizure Management in Schools, has been provided to each of CPS’ 600 schools and to 25 suburban school districts. More about the Epilepsy Center »
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Education about child abuse - Children’s Memorial’s Protective Services Team assesses and manages appropriate interventions for child victims of abuse and neglect at both the hospital and in the community. The team coordinates clinical symposia and trains pre-hospital providers, such as emergency medical technicians, paramedics, firefighters, police and early childhood school personnel to recognize and report child abuse. The team’s prevention efforts also include a training CD-ROM (now repurposed here as online presentations) produced by Children’s Memorial and recognized by the Prevent Child Abuse Illinois, an education program to prevent tramatic head injury, active engagement with the City of Chicago’s Child Abuse Prevention Joint Task Force, and a number of other initiatives.
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Research
Providing data - Children’s Memorial’s Child Health Data Lab (CHDL) provides current and accurate data on the health of children and adolescents in Illinois in a readily understandable format. By analyzing health status in particular areas and over specific periods of time, the CHDL assists policy-makers and public health planners to identify the health promotion and disease and injury prevention needs in local communities in Illinois. A series of reports published by the CHDL, called SCRIPTS: State and Community Reports on Injury Prevalence and Targeted Solutions, provides policy-makers with detailed analyses of child and adolescent injury, death and hospitalization in Illinois by county, and child injury and well-being by Chicago community area. It provides statistical analysis and proposes solutions to address the leading causes of injury for different age groups.
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Illinois Health Survey - The Illinois health survey, based at Children’s Memorial’s Child Health Data Lab, has been preparing to extend its work beyond the pilot, to statewide implementation — including an estimated 5,000 families each year across Illinois. The first broad-based health survey of Illinois youth and adults, the Illinois Health Survey is a data system designed to provide county-level estimates of a broad range of health conditions for Illinois youth and adults that will be used to guide health policy in Illinois.
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Illinois Violent Death Reporting System - Children’s Memorial is a leader in advocating for the prevention of violence against children. For the last five years, the hospital has led the effort to create the Illinois Violent Death Reporting System (IVDRS), a program to create a state-wide database correlating information on violent deaths. By analyzing this data, researchers and policy makers hope to determine emerging patterns and develop more effective violence prevention policies and programs. The initiative is part of the Children’s Memorial Research Center’s Mary Ann & J. Milburn Smith Child Health Research Program and its Child Health Data Lab. More about the IVDRS »
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Food allergy - The startling increase in the number of people with food allergies prompted the development of a multi-site genetic research initiative headed by the Bunning Food Allergy Institute at Children's Memorial. The Bunning Food Allergy Institute and the Food Allergy Project, which fund the study, are the products of a deep commitment to increasing awareness, education, and research in the field by north suburban Chicago residents Denise and David Bunning whose two sons suffer from life-threatening allergies to foods as basic as milk and eggs. The four-year, $5.5 million research initiative will look at the impact of environmental and genetic factors on children who suffer with food allergies. More about food allergies »
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Asthma - Asthma is a chronic respiratory disease which affects a growing number of urban youth. Doctors at Children’s Memorial recently published research on childhood asthma. Their two-year study, which covers 287 Chicago neighborhoods and thousands of children, found that a collaboration of many factors may ultimately cause asthma. This information assists in the development of more effective and far-reaching interventions to help reduce asthma in children living in urban environments. The doctors’ study continues, based out of Children's Memorial Research Center. More about the study »
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Advocacy
Strengthening public policy for children - Kids can’t vote. They can’t call Congress or meet with State legislators on issues affecting their health and well-being. A critical part of Children’s Memorial’s mission is to partner with the government on matters concerning children. Our Public Policy Committee of the Board recommends institutional positions on pertinent legislation and regulation. This committee has driven Children’s Memorial to be a leading advocate in Springfield and Washington, D.C. on issues such as preventing childhood injury and abuse; obesity; abandoned newborns; childhood immunizations; and environmental tobacco smoke. In addition, Children’s Memorial consistently advocates to improve access to health care for all children. More here government relations »
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Promoting child advocacy- The leading causes of hospitalization and death to children today stem from non-biomedical causes: behavioral, environmental and social where risk factors are present beyond the walls of the hospital. The Office of Child Advocacy at Children's Memorial Hospital is organized on a public health model that emphasizes prevention and health promotion. Our child advocacy initiatives incorporate strategies to optimize the health and social well-being of children, strengthen family function, create safe and healthy communities, promote protective public policy, and strengthen the impact of patient care. More about our Office of Child Advocacy »
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Partnering with our neighbors - Children’s Memorial is fortunate to have positive partnerships with its neighbors in Chicago's Lincoln Park community, as well as in communities surrounding its new hospital under construction, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, set to open in 2012 . More about the community relations »
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