Young and Healthy, a Pasadena-based organization that provides comprehensive direct medical, dental, mental and other health services to uninsured low-income children free of charge, has launched a campaign to attract more members and volunteers to its new Young and Healthy Alliance. The Alliance’s mission is to improve the quality of life for children in the greater Pasadena area.
The group pursues its objectives through prevention, education, and enhanced health care services. Its members and volunteers are mostly whole families who desire to make a difference in the community by helping underserved children avail of essential health care and other services.
Last February 5 to 12, Young and Healthy held its 2016 Mobile Dental Clinic at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Pasadena and served over 110 Pasadena area children. Dentists from the USC Ostrow School of Dentistry came with USC’s dental vans, and Young and Healthy volunteers were on hand to do arts and crafts as the children waited for appointments.
Kids’ Alliance, a branch of the Young and Healthy Alliance, also had their members help in preparing lunch bags for the dentists and the patients, including their parents, families and other community volunteers.
Jan Cantwell, Development Director at Young and Healthy, said the kids in the alliance were with their parents who also volunteered to help in the dental clinic.
“We served about 300 lunches that day for everyone that was there at the dentist,” Cantwell said. “Our kids were there, the volunteers, the families that were there. So it was really kind of a fun day. They decorate the bags and then they fill the bags and serve them, gave them out. It’s kind of nice and that this group is very family-oriented. They can volunteer together in a family way with mom and dad or grandma and grandpa and the children.”
Cantwell said the Alliance was launched just about a year and a half ago out of a need to consolidate Young and Healthy’s free medical services and community volunteers who provide their time and resources to pursue similar projects.
The dental clinic last month has become an annual event and will continue to serve as long as there are donors and there are volunteers to help with staff work
“We write grants for it and we do it in collaboration with USC,” Cantwell said. “We had about 80-100 dental students in their third and fourth year that were there along with their supervisors. And we served approximately 110-120 children in one week and take care of all their dental needs. So it’s kind of an exciting way, just kind of a fun way and we get a whole lot done for the kids and the community.”
Several other volunteer groups also partnered with Young and Healthy on the dental clinic, including National Charity League Pasadena, Pasadena Lion’s Club with their mobile vision & hearing van, Pasadena Library, Pasadena Public Health, Los Angeles County Public Health, Huntington Hospital, Charles J. Korth O.D., and the Pasadena HEAR Center.
To learn how you can help, visit Young and Healthy’s website,
www.yhpasadena.org or the Young and Healthy Alliance page, www.yhpasadene.org/join-the-young-healthy-alliance.
