Emory received $3 million from the Zeist Foundation, a nonprofit organization committed to community enrichment, to fund the development of a new urban-health program in the Department of Pediatrics at the Emory School of Medicine.

Emory was awarded the grant in February 2009 and began mobilizing the award to combat health difficulties of at-risk children in Georgia in September.

“Emory has a long history of attempting to care for the under-served in the city,” Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Medical School Veda Johnson said. “Our history and track record has proven that we can be effective, we just need to reach out to more children and this is an opportunity to expand what we do and affect the lives of more children.”

Johnson said the program is meant to increase health-care access to at-risk populations in the city and improve overall health outcomes for children.

“These are new developments altogether. We’re targeting average populations, and this is the first time we’ve had the dollars that define a program that will target the whole comprehensive aspect of providing health care for those that live in the inner city,” Johnson said. “It’s more focused and it will hopefully serve as a basis for improving the prospective of how we care for people in urban places.”

Johnson discussed the program’s efforts to improve the outcomes for at-risk children in metropolitan Atlanta and areas of low health service throughout Georgia.

The award will provide technical assistance and small grants to develop school-based programs.

“For each of the components in the context of the school health program, our goal is to increase the small number of clinics to 10 and provide technical assistance by giving small start up grants to assist in any way we can,” Johnson said.

The program seeks to enhance delivery through a primary care program for all children. Collaborations to improve and expand pediatric primary care services also targets preschool children, Johnson said.

“The program will reach out to other practitioners and other community based programs and bring them into the fold to standardize this care throughout the city with collaborations between workgroups and conferences,” Johnson said.

Award money will also fund the academic enrichment of students, Johnson said. Through outreach programs such as America’s Promise Alliance, an organization aimed at reducing dropout rates, the money will help enhance school readiness and improve academic outcomes for students in the context of high school graduation and academic preparedness, Johnson said.

“More than 300,000 of Georgia’s children are uninsured and as a result do not have a medical home and have very limited access to routine health care,” Johnson said in a previous interview with the Emory Report. “Emory’s urban health program will increase access to quality health care, enhance the delivery of primary health services through a holistic and integrated approach and improve the overall health of Georgia’s children.”

— Contact Roshani Chokshi