About Us — News & Events

In celebration of AmeriCorps Week (May 8-15), AmeriCorps VISTA and the Philadelphia Health Corps hosted a FREE chocolate “CHIP” pancake dinner at the Northeast Family YMCA on Saturday, May 8, 2010. The primary goals of this event were to expand awareness about the availability and benefits of Pennsylvania’s Children Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and to assist in the enrollment of children and teens who are eligible for the program. This family event attracted over 100 people from the community. At the dinner, parents and guardians had the opportunity to speak with insurance vendors AmeriChoice and Health Partners about CHIP and its benefits. To date, eight children who were previously uninsured now have health care coverage as a result of attending the event! Entertainment included a DJ and dancing, balloon animals, face-painting, a moon-bounce, CHIP coloring book station and Philadelphia Health Corps giveaways. Raffle items included an autographed football by Jeremy Maclin from the Eagles, an autographed baseball hat by Jayson Werth from the Phillies and an autographed picture of Braydon Coburn from the Flyers. Radio DJ Shamara from Power 99 hosted the event and welcomed field representative Karen Gurmankin from Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz’s office to say a few words about CHIP. The children were also excited to welcome local firemen and sit in a real fire engine. The 26 members of the Philadelphia Health Corps helped make this event possible. Fellow AmeriCorps groups offered their support for this CHIP outreach event, including City Year and EducationWorks. The delicious pancakes came from Tom and Diane’s café.

June 10 – The Health Federation was awarded $327,169 in Recovery Act Funds through the Department of Health and Human Services to expand a clinical data warehouse that will allow community health centers in the Philadelphia area to enhance their ability to monitor and improve clinical quality of care and patient health outcomes. Grants were awarded to 45 Health Center Controlled Networks throughout the country for Health Information Technology projects that support safety net providers in their efforts to adopt and effectively use electronic medical record systems. HFP was the only grant recipient in Pennsylvania. Over the past three years, HFP has built the infrastructure for a clinical data warehouse. Four health centers in the Philadelphia area are currently feeding summary data from their electronic medical record systems into this warehouse. With the new grant, an additional three health center systems, including the City of Philadelphia, will join this project and the data collected will be expanded to include dental and behavioral health. Ultimately, the data warehouse will be used to enable the participating health centers to analyze various aspects of their clinical operations and patient outcomes. This process will allow the health centers to share best practices, learn from each other, and collectively improve their patient care.

May 6, 2010 -- For the third year, the Health Federation is organizing a youth poster contest to celebrate National Health Center Week (August 8-14, 2010). The contest theme is “Community Health Centers: Building the Foundation for Healthy Neighborhoods.”  Young people ages 9-18 from the Philadelphia area are invited to submit posters.  Full contest rules, including information on prizes, entry forms, and a fact sheet on health centers are now available. Interested participants can also contact scohen@healthfederation.org for more information.  Health Partners is again providing generous sponsorship for the contest.

March 18 – The Health Federation of Philadelphia’s AIDS Education and Training Center is a lead sponsor and organizer of an upcoming conference for health care providers on research and practice related to HIV-infected and at-risk youth.  The conference – taking place on April 22 at Temple University -- is geared towards primary care physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants who provide non-HIV specialty care to adolescents as well as to HIV specialists who treat youth in their outpatient care practices. National and local experts will provide an update on CDC HIV testing recommendations and implementation strategies for primary care offices; an overview of health care recommendations for HIV-positive youth, psycho-social co-morbidities for HIV positive youth and implications for research to address the various needs of youth.  Workshops and expert panels will supplement the plenary sessions.  The workshops will cover HIV testing and linkage to care, psycho-social issues, LGBTQ needs and more. In addition to HFP, the conference is co-sponsored by The Adolescent Initiative of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, The Pediatric/Adolescent HIV/AIDS Program of DUCOM/St. Christopher's Pediatric Associates, Circle of Care/Family Planning Council, and the Philadelphia Department of Public Health/AIDS Activities Coordinating Office. 

For additional information, please download a flyer and registration form.

A March 20th Philadelphia Inquirer article highlighted a recent spike in Syphilis cases and cuts in state funding for STD/HIV prevention and testing. The article, by health reporter Don Sapatkin, featured Health Federation health educator Danielle Parks and the SISTA (Sisters Informing Sisters about Topics on AIDS) program that she runs. Debra D'Alessandro, Project Manager in HFP’s training and capacity building division, co-chairs the Philadelphia Syphilis Advisory Committee, which initially released the data leading to media attention on this issue.