In addition to referrals to health professionals, Young & Healthy also offers clients the following services:
Alma Stokes Healing Fund
On the rare occasion that Young & Healthy can’t get something donated, Young & Healthy utilizes funds from the Alma Stokes Healing Fund to cover follow-up medical costs for special medical procedures and prescriptions. Donations are also solicited from individuals and community groups to cover such expenses.
Dental Programs
Young & Healthy offers three dental programs:
1.) First Grade Dental Education:
A monthly extensive dental education program for first grade students to teach them how to care for their own teeth
2.) Mobile Dental Clinic
An annual Mobile Dental Clinic from the USC School of Dentistry to provide comprehensive dental care for 120 children in the community with the greatest needs. The value of services provided via the 2015 Mobile Dental Clinic was calculated at $177,000.
3.) Dental Screenings – Prevention
Eleven volunteer dentists and dental hygienists have adopted PUSD elementary sites and provide the state mandated oral health assessment for kindergarten students on an annual basis.
Teeny-Teeth
Parents can transmit dental disease to their children through previously accepted parenting practices, including tasting and sharing food with an infant or young child. In response, Young & Healthy, in conjunction with the USC School of Dentistry, provides a Pre-K dental program aimed to educate children and parents of small children on practices that will reduce the chance of transmission of dental disease from parent to child. This program includes dental screenings for Pre-K children.
Parent Enrichment/Education
Parent education is a part of each component of Young & Healthy. Pediatricians, dentists and other health professionals offer classes for parents on a regular basis. Topics have included: Caring for Your Sick Child, How to Create a Safe Home, First Aid, Child Nutrition, Asthma and Oral Health. Young & Healthy offers a notebook training, an organizational tool to maintain their child’s health records.
Community Outreach
The Community Outreach Program was developed in response to targeting a “difficult-to-reach” segment of our population. An outreach coordinator, with the help of trained parent leaders, promotes Young & Healthy services throughout the Pasadena area by attending health fairs, community and church events, and parent education venues.
Access to Care – Insurance Outreach
We have renewed our insurance advocacy program to prepare our families to enroll in and to navigate the new Affordable Care Act system. Our goal is to engage, inform and enroll Pasadena-area individuals and families newly eligible for coverage under the ACA and to assist the residually uninsured to access needed care. A team of certified insurance assistors, including both staff and volunteers, are available at Young & Healthy to help families enroll in a Medi-Cal or Covered California healthcare plan.
Trauma Informed Care
As Young & Healthy’s founders recognized in 1990, the future health of our community depends upon our ability to foster the healthy development of its children and youth. An extensive body of research on the biology of stress, conducted over the last two decades, has demonstrated that healthy child development can be impeded by excessive or prolonged activation of physiological stress response systems.
In keeping with its mission, Young & Healthy’s board and staff have committed the organization’s resources to creating a healthy community for children and families in the Pasadena area by addressing the negative effects of childhood trauma. Young & Healthy is currently training educators, as well as school and community partners, in Trauma Informed Care. For more detailed information about Trauma Informed Care, please go to the following link:
https://www.samhsa.gov/nctic/trauma-interventions
Also, hear Executive Director, Mary Donnelly-Crocker’s, TEDexPasadenaWomen talk on Trauma Informed Care here: