10 San Mateo County Agencies Win Grants to Improve Children’s Health

PALO ALTO – Ten San Mateo County nonprofit organizations that work to improve children’s health have been awarded grants totaling $1.3 million from the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health, Stephen Peeps, foundation president and CEO, announced Dec. 18.

The foundation makes grants in two areas: protecting children ages 0 to 5 from injury, with an emphasis on preventing child abuse and neglect; and promoting behavioral, mental and emotional health in preteens. The foundation also awarded seven grants in Santa Clara County, totaling $952,000.

The San Mateo County grantees and their programs:

Asian American Recovery: $200,000, over three years, for “Project Lakas,” meaning inherent strength. The project works to promote healthy development of Filipino youth in Daly City who are at high risk for unhealthy behaviors.

Bay Area Community Resources: $150,000, over three years, for the New Perspectives Middle School Youth Enrichment and Leadership Program. The program strives to prevent high-risk behaviors and promote the healthy development of middle-school youth in East Palo Alto.

The Cleo Eulau Center: $100,000, over three years, to evaluate the effectiveness of a program that reaches troubled youth through teachers. The program provides schools with mental health professionals who consult with teachers and help them identify and put into practice methods that promote resiliency for high-risk youth.

The Edgewood Center for Children: $200,000, over two years, to expand its San Mateo Kinship Support Network program for children being raised by grandparents or other relatives. The program, which matches each child with a community worker, will serve children ages 9 to 13.

Friends for Youth: $100,000, over two years, for its Mentoring Assistance Program. Funds will help to produce a mentoring handbook, an age-specific activity guide for mentors and consultation to other agencies with mentoring programs.

Pacific Islander Outreach: $100,000 over three years, for its Parenting Program. The program targets Pacific Islander parents living in East Palo Alto and East Menlo Park who are at risk of abusing and neglecting their children.

Samaritan House: $102,000, over two years, to support the hiring of a full-time community worker who will focus on outreach to families with children, ages 0 to 5, who are at risk of abuse and neglect.

Shelter Network of San Mateo County: A two-year, $100,000 grant to support a “0 – 5 Children’s Program” for homeless children and their families. The program includes activities designed to reduce stress and decrease child maltreatment by increasing families’ skills and knowledge of available resources.

The Community Learning Center: $100,000, over two years, for an after-school program that takes place at the South San Francisco Public Library. The program works to build self-confidence, caring, and leadership, as well as academic skills, in third- to fifth-graders.

United Cerebral Palsy Association of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties: $100,000, over two years, to gather data on the maltreatment of children with disabilities, ages 0 to 5, in San Mateo County.

The Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health makes community grants twice yearly. Funds for the grants program, which began in January 2000, comes from the foundation’s endowment. A partnership grant from the California Endowment helps support the foundation’s efforts in youth development and reducing high-risk behavior in pre-teens. To date, 60 agencies have received grants totaling $6.9 million from the foundation.

The foundation was established as a public charity in 1996, when the previously independent Lucile Salter Packard Children’s Hospital became part of Stanford University Medical Center. The foundation’s mission is to “promote, protect, and sustain the physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral health of children.” It is wholly independent of the Los Altos-based David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

For more information about the foundation’s community grantmaking program, call (650) 736-0676, or visit the Web site, www.lpfch.org.