LOS ANGELES (March 10, 2011) – Thanks to a grant from the George Hoag Family Foundation, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's COACH for Kids and Their Families® program will be able to expand healthcare services to more homeless children living in transitional shelters in Greater Los Angeles.
COACH for Kids is Cedars-Sinai's "clinic on wheels" that brings high-quality primary healthcare and case management services to medically underserved children in their neighborhoods where they live and attend school – at no cost to families. The $20,000 grant provides funding to give children comprehensive screenings, immunizations, early treatment of episodic illnesses, laboratory tests, medications, healthcare education, and more. In 2010, COACH for Kids provided more than 25,000 healthcare services for children in underserved communities in Los Angeles County.
"Thanks to the George Hoag Family Foundation, our COACH for Kids program will increase vital healthcare services directly to children in greatest need," said Thomas M. Priselac, President and CEO, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. "This new grant will help Cedars-Sinai expand our work to help homeless children grow healthy under the most challenging of circumstances."
Charles W. Smith, the George Hoag Family Foundation's Executive Director, stated that the Foundation is pleased to support the COACH for Kids program which serves underserved and homeless youth and exemplifies the Foundation's 70-year mission to improve the wellbeing of our community.
COACH for Kids serves communities in Downtown/Skid Row, Pico-Union/Central Los Angeles, South Los Angeles, Inglewood, Lennox, Crenshaw/Mid-City, and Hollywood/West Hollywood. The mobile units provide healthcare and case management services at family homeless shelters, public housing developments, elementary and middle schools, and other community locations. The program collaborates with more than 200 public and private community organizations, including Upward Bound House, Children's Health Fund, local Head Start Centers, and the Los Angeles Unified School District.
In fiscal year 2010, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's financial contribution to Community Benefit programs and services totaled $502.4 million, reflecting a vital part of its mission. This contribution includes free and part-pay care for the uninsured and those with limited means, the unpaid costs of government programs such as Medicare, clinical research, education for health professionals, and hundreds of community service programs. For more than 100 years, Cedars-Sinai, the largest nonprofit, private medical center in the Western United States, has been committed to meeting the health needs of the community. For more information on Cedars-Sinai and the Medical Center's Community Benefit programs and services, visit http://www.cedars-sinai.edu/Community-Benefit/.