Wishing all of our chapter members a wonderful Holiday Season! Our chapter is happy to announce that it has donated $250.00 to Second Harvest Food Bank and $250.00 to the VMC Foundation for Children.

 

Happy Holidays!

To follow is additional information about the VMC Foundation.

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Children & Youth

The VMC Foundation is committed to providing the best health care services to all local children. Learn how you can support our efforts to save the lives of critically-ill newborns, improve literacy, fight childhood obesity - and more.

 

Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Santa Clara Valley Medical Center is on track to deliver 6,000 babies this year - the most of any hospital in Northern California. We project that up to 700 of those babies will require the services of our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), making ours the busiest NICU in the county. Premature and critically ill infants often must stay in the NICU for weeks or months until their organ systems have developed enough to sustain life without medical support. The VMC Foundation is partnering with the NICU staff to identify funds for needed technology and up-to-date equipment that is critical to keeping these fragile babies safe and healthy. Equipment includes an echocardiogram and 40 Giraffe Bed incubators/radiant warmers.

 

Childhood Obesity Prevention

Santa Clara Valley Health & Hospital System’s Pediatric Healthy Lifestyle Center (PHLC) was established to combat the county’s growing epidemic of childhood obesity. The goal of the PHLC is to help obese children focus on healthy eating and active play. PHLC staff sees not only weight loss but also improved physical fitness, healthier eating, improved self-esteem, lowered blood pressure, and improvement in blood sugar and cholesterol levels. The VMC Foundation is partnering with the PHLC to identify funds for staffing, program materials, and youth gym memberships.

 

Medical-Legal Partnership Clinic

Imagine an apartment infested with mold, and several children per bedroom struggling with asthma. The landlord won’t clean the apartment even though the parents complain, and calls from the pediatrician and the pediatrician’s social worker go unanswered. Medical Legal Partnership Clinics are designed to help address problems that children bring to the doctor’s office that may require a non-medical solution. Sometimes a lawyer is just what a patient needs to solve a problem affecting the health and well-being of a child. Building on the best practices from over 50 Medical Legal Partnership Clinics nationwide, we've launched Northern California's first clinic within a public hospital and health care system. We are proud to partner with Legal Advocates for Children and Youth (LACY), an established local organization that provides free legal representation, advocacy, and information to minors. Our funding partner for this important initiative is FIRST 5 Santa Clara County.

 

Reach Out and Read

Learning to read is a fundamental part of early childhood development. Without strong literacy skills, children have no chance of success in school. The doctor’s office is obviously a place to address issues of health, but the VMC Foundation has found that is also an excellent venue to promote reading. In partnership with First 5 Santa Clara County and the national Reach Out and Read program, the VMC Foundation now provides free books and teaching tools for parents at each well-child check-up. Nearly 40,000 free books are distributed yearly, and VMC pediatricians have helped thousands of parents assess their child’s reading skills, referring those with difficulties to programs that can provide specialized help. Give now, and your support will pay huge dividends for thousands of kids in the future.

 

Turning Wheels For Kids

Turning Wheels For Kids partners with the community to provide free bikes for children in-need in order to help them achieve increased health and happiness. By providing children with new bikes, Turning Wheels For Kids hopes to encourage lifelong habits of exercise and outdoor activity. Each year Turning Wheels For Kids works diligently to collect funds, purchase and assemble bikes and distribute them to worthy, established children’s charities working with disadvantaged youth in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties. The VMC Foundation is partnering with Turning Wheels For Kids to identify funds for staffing and bicycle purchases.

 

KidScope Assessment Center for Developmental & Behavioral Health

Help the Departments of Pediatrics and Mental Health grow this unique program. Through multi-agency collaboration, children and teens previously falling through the cracks with un-served concerns are now receiving multi-disciplinary assessments, clarification of treatment needs, parent training programs, and connection to other supports in the community.

To donate to one of our Children and Youth programs, please click here.