Nationwide Children’s Hospital

Connection to Moving Health Care Upstream

Nationwide Children’s Hospital (NCH) serves as the anchor organization for the Moving Health Care Upstream team in Columbus, Ohio.

Our Community & Need

Columbus’ South Side is a diverse community comprised of more than 82,000 residents. More than half (55%) of residents are racial and ethnic minority and 6% of the total population is under 5 years of age. High unemployment and low educational attainment plague Columbus’ South Side with more than 1 in 4 residents age 18 to 24 years having less than a high school education and an unemployment rate of 15%. Among the most urgent challenges facing Columbus’ South Side, and the City of Columbus as a whole, is kindergarten readiness. More than one-third of Columbus’ youngest residents are academically behind upon entry to kindergarten. This has devastating effects on our children’s entire academic career and their ability to reach their full potential.

Healthy Neighborhoods Healthy Families (HNHF) is a place-based public-private collaborative focusing on neighborhood revitalization in a three zip code area in Columbus, Ohio’s South Side. HNHF’s work with Moving Health Care Upstream focuses on children’s kindergarten readiness by eliminating barriers and providing opportunities that improve early childhood socio-emotional well-being and literacy development. Chief among those barriers, and the key components of HNHF, are affordable housing, education, health and wellness, neighborhood safety and workforce development.

Our Solution & Our Community Partners

Community partners for our work with Moving Health Care Upstream include Boys & Girls Clubs of Columbus (BGCC) and Community Development for All People (CD4AP). BGCC provides project management and programming that impacts academic performance, good character, citizenship, and health lifestyles in children’s transition from early childhood to school age. CD4AP leads community engagement strategies including recruitment of families, facilitation and tracking of the well-being plans, and well-being coaches.

For More Information

If you would like more information about the upstream work happening in our community please contact Nick Jones, NCH Healthy Neighborhoods Healthy Families Program Manager, at Nicholas.jones@nationwidechildrens.org or Doug Wolf, BGCC Director of Strategic Initiatives, at dwolf@bgccolumbus.org.