Our Programs

Connecticut Children’s Office for Community Child Health (the Office) addresses critical contemporary issues in children’s lives that have the potential to adversely affect their health and development.

The Office not only serves as a critical community resource, but also cultivates innovative and cost-effective solutions to address existing gaps in our health care and child service systems. Its work helps to build a stronger support system for children and their families.

Innovation

The Help Me Grow National Center, innovated in Hartford and based at Connecticut Children’s, serves as a national resource for supporting the replication of Help Me Grow systems throughout the country. Tested as a pilot project in Hartford in 1997, the program expanded statewide in 2002 and is also being replicated around the country. Help Me Grow links children who are at risk for developmental or behavioral problems to helpful community-based programs and services.

Easy Breathing© is a community-based asthma management program innovated at Connecticut Children’s and housed in our Asthma Center. It ensures children, families and physicians work together to manage asthma symptoms using national asthma guidelines. The program is available to children across Connecticut and is also being replicated in other states. Learn more about the Easy Breathing.

The Childhood Prosperity Lab collaborates with individuals and organizations to establish a pipeline of innovations that focus on the health of children and strengthen families.

Learn more about the Childhood Prosperity Lab Program

In 2010, the Hartford Area Care Coordination Collaborative (HCCC) was established as a vehicle to improve communication among diverse programs providing care coordination to children and families; increase the efficiency and effectiveness of care coordination within a comprehensive child health system; and serve as a resource for medical homes seeking community-based services for their families. The goal was to coordinate the coordinators and ensure that children and families were connected to services across several sectors as effectively and efficiently as possible.

Connecticut Children’s Office for Community Child Health and the Center for Care Coordination lead the Care Coordination Collaborative Model and provide technical assistance to the regional care coordination collaborative. Learn more about the Care Coordination Collaborative Model

The Start Childhood Off Right (SCOR) Program at Connecticut Children's is committed to addressing food insecurity and fostering food and nutrition security among families in the community. Through screenings conducted in both the Emergency Department and Primary Care settings, SCOR identifies families facing food insecurity and offers vital support. Collaborating closely with Care Coordination, SCOR offers produce vouchers redeemable at nearby grocery stores, facilitating access to nutritious food options. By leveraging the accessibility of the Emergency Department, which serves thousands of families annually, SCOR plays a crucial role in linking Connecticut residents with essential resources to alleviate food insecurity and promote healthier futures for children and families alike.

The North Hartford Ascend is a cradle to career effort to ensure children living in the North Hartford Promise Zone have the support they need to reach their full potential. The project is funded through a five-year, $30 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Promise Neighborhoods Program. Learn more about the North Hartford Ascend. 

Direct Services

The Connecticut Children’s Center for Care Coordination empowers families by helping them advocate for access to appropriate medical, behavioral, educational, legal, and social services. The center also provides training and technical support for community-based primary care providers, supporting them to become medical homes for the children they serve.

Learn more about the Center for Care Coordination.

The Connecticut Children’s Healthy Homes Program improves the lives of children by making their homes healthier, safer and more energy efficient. The program provides qualified homeowners and tenants with inspections and plans for the removal of lead, asthma triggers, and safety hazards. It also provides financial assistance for remediation, relocation assistance during construction, referrals to low-cost or no-cost weatherization programs to increase energy efficiency, and education pertaining to healthy and safe homes. 

Learn more about the Healthy Homes Program

The Hartford Youth HIV Identification and Linkage Consortium works to prevent the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases among youth. The program provides interactive prevention education, community engagement and outreach, and youth friendly HIV/STD screenings. The consortium also links youth to medical care services, employment services and other community resources. Learn more about the Pediatric, Youth and Family HIV Program

Connecticut Children’s Primary Care East and West locations recently received designations as Person Centered Medical Homes. In achieving that recognition, the practices met rigorous standards set by the National Committee for Quality Assurance and was recognized for coordinating patient care, maintaining a high level of quality in service delivery, and ensuring that patients and families remain at the center of all care. Several programs overseen by the Office for Community Child Health support the Primary Care East and West in their medical home status.

Learn more about our organization’s primary care locations.

The Connecticut Newborn Screening Network is a statewide center based at Connecticut Children’s that supports families and healthcare providers after a newborn bloodspot screen is flagged for follow-up testing. The Network centralizes reporting of out-of-range screens, coordinates the diagnostic work-up, and provides much needed information and support for families. 

Learn more about the Connecticut Newborn Screening Network.

Education and Research

The Injury Prevention Center engages in research, community outreach, education, training, and public policy work to reduce preventable injuries and violence to children. Its three primary focus areas are teen driving safety, teen suicide prevention and domestic violence prevention. Its community programs, including Safe Kids Connecticut and the Injury Free Coalition for Kids of Hartford, address a wide range of child safety concerns ranging from child passenger safety to poisoning prevention and other home safety issues. 

Learn more about the Injury Prevention Center

The Children’s Center on Family Violence has been created to respond to and reduce the number of children impacted by family violence through a trauma-informed, multidisciplinary, multiagency approach.

Learn more about The Children’s Center on Family Violence

Co-Management empowers primary care providers to improve the breadth and quality of care they provide to children. Primary care providers partner with subspecialists to design protocols for the care of certain high prevalence conditions that are typically referred to subspecialists. By doing so, this care model allows children to receive some subspecialty care within their medical home and ensures that they receive timely access to subspecialty care when needed. The model frees up subspecialty appointments for children whose conditions cannot be managed in the primary care setting. 

Learn more about our Co-Management program.

The Educating Practices program is designed to bring the newest developments in pediatric primary care to Connecticut’s child health providers through the process of academic detailing and works to advance sustainable improvements in primary and preventive health and mental health care practices for all Connecticut children. 

Learn more about Educating Practices in the Community.

The Resident Education in Advocacy and Community Health program helps to foster the growth of future generations of pediatricians who are community child health advocates. The program nurtures pediatric residents to become future leaders by providing them with unique opportunities to develop knowledge and skills in the areas of advocacy, community health and public policy. During their time in the program, pediatric residents work closely with experts in the fields of population health, community research, policy reform, and social innovation all with the goal of promoting children’s healthy development. 

Learn more about Resident Education in Advocacy and Community Health.

Connecticut Children’s Center for Global Health works to improve the physical and emotional health of children around the world. The Center helps build the capacity of nurses, physicians and other healthcare providers in resource-limited settings by providing education to enhance care of children and by providing direct medical care to children during clinical visits. 

Learn more about Connecticut Children’s Center for Global Health.