Grant Funds New "Adopt-A-Doc" Program to Improve Healthcare for New Haven Area Children
The Department of Pediatrics at the Yale University School of Medicine has received a $40,000 grant from the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven to support Adopt-a-Doc, a new community-based program to improve health care for children in New Haven and the surrounding communities.
Adopt-A-Doc will help train pediatric residents to better understand the way issues outside their previous medical education influence the health of their patients. Adopt-A-Doc is designed to provide pediatric residents with an understanding of the importance of social, cultural and economic factors in the health and functioning of children. Adopt-A-Doc emphasizes intensive neighborhood involvement to help pediatric residents become culturally competent and skillful in their interactions with families and community resources that serve children. The program also seeks to improve the physicians’ expertise as advocates for children, particularly those living in poverty.
In addition to The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, the Enterprise Community of the City of New Haven and eighteen other organizations from Yale University and the surrounding communities will be participating in the program.
“We are grateful to The Community Foundation of Greater New Haven for partnering with the Enterprise Community of the City of New Haven to provide initial funding for our program,” said Brian Forsyth, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics and the creator of Adopt-A-Doc. “We are truly fortunate to have the endorsement and participation of two of New Haven’s leading community organizations as we implement a new approach for community-based, post-graduate medical education.”
Founded in 1928, The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven distributes named endowments and supporting grants in the areas of health, education, community and economic development, arts and culture and other areas. The grant has been provided by the Helen Leyerzapf, Ruth A. Meier, Anne Hope Bennett, Josephine Burgess and Grave Family Funds within the foundation.
Media Contact
Karen N. Peart: karen.peart@yale.edu, 203-980-2222