Robert Wood Johnson Grant to Help Reduce High Injury Rates in Avondale
CINCINNATI -- Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center has received a five-year, $266,100 grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to help reduce the high rates of injury among children and adolescents in Avondale.
The grant will support Cincinnati Children's Injury Free Coalition for Kids (IFCK), a community-based, family-centered injury prevention initiative focused on programs that decrease injuries in children and adolescents.
The grant will support implementation in Avondale of a successful injury prevention program that started at Harlem Hospital in New York. That program involved modifications to the physical environment of communities, including safe after-school activities, such as art and dance classes; the building of safe playgrounds; and educating parents about legislation mandating window guards to prevent falls from windows. The program reduced injuries 55 percent over a multi-year period.
The funds from the grant will help "bridge the gap between the Avondale community and Cincinnati Children's," according to Wendy Pomerantz, M.D., an emergency medicine physician and IFCK co-chair.
The Avondale community has one of the highest volumes of injuries to children within Hamilton County. In 1999, children from Avondale visited Cincinnati Children's emergency department 646 times for injuries. Avondale is Cincinnati's fourth-largest neighborhood, with 18,706 residents.
IFCK has been working for more than a year to reduce injuries to children in the Avondale community. This summer, the IFCK built a safe playground in Avondale off of Blair Avenue.
Nationally, more than 16 million children visit an emergency department for an injury each year, resulting in more than 600,000 hospital admissions.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, based in Princeton, N.J., is the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care. It concentrates its grantmaking in four goal areas: to assure that all Americans have access to basic health care at reasonable cost; to improve care and support for people with chronic health conditions; to promote healthy communities and lifestyles; and to reduce the personal, social and economic harm caused by substance abuse - tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs.
Contact Information
Jim Feuer (
jfeuer@chmcc.org) 513-636-4656
