CPCD AWARDED GRANT TO SUPPORT
HEALTH PROGRAMS IN 2011-12
Contact: Becca Bishop, Communications Manager
Phone: (719) 884-1414, E-mail: bbishop@cpcd.org
Colorado Springs, CO – August 23, 2011 – Community Partnership for Child Development (CPCD) today announced the award of a $208,975 grant from the Colorado Health Foundation to support the organization’s Health Programs for the 2011-12 school year.
CPCD is a nonprofit organization that provides free comprehensive early childhood development and family programs for families with children prenatal through age five, who are living in limited income homes, have special needs or experience other adverse circumstances that could challenge their readiness for kindergarten. CPCD currently serves more than 1,900 children each year in El Paso County through Early Head Start, Head Start and the Colorado Preschool Program. CPCD’s Health Programs provide medical, dental and mental health services for enrolled children and education for parents about their children’s health. For more information about CPCD, please visit http://www.cpcdheadstart.com
The Foundation’s grant will enable CPCD to have more behavioral health consultants on staff as part of continuing efforts to expand its Behavioral Health Program, which provides prevention and intervention services to children with emotional and behavioral needs. At the beginning of the 2010-11 school year, the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment showed that 25% of CPCD children had behavioral health concerns, up from 15% three years ago. In addition, the grant will support CPCD’s I Can Help My Child Stay Healthy Program (I CAN), developed by the UCLA/Johnson & Johnson Health Care Institute to help Head Start parents learn more about managing their children’s basic health needs. In November 2010, CPCD was one of 23 Head Start grantees chosen from the Western Region of the U.S. to join the program. CPCD will train at least 200 parents through I CAN in the coming year.
“Thanks to the Colorado Health Foundation’s support, our new I CAN program will continue to grow and help educate and empower our Head Start parents to treat common childhood ailments at home while saving health providers millions of dollars annually,” said CPCD Chief Executive Officer Noreen Landis-Tyson. “In addition, through our Behavioral Health Program, we will be able to reach more of our children living in high stress environments due to difficult circumstances such as the continuing recession or deployments of a military parent.”
The Colorado Health Foundation works to make Colorado the healthiest state in the nation by investing in grants and initiatives to health-related nonprofits that focus on increasing the number of Coloradans with health insurance, ensuring they have access to quality, coordinated care and encouraging health living. For more information, please visit www.ColoradoHealth.org.
