Allentown, PA

Community Services for Children
Allentown Health Bureau
Leonard Parker Pool Institute for Health
Lehigh Valley Reilly Children’s Hospital
The Pool Center for Health Analytics
Valley Health Partners

ABOUT

The Early Childhood and Health (ECH) initiative focuses on education, health, and social factors that support healthy development starting at birth through high school graduation and beyond, for the children living in census tracts 18 and 20. This initiative focuses on a component of that pipeline, building the early childhood foundation, that is needed for equity in education and health outcomes. Partners of the ECH collaborative bring together and analyze existing data so that we can identify areas where systems change needs to occur. We advance racial justice by creating an inclusive and equitable cradle-to-career pipeline through program and policy recommendations that are co-designed with the residents and families.

Our Impact

The neighborhoods within census tracts 18 and 20, Franklin Park and surrounding neighborhoods, are a vibrant community in which families deserve the resources needed to support their children’s optimal development, from cradle to college or career, starting with children being ready to learn when entering Kindergarten. We will achieve this by creating an equitable early learning environment for children’s first 5 years of life through partnership with families, agencies, and organizations to ensure all children have the resources needed. We will uncover factors that contribute to the inequities seen in educational and health outcomes and advocate for sustainable systems and policy changes that will positively affect these neighborhoods for generations to come.

BUILD PRINCIPLES

BUILD and its communities apply bold, upstream, integrated, local, and data-driven (BUILD) approaches to improve health in communities that are adversely affected by upstream factors.

Bold

The ECH collaborative aspires to advance racial justice by creating an inclusive and equitable cradle-to-career pipeline that connects the services and supports needed for success with academic outcomes in Franklin Park. Through data sharing, we uncover factors that contribute to the inequities seen in educational and economic outcomes and advocate for more accessible resources and services through sustainable systems and policy changes.

Upstream

The EHC collaborative focuses on the factors that have the greatest influence on the Education Access and Quality (EAQ) social determinant of health through the analysis of various data points from the partnering entities. We uncover systems, policies, and norms which contribute to inequitable outcomes for children in Franklin Park and determine what needs to change at the community level and systems level to positively influence their lives.

Integrated

We are strengthening knowledge and relationships while paving the way for transformed norms and policy changes. The partners will continue to provide the quality services the community has always known them for, but now we are ensuring that individuals have the resources and power they need to create the neighborhood that maximizes their health and well-being.

Local

The ECH initiative prioritizes the diverse lived experiences, voices, and leadership of the residents of Franklin Park and has done so since inception. We actively engage with community members through Community Services for Children and other neighborhood engagement efforts to create a shared vision for the initiative.

Data-Driven

Data collection and analysis plays a key role in determining the upstream factors that need to be addressed to successfully build a cradle-to-career pipeline in Franklin Park. Data is collected from the partner organizations as we follow the participants from early childhood into early adulthood. Through this process we uncover systemic injustices and work towards the creation of an equitable environment.