Healthier Together

Healthier Together
Children in an outdoor vegetable garden.
Healthier Together is a CHOP community initiative tackling social drivers of health for children in West Philadelphia.
Healthier Together logo

Healthier Together is a Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) Community Impact initiative tackling social drivers of health as a path to improve the well-being of children. We partner with community residents, civic organizations and government to make our communities a healthier place for children to grow, learn and flourish. By working together, we can support change at a pace and scale that we couldn’t achieve on our own.

Learn more about our current programs and partners.
Healthier Together 5 Year Milestone chop.edu.

Celebrating Five Years Healthier

Explore the inspiring stories from community members to find inspiration in the positive changes Healthier Together is fostering.

Areas of community focus

Healthier Together’s mission is to improve child health by tackling the social drivers of health and fostering partnerships in West and Southwest Philadelphia where children live, learn, play, and heal.

  • Live
  • Learn
  • Play
  • Heal

Garden Beds Grow Food, Health & Community

A collaboration between CHOP Healthier Together and the Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden promotes healthy eating and improved food access by providing low-cost raised garden beds to residents in Southwest Philadelphia.

  • Shelly Casper: I'm Shelly Casper and I'm a participant of the Bartram's Garden Community Garden Program.

    I definitely recommend the Garden Bed Program from Bartram's. I've been really pleased with my experience. I think it's a really great way for people in the community to have both access to fresh fruits and vegetables and also just have a new activity that they can focus some time and energy on. It was super easy from start to finish.

    I feel like I was set up with like everything I needed for the garden to thrive, which was really important to me as like someone who's new to gardening. The garden looks really gorgeous. So just from like an aesthetic level, I just love kind of what it's done for my space. I found it very soothing and it's kind of just like good for my mental health to have like a project that was kind of having to do like a thing every day.

    It was kind of like ritualistic in that way, which I found very comforting and was very nice for me. So there definitely was elements of it aside from just having like fresh produce on hand that I feel were really good for just like my mental well-being. And I'm really pleased with how it turned out.
Transcript Transcript

Smiling child with curly hair and beautiful big eyes wearing a beige t-shirt.

The “together” of Healthier Together

Our work wouldn’t be possible without the support of like-minded partners. Many of these organizations have generously donated to help fund our work; others work alongside us to improve the circumstances of children and families. 

Recent program highlights
The Healthier Together Initiative at CHOP provided a brand new playground and safe space at Add B. Anderson Elementary School in Cobbs Creek.

Partnership for playgrounds

CHOP's Healthier Together Initiative, in collaboration with the Trust for Public Land and Add B. Anderson Elementary School's principal and stakeholders turned a half acre of asphalt into a playground haven, providing a safe space for the Cobbs Creek neighborhood.
West Philadelphia High School teacher participates in Healthier Together GRIT Program.

CHOP's GRIT Program Provides Help for the Helpers

The Stress-Less Initiative© gives local school personnel helping students through trauma the skills to manage secondary traumatic stress so they can continue to provide support to their students. 

News

CHOP Receives $150,000 Donation from TD Bank to Expand MFP Program

CHOP announced today that it has received $150,000 in funding from TD Bank to support and expand the hospital’s Medical Financial Partnership (MFP). 

CHOP Receives Funding from Rite Aid Healthy Futures to Support Healthier Together

CHOP has received a $300,000 grant from Rite Aid Healthy Futures to expand the impact of Healthier Together programs focused on healthy food access.