Ever Thrive Illinois works to improve the health of women, children, and families through community engagement, partnerships, policy analysis, education, and advocacy. Ever Thrive has numerous resources available under their Child and Adolescent Health Initiative such as links to the Illinois School-Based Health Alliance and links to webinars and conferences. The Initiative provides Illinois youth with access to high-quality health care, comprehensive health education, and civic engagement opportunities. In addition to numerous health-related initiatives, the website provides access to news, events and policy memos that inform their supporters of upcoming votes on bills affecting the well-being of children and families.
Mobile C.A.R.E. Foundation has a mission of delivering free medical and preventative care, education, and support to low-income children and families within their local communities through mobile medical clinics. The organization provides mobile services in the areas of Asthma, Dental, general children’s health (which includes immunizations, child physicals, and nutrition counseling). Making these medical services accessible in this form is intended to significantly reduce school absenteeism and ultimately save lives.
The School-Based Health Alliance (SBHA) is committed to addressing the persistent disparities in health care access, quality, and outcomes for children and adolescents. The SBHA has developed a set of seven Core Competencies that every school based health center is expected to demonstrate in its pursuit of student wellness. The national SBHA network works with state partners, such as Ever Thrive Illinois, that share the vision that all children and adolescents are healthy and achieving at their fullest potential.
Bridging the Gap is a nationally-recognized research program to improve the understanding of how policies and environmental factors affect diet, physical activity, tobacco use and obesity among youth. Their website is rich in research categorized by topic, environment, and type. Of particular interest is their consolidation of District Wellness Policies endorsed by the Center for Disease Control. Additionally, the products portion of the site provides research briefs, monographs and other major reports, journal articles, presentations, and fact sheets about various health topic areas.
Healthy Schools Campaign (HSC) is nonprofit organization that is dedicated to ensuring that all students have access to healthy school environments in which they can learn and thrive. HSC’s mission is to advocate for policies and practices that allow students, teachers, and staff to learn and work in a healthy school environment. HSC has both Chicago and national programming that engages a variety of stakeholders in the work of improving school health. The focus areas in Chicago include physical education, school food, and schoolyards. Specific information about each of these programs is available at these links: Cooking up Change, Fit to Learn, Parents United for Healthy Schools, and Space to Grow.
The United States Department of Agriculture – Food and Nutrition Service has a Team Nutrition initiative which helps local educational agencies develop school wellness policies aligned with federal laws. The website includes information regarding local processes and offers technical assistance in developing these policies, tools and resources. The site offers topic-specific policy and resource materials to assist schools in meeting new nutrition standards called Tools for Schools.