14 Organizations Win Grants to Use Data to Promote Children’s Health

PALO ALTO– The Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health has awarded $140,000 in grants to 14 organizations throughout California to promote the use of data in fostering improvements in children’s health, foundation President David Alexander, MD, announced today.

The grants, all of which are for approximately $10,000, are intended to encourage creative strategies for using data to document key issues in children’s health and bring them to the attention of decision-makers.

Much of the data to be used in the projects will come from the foundation’s own website, www.kidsdata.org. This free public resource provides easily accessible information on more than 400 widely accepted indicators of children’s health and well being. The website offers data for every city, county, and school district in California.

“Kidsdata.org provides a tremendous amount of information about the health of California’s children at a local level,” Alexander said. “By providing seed money to organizations, we hope to encourage them to use kidsdata.org to assess the state of children’s health in their communities and promote action where it is needed.”

The grants will be used for a range of purposes, including data analysis and development, training and education and public information campaigns. A full list of grantees and their projects is available at http://www.kidsdata.org/content/grants/Default.aspx