Focusing Attention on Children's Health

he goal of the Foundation's Information Program is to raise awareness about children's health and well being by serving as a source of timely, evidence-based information about key child health issues. The program began operating at full capacity in 2003, and launched a number of key projects in 2003 and 2004.

Chief among these is www.kidsdata.org, which presents indicators of children's health and tracks them over time. The website also provides information on community resources and news and research related to children's health.

The Information Program also underwrote print reports on the well being of children in both Santa Clara and San Mateo counties.

On the media front, the program launched a two-county calendar of children's health events, www.kidscal.org; and supported two public television pilots called "The Parent Survival Guide." In a partnership with the San Jose Mercury News and the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Information Program sponsored a family forum on the serious issue of childhood obesity.

Former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher launched the Preteen Alliance.

To leverage the impact of the Foundation's grantmaking work in the area of preteens, the Information Program has developed an extensive information initiative about the developmental importance of ages 9 to 13.

Former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher launched this campaign at a conference in 2003, and from this beginning the Foundation formed the Preteen Alliance, a group dedicated to promoting the health and well being of preteens.

Additional ventures include support for a preteen health information website; a series of radio talk shows on preteens; a conference on student stress co-sponsored with Stanford University; a survey of parents of preteens; and the launch of a tri-yearly research digest highlighting articles about preteens.

For information on other Information Program projects, see http://www.lpfch.org/informed/