Housing: Creating Health Homes

CAPP+ has renovated 30 homes this year, bringing the total to 97 homes renovated to date. The team brought on a new partner, Rebuilding Together Philadelphia, a nonprofit that provides home repairs for low-income Philadelphia homeowners.

Hunger: Accessing Healthy Food

CHOP received financial support from The GIANT Company to expand our Food Pharmacy program to the Nicholas and Athena Karabots Primary Care Center. Food Pharmacy 2.0 launched in March 2021. This expansion of the Healthy Weight Food Pharmacy is a partnership between multiple partners: The GIANT Company, The Common Market, Food Connect and Ronald McDonald House.

Thanks to the continuation of a USDA grant, CHOP provided 2,738 fresh food boxes to families from July 2020 to December 2020, bringing the total to 4,162 fresh food boxes delivered to patients’ homes during the pandemic in calendar year 2020.

Trauma: Overcoming Trauma & Growing Resilience

Growing Resilience in Teens (GRIT) began enrolling adolescents into programming in FY21. West and Southwest Philadelphia families now have access to GRIT services via CHOP primary care and two after-school programs. Since January 2021, GRIT has enrolled 172 people (91 children and 81 of their caregivers) in GRIT services, which include trauma and loss support groups and case management.

Healthier Together launched a partnership with the Netter Center for Community Partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania to bring trauma support services to students and staff of after-school programming in two West Philadelphia schools. Since January, more than 50 staff members have participated in Trauma-informed Care and/or the Stress Less Initiative workshops led by CHOP’s Center for Violence Prevention. Additionally, students and their caregivers are participating in Uplift’s peer support groups for grief and loss, as well as family empowerment workshops.

Healthier Together was awarded a $10,000 Wellness Grant from the Mattel Children’s Foundation to provide care packages to GRIT participants. The care packages include functional and motivational items that will complement topics covered in GRIT services and will be a tangible connection to the services that are delivered virtually to program participants.

Poverty: Achieving Financial Stability & Prosperity

Healthier Together launched a partnership with Community Legal Services (CLS) to improve housing stability for families facing eviction. Stable housing is essential to children’s health. With support from CHOP, CLS has provided no-cost legal support to 34 families and counting, to help them remain in their homes, while providing tenants' rights education for more than 380 people at two community events.

The Enterprise Center partnership has helped 51 businesses receive Minority- or Women-Owned Business Enterprise (M/WBE) certification and provided technical assistance to 848 individuals.

Clarifi financial counseling continues and has expanded to include a collaboration with Early Head Start (EHS) at CHOP to provide a series of budgeting and credit workshops and individual counseling for EHS families. Overall, in FY21 Clarifi provided financial counseling to 95 West Philadelphia clients, totaling 135 since the launch of our partnership in FY20. On average, clients have built $3,650 in savings and improved credit scores by 58 points.

Sharing Best Practices

• National presentations: The Healthier Together team presented on several national panels and conferences throughout the year.
  • Moderated an Amplify Philly virtual panel in October 2020. The panel, which included three nonprofit partners, discussed several Healthier Together initiatives.
  • Co-hosted a virtual presentation at Root Cause Coalition’s Fifth Annual Summit. Along with The Enterprise Center, we presented “Entrepreneurship, Workforce Development and Local Hiring: An Intentional, Inclusive Approach to Improving Child Health and Building Community Wealth.”
  • Presented to the Children's Hospital Association (CHA) Community Healthy Affinity Group. The spotlight presentation highlighted how the Healthier Together Initiative was developed at CHOP and provided insights on how to replicate a similar model at other institutions.
  • Panelist for Rite Aid’s Black History Month programming. The panel explored how the social determinants of health impact wellness in our communities and highlighted Healthier Together programming as an example of addressing the social determinants.
• Advocacy: Healthier Together and the Center for Health Equity penned an op-ed in The Philadelphia Inquirer about the importance of preserving the City of Philadelphia’s eviction diversion program for housing stability and child health.
• Increasing engagement: Healthier Together launched a new internal CHOP grant opportunity, the Healthier Together Grant. Two new programs will be funded through the Healthier Together Grant Program in FY22 and FY23. These programs harness existing community assets and strengths to address hunger and trauma:
  • Strengthening Community Food Sovereignty through Home Gardening and Trauma-informed Resource Networks in West and Southwest Philadelphia (Partners: Bartram’s Garden, Urban Tree Connection and Philadelphia Orchard Project)
  • Home Plate + Food Bucks Rx: Empowering West Philadelphia Families to Tackle Hunger and Advance Food Justice (Partners: The Food Trust and several West Philadelphia-based Early Childhood Centers)
• Awards: CHOP received The Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania Achievement Award for Healthier Together’s CAPP+ initiative, as a “Community Champion.” CAPP+ was also recognized as the Environmental Protection Agency’s first Mid-Atlantic Region Asthma Community Champion in Asthma Management. This award highlights CAPP+ as a regional asthma program delivering excellent environmental asthma management outcomes as part of its comprehensive asthma management care/self-care services.
• Collaboration: CHOP’s Food Pharmacies and partnership with The GIANT Company was featured on the Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce’s All Business Podcast.

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