Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Today, there are an unconscionably large number of children in the US who do not have full access to high quality healthcare. For children to thrive, they need to be healthy. High-quality healthcare is critical to keeping children healthy and able to reach their full potential. However, access to healthcare is not equally distributed, as evidenced by the well-documented child health disparities that exist across this nation. The Kids Count Book 2020 reported that “despite documented gains for children of all races and income levels, the nation’s racial inequities proved deep and stubbornly persistent during the reporting period, according to the [2018] data. The nation failed to provide African American, American Indian and Latino children with the support necessary to thrive while states failed to dismantle barriers facing many children of color. Not surprisingly, nearly all index measures indicated that children with the same potential experienced disparate outcomes.” The greatest inequities in health are seen in children and young people living below the federal poverty line. Today, owing to the cyclical nature of systemic disinvestment, U.S. children are more likely than adults to be living in poverty. Black and Hispanic children are disproportionately impacted, with data in 2018 indicating 32 and 26 percent respectively live under the federal poverty line, compared to just 11 percent of white children. Living below the poverty line in early childhood affects not only the child’s health, but also economic and social circumstances throughout their lives. The COVID-19 pandemic is exposing deep-rooted inequities in our society and magnifying their consequences for the most under-resourced communities. Child health providers, who serve children living below the federal poverty line and lacking access to healthcare, are deeply concerned about mounting pressure to reduce Medicaid spending and weaken the nation’s single most important child health program. Devising how a child can receive needed services is vitally important, especially for those who face barriers to care. Whether it’s helping children get to a clinic, or bringing the services directly to the child, innovative service platforms are needed to break down access barriers. Reducing time off from work and school, limiting long distance travel in rural communities, and avoiding inefficient public transit routes in cities are priorities for CHF.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
National Network
Since 1987, Children’s Health Fund (CHF) has been breaking down barriers to health and wellbeing for children living in under-resourced communities. Whether it’s a baby living in a Bronx homeless shelter, a child living in a rural area of West Virginia, or a teen living on the streets of Las Vegas, the programs CHF supports deliver high-quality medical and dental care and social supports to the children who need it most. This includes connecting families to resources in their communities to address non-medical needs such as lack of health insurance, housing, and nutritious food. Our programs across the country reach children and families through: fixed and mobile clinics, telehealth, and school-based partnerships at schools, Head Start centers, shelters, and many community sites. We support 25 programs that comprise a National Network located in 15 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C.
Policy and Advocacy
Since our inception, we have fought for policy gains that have strengthened the critical safety net that children need to thrive. With our strong focus on healthcare, we are very proud of our contributions to the passage of the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and the ongoing efforts to uphold the Medicaid program. We have also fought for increased access to healthcare and advocated for policy solutions to address homelessness, transportation barriers, asthma care, poor nutrition, and other areas. There are millions of children who still need health insurance and healthcare access, as well as social interventions to thrive. They fuel our advocacy and policy efforts to go the extra mile.
Healthy and Ready to Learn
Our Healthy and Ready to Learn initiative addresses health needs rooted in social, racial, and economic inequities by creating relevant content and training that builds agency in school communities. Since 2014, our Healthy and Ready to Learn (HRL) initiative has partnered with two schools in Harlem and in the Bronx where we provide health-related services, education, resources, and protocols. But we go above and beyond by supporting the entire school community—teachers, students, and educators—with workshops, resources, and tools through our online Resource and Training Center so that more children not only make it to school each day but are attentive and ready to learn.
Public Health / Crisis Response
When disaster strikes, children and families living in under-resourced areas face bigger hurdles to recover from the damage and trauma. Whether it's a flood, hurricane, or epidemic, Children’s Health Fund has decades of experience responding to public health crises. Through mobile clinics, the programs we fund we have the agility to provide a swift and effective response. Our extensive experience means we know that recovery takes time, so we provide support for the long haul. As our country and world face rapidly evolving challenges related to pandemics such as COVID-19, climate change, and migration, we will continue exploring and innovating ways to help the children affected by these crises.
Where we work
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Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of children who have access to healthcare
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, People of African descent, People of European descent, People of Latin American descent, At-risk youth
Related Program
National Network
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Children's Health Fund has a National Network of programs providing health education and clincial care to children and families in urban and rural communities in 15 different states and Washington DC
Number of patient visits
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Young adults, Children and youth, People of Latin American descent, People of African descent, People of European descent
Related Program
National Network
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
clinical and health education visits provided to children and family mebers in the National Network programs include medical, mental health, dental, nutrition, social services and case management.
Number of community-based organizations providing primary prevention services in nutrition
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
National Network
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
CHF national programs provide clinical and health education visits that includes prevention services in nutrition, well child care, screening, vaccinations, and chronic illness managemt
Number of COVID-19 Testing and Screening Encounters
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, Adults
Related Program
Public Health / Crisis Response
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Children’s Health Fund strives to ensure that all children receive the healthcare they deserve
and need to thrive and succeed. Since 1987, Children’s Health Fund has led a national network to bring comprehensive healthcare to children growing up in under-resourced communities and advocates for the health and well-being of all children. From South Central LA, to Clarksdale, MI, to the South Bronx, NY, to Puerto Rico, our National Network of 25 partner programs and fleet of 50 mobile medical units have provided care to hundreds of thousands of children in poverty at schools, Head Start centers, homeless and domestic violence shelters, and community health center locations. In addition to ensuring access to healthcare, CHF works to reduce health barriers to learning in schools in disadvantaged communities, brings the needs of children to local and national policy debates, and responds to the needs of children impacted by public health crises. Please see www.childrenshealthfund.org
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Each year, Children’s Health Fund establishes goals and objectives to expand access to comprehensive health care for children in poverty. It’s leadership team, along with the Medical Affairs, Healthy and Ready to Learn (HRL), and National Programs staff assess previous year’s accomplishments and establish new goals for the following year.
