Transforming Community Health

Children's Hospital Colorado partners with the community to advocate for the health and safety of kids. Our work goes beyond our hospital walls and into the communities we support. We're proud to lead the effort to bring solutions to some of our community's most pressing pediatric health issues.

To reinforce our ongoing commitment to community health improvement, Children's Colorado established the Child Health Advocacy Institute (CHAI). CHAI's mission is to positively impact the health and safety of children by working collaboratively with the public and our community partners. By bringing people together and leading the way in child health and safety, CHAI builds and operates evidence-based programs aimed at creating a thriving community for all children.

Our community health priorities

Children's Colorado conducts regular assessments to better understand the current state of children's health. Based on our latest Community Health Needs Assessments, we've identified the following priorities to focus our work:

• Mental health
• Food insecurity
• Housing
• Access to social and government benefit programs
• Mother and infant health
• Injury prevention

Community-driven strategies are critical to get children and youth the help they need, whether that is through raising awareness, screening, conducting trainings, increasing access, reducing stressors or promoting community voices. Through our collaborations in schools, primary care, community organizations and more, we are better equipped to improve the physical and mental health of children and youth.

Our programs and services

Here's a look at some of the community health programs and services we provide through CHAI to support kids and families in our communities:

Partners for Children’s Mental Health

Partners for Children’s Mental Health (PCMH) is a community-facing center established by Children’s Colorado and the University of Colorado School of Medicine to improve youth mental health in Colorado. Through suicide prevention programs in schools and primary care facilities, gatekeeper trainings, authentic youth engagement and advocacy that that promotes greater access to high quality mental health services, PCMH aims to ensure all Colorado children and youth have the mental health care and support they need to thrive. Learn about PCMH’s key mental health initiatives.

Black Health Initiative

The Black Health Initiative is a multifaceted program with the goal of improving the healthcare experience for Black families in our community and reducing infant mortality rates in Black newborns. By working with our partners and community members, we aim to disrupt the structural racism that causes negative experiences and poorer outcomes for neighboring Black families. As part of this initiative, the Kindred Mamas Mentorship Program aims to help mothers navigate the healthcare system and reduce infant mortality rates among Black families in several ZIP codes surrounding our hospital on the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora.

Childhood safety and injury prevention programs

Preventable injuries are a leading cause of hospitalization and death for children in Colorado and nationwide. Children's Colorado leads a variety of community-based approaches, partnerships and services designed to keep our most vulnerable kids injury-free. Learn more about childhood injury prevention programming.

Resource Connect: integrated care and wraparound resources

Resource Connect is Children’s Colorado’s anchor community health program near the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora. It connects families with resources and services to address unmet social and economic needs, including food security, energy assistance, eligibility for public benefits, legal services, community resource navigation and more. Resource Connect also hosts our Food as Medicine initiative  and its accompanying programs, including our Healthy Roots Garden and food clinic.

School-based health services and school nursing

Some of our school health initiatives and school-based health services include dental health, asthma management, mental health programs and more. We also connect local school districts with our School Nurse Program, where specially trained pediatric nurses are integrated within schools to provide ongoing care for students with special healthcare needs and connect families to health resources.

The population health approach for kids

The future of healthcare depends on how we address and support the whole picture of a child's health and begin to change both the way we deliver care and the way our population accesses care. Every population and community have a different set of healthcare needs, and delivering care isn't a one-size-fits-all model.

We call this model population health, where we implement creative and alternative methods to ensure access to care for the entire population — in our case, children. The population health approach is not only about access to medical care, but also supporting health and wellness in the home, communities and schools. It's about delivering healthcare that lasts beyond a visit to the doctor or a check-in at the clinic.

At Children's Colorado, one of our goals is to create healthier communities through the population health approach. We invest resources into keeping kids out of our hospital through health promotion programs and partnerships and by addressing all aspects of their care.

Social determinants of child health

When we get to the core of what's causing health problems in children, teens and adults, it typically involves many layers of influence. In fact, only 20% of health depends on clinical care; the other 80% depends on social determinants. Specifically:

• Social and economic factors, such as education, culture, race, employment, income, community safety, family and social support
• Health behaviors like tobacco use, diet, exercise and alcohol use
• Physical environment or environmental quality

Many children experience overlapping social determinants of health, such as low income, lack of transportation and poor access to safe places and role models, which consequently affects their health and well-being.

Impacts of racism on health

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) explains racism as “a system of structures, policies, practices and norms that assigns value and determines the opportunities based on the way people look or the color of their skin.”

Racism is a public health issue that negatively impacts mental and physical health and has led to health inequities. Racial and ethnic minority groups experience higher rates of illness and death from health conditions, including diabetes, obesity, hypertension, heart disease and asthma, when compared to their white counterparts. Additionally, social determinants of health are crucial drivers of health inequities experienced by communities of color and can put these populations at greater risk for developing poor health outcomes. The impact of racism on health and wellness is critically important to acknowledge and understand as we work to enhance health equity in our communities.

Why community health partnerships are critical for children

By partnering with primary care providers, schools and community-based organizations who have similar goals to improve child health, we can work together to reduce illness and positively impact the health and well-being of children in our community.

To learn more about how we're partnering with our community, email CHAI@childrenscolorado.org.