2017 Community Benefit Report CHAI_160088756_2018-11_2017 Community Benefit Repo | Page 6

2017 COMMUNITY BENEFIT REPORT
Starting with
Schools
Partnerships that bring care to where kids are
Healthy lifestyles for kids are built at home and at school. Just two miles
west of Children’s Hospital Colorado, Crawford Elementary identifies health
and wellness as a priority need for their students. When kids spend most of their
time at school, this provides the best opportunity for incorporating healthy eating
and active living into their education and daily life.
For many years, Children’s Colorado has managed healthy eating and active living programs on
the Anschutz Medical Campus, and in 2017, it joined forces with Crawford to have a larger impact on the
kids they were both trying to serve.
Kate Garvin, director of family advocacy and community engagement at Crawford, says, “Schools and community
partners see a win-win when partnering to run programs in schools, as it allows for easier outreach, better program
attendance and inherent trust built in from the school.”
Stronger together
The partnership started by moving Children’s Colorado-led programs such as Camp Champions, a program for
children who are overweight and obese at greater risk for summer weight gain, to Crawford in 2017. Now, Bikes for
Life, a program to encourage healthy habits through bicycling, and Cooking Matters, a healthy eating course, have
also moved to the school.
“There was an opportunity to partner with Crawford by providing continual seasonal programming of our flagship
programs—Camp Champions, Cooking Matters and Bikes for Life—in a school setting,” says Eve Kutchman,
strategist in Lifestyle Medicine at Children’s Colorado. “Now, we’re meeting kids where they are. We’re making it
easier for them to access services and programming we know positively influence healthy lifestyles.”
A model that works
Maria Valenzuela, Children’s Colorado prevention education outreach coordinator, spends a significant amount of
time managing the programs at Crawford, building relationships with the school, applying her expertise in working
with families and community members and helping problem-solve how the two organizations can provide the best
care to its kids.
“Our families learn from the experts time and time again through this partnership. Through direct programming,
outreach events and community surveys, the needs of our students and families were listened to and acted upon,”
Kate says. “Our families know Children’s Colorado is a key partner here to bring wellness to our community.”
Both partners plan to grow this model to other schools in Aurora, with an individualized focus on whatever the
greatest need is at each school. “We don’t want to see kids in the hospital for sick visits — we want to see them for
well-child checks,” Eve says. “Keeping kids healthy takes into account everything they’re learning and doing at school,
home and in the community — we need to reinforce healthy living from all angles.”
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CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL COLORADO
Driving Systems-Level
Change Kids who attend Aurora Public
Schools in surrounding hospital
zip codes are more likely to
utilize hospital care:
In addition to direct partnerships with schools like Crawford
Elementary, Children’s Colorado leads the Colorado Alliance
for School Health. The Alliance ensures health and education
partners collaborate to create better health outcomes among
all Colorado students. 41,476
Formed in 2016 with support from The Colorado Health
Foundation, the Alliance includes members of nine statewide
health and education organizations with a proven track record
of improving health outcomes, health equity and educational
success for children and adolescents in Colorado. Members work
together and with external partners to identify and respond to
the health needs of districts and schools by partnering across
sectors and systems.
Total number of children 0 to 17 years old
56%
More likely to be admitted to inpatient care
than kids in Denver
10%
So far, the Alliance has partnered to accomplish the following: Longer inpatient stays than kids in Denver
• Collaborated to create workplans for addressing student
absences in two Colorado school districts 11.8%
• Created an assessment tool for districts to use in analyzing what
supports would help address health-related school absences
• Developed advocacy priorities and provided comments on
public policy proposals
“If we want to influence the
social and environmental
factors that affect child
health outcomes, we have
to partner in a different way
with entities that directly
serve the kids we aim to
positively impact.”
Of kids use mental health crisis system,
compared to
2 to 5%
For the next 10 closest zip codes
If we can work with community partners and
schools on prevention and wellness for Aurora’s
kids, we can create a healthier community and
prevent costly healthcare utilization.
DEB FEDERSPIEL, ALLIANCE LEAD FOR
CHILDREN’S COLORADO
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