Children & Youth

Dedicated to creating the healthiest children and youth in the U.S., the Winter Park Health Foundation (WPHF) has sought to reach as many children as possible by supporting a collection of school-based health services made possible through the WPHF’s unique partnership with Orange County Public Schools (OCPS) and its public schools in Winter Park, Maitland and Eatonville.

WPHF objectives for this focus area are:

• To optimize physical, mental and social health and well-being
• To promote environments that support health and well-being

Priority Areas for Intervention include:

• Early Childhood Development
• Healthy Children and Adolescents
• Making Children’s Health a Priority
• Barriers to Good Health

In the belief that Healthy Kids Make Better Students and Better Students Make Healthy Communities, the Winter Park Health Foundation has since 1997 supported a collection of school-based health services designed to bolster the health of the whole child and remove barriers to learning.

The services, which represent an investment of nearly $15 million since 1997, are all part of what is called the Coordinated Youth Initiative. They are made possible because of a unique partnership between WPHF and the Orange County Public Schools system and its 12 elementary, middle and high schools located in Winter Park, Maitland and Eatonville.

The program includes CHILL (Community Help & Intervention in Life’s Lessons) counseling program, the School Nursing Initiative, Student Health Centers staffed with nurse practitioners at Winter Park High School and Glenridge Middle School and Healthy School Teams.

In recent years, WPHF has provided grant support for and partnered with Nemours to bring its Healthy Habits for Life program into the 30 child care centers in Winter Park, Maitland and Eatonville that generate students who later attend Winter Park Consortium schools.

The successful Nemours program builds on the CYI programs already in place in public schools. It is based on the belief it is never too early to begin instilling healthy habits.

Under the program, Nemours trains child care directors and providers as well as volunteers on how to use the Healthy Habits for Life Child Care Resource Kit and on the 5-2-1 Almost None prescription for healthy eating. The program emphasizes the importance of healthy eating, physical activity and sleep to prevent childhood obesity and to help ready children for school.

For more in-depth information on the Coordinated Youth Initiative programs, please go the Winter Park Health Foundation’s other website, www.healthykidstoday.org