Trust news

TRUST CO-HOSTS SCHOOL HEALTH SUMMIT
On November 13, The Colorado Health Foundation and The Colorado Trust co-sponsored the School Health Summit. This gathering brought together local and national leaders in government, business, nonprofit organizations and philanthropy to share best practices and to begin identifying ways to build on existing efforts to provide quality school-based health care.

Speakers – including Julia Lear of the Center for Health and Healthcare in Schools at George Washington University, Bill Potts-Datema of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, and Ann McCracken of The Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati – provided national and historical perspectives on school health, as well as an overview of best practices in school-based health care, including prevention and wellness. Further discussion areas included policy, program, infrastructure and funding mechanisms for school health services.

Additionally, Bruce Guernsey, Director of the Colorado School-Based Health Center Initiative, shared early findings of a school health study – also jointly sponsored by The Trust and The Colorado Health Foundation – that will be completed in early 2007. Preliminary exploration into issues related to school health, cross-cutting local and national trends, indicate that quality standards of school care are especially lacking for students with identified health needs and that school-based health centers must organize collectively to develop statewide changes.

When completed, the school health study will be posted to www.coloradotrust.org. For additional information, contact Laurel Petralia, Program Officer, 303-837-1200, laurel@coloradotrust.org.