Health care access no longer a dream for College Bound - Beginning at Birth families

What stands between a child at risk and health care? It’s a significant question in Sunnyside, the large southeast Houston neighborhood where our College Bound - Beginning at Birth (CB-BB) program seeks nothing short of neighborhood transformation to benefit young children. And it may be something that sounds as simple as signing up for benefits.

In reality, obtaining children’s Medicaid or Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) benefits can be a baffling experience for the parent. And a child who can’t obtain health care is often a child who can’t take advantage of the enhanced learning opportunities offered through College Bound - Beginning at Birth. So an important component of the Sunnyside health care effort is partnering with the Children’s Defense Fund to make sure families get the support needed to sign-up for these all-important benefits.

This health care initiative and several others are just as crucial as the program’s other components of family support and support to child care providers in this neighborhood-based initiative.  The three areas of engagement will all help ensure that Sunnyside children are ready for kindergarten and are performing at grade level in math and reading by the end of the third grade.

Another major health care partner in Sunnyside is Gateway to Care, which will provide its community health “Navigators” to help families in the CB-BB program utilize the insurance benefits they may have and find access to the health care system.

These updates to the program, in the planning now, should be online later this summer. All are the efforts of the health care work group that began in August 2008 to provide its input and guidance for the health care component of CB-BB. The group is comprised of representatives from Central Care Clinic, Children's Defense Fund - 100 Percent Campaign, Houston Independent School District, City of Houston Department of Health and Human Services, Gateway to Care and Texas Children's Hospital Pediatric Associates.

Other health care initiatives underway include partnering with Families Under Urban and Social Attack and Maximum to register adults for entitlements such as Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) and to follow up with them when children's benefits must be renewed. CB-BB child care centers and the Sunnyside Multi-Service Center will hold registrations in the future.

Finally, the health care work group plans a seamless referral process for children in need of specialty services.

The inspiration for the CB-BB program stemmed from the Harlem Children's Zone in New York, which has become a national model. President Obama hopes to eventually replicate the approach in 20 Promise Neighborhoods throughout the country. With enough support from the larger community as well as neighborhood buy-in, the Sunnyside neighborhood could realize this hopeful vision.

College Bound – Beginning at Birth funders include Bank of America Charitable Foundation, Bauer Foundation, The Eleanor and Frank Freed Foundation, Houston Endowment Inc., JPMorgan Chase, Ann and Stephen Kaufman Foundation, KBR, The Powell Foundation, Rockwell Fund Inc., The Wachovia Foundation and Workforce Solutions.

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