Redefining Health for Kids and Teens: 2012-2013 Annual Report
Author: School-Based Health Alliance
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: School Health Services,Child Health,Conferences (Gatherings),Health Services,Outreach Programs,At Risk Persons,Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS),Advocacy,Sustainability,Federal Aid

This annual report for 2012-2013 features a collection of stories from individuals in the school-based health care movement who have been affected by the work of the School-Based Health Alliance. At the 2013 National School-Based Health Care Convention in Washington, DC, the new name, logo, and tagline for the organization: School Based Health Alliance, Redefining Health for Kids and Teens was unveiled. The new brand affords excitement, momentum, collaboration, flexibility, and transformation. Re-branding has made the Alliance look at its work as an inventory of possibilities. It has gone across all aspects of the organization, from programs to policy to communications, and it allows movement in directions where the alliance has not gone in the past. Dr. Neal Halfon was one of the opening plenary speakers at the 2013 National School-Based Health Care Convention in Washington, DC. He spoke about the role school-based health care can play in a changing health care system. Halfon and colleagues at the UCLA Center for Healthier Children, Families, and Communities offer a visionary framework for big, bold, transformative change of the child health system. At the center of the innovative model presented is a goal that children not just survive but thrive, casting a pivotal role for school health. Margee Rogers, Montefiore project director, tells her story of how the School-Based Health Alliance helped her increase outreach to a high risk, historically difficult population through a two year CDC funded project focused on HIV/STI prevention. Since youth are the primary recipients of school-based health care services, the School-Based Health Alliance convened its inaugural Youth Advisory Council (YAC) in 2013. YAC serves as a vehicle to bring the youth voice into the national organization's work, while also empowering a group of talented young people to be effective advocates for their health. One of the School-Based Health Alliance's greatest advocacy achievements to date has been the allocation of one-time only federal funds, totaling $200M, to build and expand school-based health centers. After the disbursement of the funds was completed this year, the alliance expected to see several cities at the top of an awards list that numbered 520 grants. New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago have a long history of support for SBHCs and run some of the nation 's largest and finest programs. Joining them on this list, however, was a complete surprise: Wichita. Across the nation, school-based health centers are taking action to build their programs' long-term sustainability. Lamont Snaer, School Based Services Director at LifeLong Medical Care in Berkeley, CA, explains how he's putting the Alliance's sustainability principles into practice. Bianca LaChaux, Director of Student Support Services at John F. Kennedy High School in Richmond, CA, and Kathleen Malcolm, Health Educator at Lake Forest Elementary SBHC in Sandy Springs, GA, discuss how Hallways to Health is affecting their work.