CHF works with our National Network partner programs, all of whom are affiliated with local children’s hospitals, academic medical centers or federally qualified health centers, to determine objectives and expectations for the year. Then, throughout the year, the Medical Affairs and National Program staff provide technical assistance and program support via regular calls and site visits. As funding is identified for support of the urban and rural programs in the National Network, CHF staff ensures implementation of grant deliverables and support for data collection and monitoring of the mobile clinic programs and other innovative models to help meet the goals and objectives that will increase access to high quality health care for children in poverty. https://www.childrenshealthfund.org/projects/
More recently, CHF has established the Healthy and Ready to Learn initiative that seeks to mitigate “health barriers to learning” that negatively impact learning and academic success. By working in elementary schools with educators, families, and health staff, CHF continues to develop a 3-tiered framework that addresses 6 specific health barriers to learning including unmet vision and hearing problems, unmanaged asthma, mental and behavioral health concerns, dental pain and hunger. Using a coordinated school-based health model, HRL has been able to address unmet health needs in children at school and is working to expand the reach of our work to more students and families through our Healthy and Ready to Learn Resource and Training Center. www.hrl.nyc
In addition, each year, CHF holds 2 conferences to bring together the leadership of the National Network and HRL programs in order to share best practices, introduce innovations in care and provide technical assistance which supports improved quality and capacity building.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
The national office of Children’s Health Fund has over 40 staff experienced in health care delivery, program development, evaluation, advocacy, communications, development and administration who support CHF’s mission. Beyond the staff in our central office, CHF extends its reach and capacity through formal partnerships with our National Programs partners. For example, in 2017, CHF-supported programs employed 489 clinical and non-clinical staff who provided comprehensive medical home care and health education to children and families living in poverty.
CHF has significant capabilities and capacity for disseminating our work and sharing our learnings. Notably, in 2017, CHF staff and supported programs trained a total of 602 medical residents and medical and health professional students and had 52 presentations including invited conference presentations and oral/poster presentations at local, regional, and national professional meetings. CHF National Network program faculty gave 12 grand rounds presentations and co-authored seven publications in peer-reviewed journals.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
We have a 30+ year track record of successfully battling barriers to health care access for America’s most underserved children with passion and dedication. From inception, CHF promoted a Medical Home Model of health care. This model delivers comprehensive primary care services, including acute care, chronic disease management, specialty care, care coordination, case management, preventive care and health education. Today, 91% of CHF’s National Network provide primary care, 83% provide health education, 78% provide mental health counseling, 43%provide dental services, and 17% provide direct subspecialty care. Our partner programs deliver this comprehensive, patient-centered care at fixed-site and mobile clinics across the nation. Most (87%) have a mobile clinic, including medical, dental, and mental health units which visited over 400 different service sites in 2018. The majority (78%) of programs provide case management so that patients requiring referrals to community organizations can connect with needed resources such as housing, food, and legal assistance. Our goal is to expand the depth and reach of our programs to ensure delivery of essential health care services to tens of thousands of homeless and disadvantaged children and family members in 16 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
Because of our holistic, strengths-based view of thriving, CHF’s programming goes beyond access to health care to include community-based health education, capacity-building activities for schools, technical assistance and training of health and educational professionals, policy advocacy and broader education of the professional, governmental, and lay communities. Our goal is for children to be not only healthy but also successful in school. we want all children to have the opportunity to develop into engaged and productive citizens. We recognize that social determinants of health play a huge role in the wellbeing of children and families. As such, there is an increased focus on identifying and managing psychosocial stressors that create barriers to health and well-being
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Children's Health Fund
Board of directorsas of 08/10/2022
Mr. Herve Sedky
President and CEO, Emerald
Term: 2016 - 2022
Mr. Paul Metselaar
Chairman and CEO, Ovation Travel
Term: 2015 - 2022
Robert F. Tannenhauser
The Ruxton Capital Group LLC
W. Robert Friedman, Jr.
Dresner Partners
Jane Pauley
Anchor, CBS Sunday Morning
Irwin Redlener
Columbia University's National Center for Disaster Preparedness
Sean Cassidy
DKC Communications
Robert Essner
Retired Chair and CEO, Wyeth (now Pfizer)
Paul Simon
Singer Songwriter
Samuel Kessal
Keesal, Young & Logan, P.C.
Paul Metsalaar
Ovation Travel Group
Marc Constantini
Guardian Insurance
Martha Bernadette
Molina Health Care
Michele A. Masucci
Partner, Nixon Peabody
Gisele C. Shorter, Ed. D., MPA
Program Officer, Education at Raikes Foundation
Donald H. Layton
Former Chief Executive Officer, Freddie Mac
Lauren Krueger
Managing Director, KKR
The Honorable David N. Dinkins (in honorarium)
Former Mayor of the City of New York
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
Equity strategies
Last updated: 02/02/2021GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We measure and then disaggregate job satisfaction and retention data by race, function, level, and/or team.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.