The Chicago Community Trust: Children's health care for 150 families
Should my baby be crawling by now?
When should my toddler begin speaking in simple sentences?
A recent grant from the Chicago Community Trust to the Stritch School of Medicine will help anxious parents get those questions answered.
The trust awarded $65,000 to Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine's Department of Pediatrics to expand its Healthy Steps program. The program provides support and guidance to parents facing common parenting issues such as instilling good sleep habits, toilet training, and providing discipline. The program also provides the age ranges when infants and toddlers should reach developmental milestones such as rolling over, crawling, and walking.
Under the program's expansion, 150 Loyola Outpatient Center patient families with children aged newborn to 3 years will be enrolled in Healthy Steps. The program will include a home visit, assuring the child's comfort and allowing the residents to assess them in a natural environment. The program will also include parenting classes at the Loyola Outpatient Center.
Loyola patients who were born prematurely and at-risk of developmental delays are eligible for participation in the program, along with low-income families and those headed by teenage parents. Besides providing additional information and support for participating families, the expanded program will provide more opportunities for residents to work with patients and hone their examining skills.
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"Healthy Steps is a dual-purpose program that serves at-risk families while providing valuable resident training," says Melanie Arvanitakis, MS, a Loyola University Health System child development specialist. "We are grateful that the Chicago Community Trust recognized the value of the program because we wouldn't have been able to expand it without the grant."
The Chicago Community Trust has been making grants for 93 years, connecting the generosity of donors with the needs of people in Chicago. Loyola University Health System and the trust have partnered for more than 20 years to fund programs that improve health in local communities and help educate the next generation of health-care professionals.
The Trust has also funded various research projects and scholarships for medical students at Loyola. "The support of Healthy Steps was an excellent opportunity for the trust to continue to reap investment from our ongoing strategic support for changing pediatric primary care practice to better meet the needs of parents and children," says Diana N. Derige, program officer, the Chicago Community Trust.
Helping ensure the health of our youngest members is something Loyola, the Chicago Community Trust, and all of us can get behind.
