Hands of Health - 2008
On Oct. 21, over 150 community health leaders gathered for the John Rex Endowment's fifth annual Hands of Health Breakfast at Marbles Kids Museum in Raleigh. The event celebrated the investments that individuals and community organizations are making to promote the health and well-being of our children and youth.
Endowment president and CEO Kevin Cain outlined how these investments build assets in our young people, and a video called "Healthy Youth/Healthy Communities" underlined that message through the words and experiences of young participants in four Endowment-funded programs.
Three members of the Wake County 4-H Youth Leaders in Action project gave a live demonstration of their geographic information system (GIS) mapping skills, and the Endowment honored two local heroes of children's health with Hands of Health Awards.
Dr. Jean C. Smith and Dr. Jerry Bernstein received the awards for implementing innovative initiatives that benefit Wake County's underserved children and youth. Ben Bradsher, chair of the John Rex Endowment board of directors, presented Smith and Bernstein with specially commissioned bronze sculptures. The Endowment will also contribute $10,000 to each recipient's charity of choice.
Smith, a physician with Wake County Human Services, has demonstrated what a colleague calls "an unswerving dedication to helping children in need," Bradsher said. "For more than 20 years she has been a champion of children's health, devoting her career to behavioral and developmental pediatrics and to those children who have been mistreated." Smith serves on the pediatric faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has led several programs at Wake County Human Services, including the Children's Health and Development Program, which provides comprehensive health services for abused and neglected children, and the Pediatric Development Surveillance Program, which trains doctors to perform developmental screenings. In recent years, Smith has focused on promoting children's physical and emotional development by building the community's capacity to provide holistic behavioral health and developmental services. Young children with behavioral and developmental problems are frequently underserved because their difficulties are neither identified nor treated, Bradsher said. Smith works to remedy this disparity through her own efforts and by encouraging her fellow health care professionals to stretch outside the traditional boundaries of their roles.
Bernstein, who co-founded Raleigh Pediatric Associates, has been "a true visionary," Bradsher said. He was a driving force in the establishment of several institutions with significant impact on local children's health: the WakeMed Children's Emergency Department, which serves nearly 40,000 children a year; the WakeMed Children's Hospital, scheduled to open in 2009; the Area Health Education Center (AHEC) training program for pediatric interns and residents; and the WakeMed Foundation, which helps catalyze financial support for the expansion of pediatric services. Bernstein served as the foundation's board chair for nine years. In his practice, he has treated thousands of children and served as a trusted advisor to their parents, Bradsher said. A leader in educating his colleagues, Bernstein has been an outspoken advocate for pediatric health care services in the county, and his efforts have raised the standard of health care for all Wake County children.
Hands of Health Award winners are honored for finding new and innovative ways to address the health care needs of underserved children or youth in Wake County. To learn more, read about our Past Winners.
For more information about the Hands of Health Award, contact Kevin Cain at kevin@rexendowment.org or (919) 781-5519 or McAllister Myhra at (919) 571-3392 or mcallister@rexendowment.org.
Healthy Youth/Healthy Communities
A video created for the fifth annual John Rex Endowment Hands of Health Breakfast celebrates the ability of our young people to accomplish great things. In "Healthy Youth/Healthy Communities," children and teens from four programs the Endowment supports talk about their experiences and their hopes for the future. They demonstrate how eagerly young people will seize the chance to realize their potential, share what they learn with others and become assets to the whole community.
The featured programs include:
All the Right Moves at YWCA of the Greater Triangle, Inc., a comprehensive program that helps girls ages 12 to 17 build financial savvy, nutritional awareness and physical health.
Girls on the Run of the Triangle, Inc., a character development program for girls ages 8 to 12 that uses workouts, running and community service to teach values and a sense of self.
Teens Taking Action at Planned Parenthood Health Systems, Inc., a program that trains teen peer health educators to speak on subjects like safe sex, sexually transmitted infections, self-esteem, contraception and peer pressure.
Community-based Mapping Assets Project (C-MAP), part of Youth Leaders in Action, Wake County 4-H Youth Development, a project that builds developmental assets and marketable skills through Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping.