PACOIMA : School to Benefit From Health Project

A Pacoima elementary school has been chosen for a pilot project to bring low-cost health care to needy students, thanks to a coalition of charitable organizations and health care companies.

The Familycare Initiative program will provide as many as 300 students at Vaughn Next Century Learning Center with medical and dental care from an on-campus nurse practitioner and nearby doctors and clinics. Most of the students come from families not eligible for MediCal or who are without medical insurance.

“We see this program as preventive,” said Jorge Lara, a family advocate for Vaughn, the San Fernando Valley’s first charter school. “This will allow us at the school site to keep the students healthy and help them learn.”

The five-year program, initiated in 1990, will eventually incorporate five schools in the northeast Valley, said Connie Dubin, Familycare Initiative project director for the Los Angeles Educational Partnership, a nonprofit organization that is developing the program with the United Way.

Medical services for the Vaughn students should begin “in one to six months,” Dubin said. The Familycare Initiative is funded through a $400,000 Healthy Start grant from the state and corporate donations, such as the $75,000 recently granted by Blue Cross of California for the Vaughn health program, Dubin said.