The donation from the Mary Catherine Bunting Foundation aims to continue advancing the health of children and families through Baltimore City Early Head Start and Family Support Patty centers.
The University of Maryland School of Nursing (UMSON) has received a $300,000 gift in the form of a three-year pledge from the Mary Catherine Bunting Foundation to continue the work of the School’s Community and Public Health Environmental Initiative (CPHEI). The initiative, founded in 2016 with a gift from Bunting, MS ’72, CRNP, RN, provides health oversight for children and families served by Baltimore City Early Head Start (EHS) centers and Family Support Patty Centers, which are coordinated through the Maryland State Department of Education and offer free educational and health-related services to parents and children. In total, Bunting and the foundation have contributed $1.55 million to UMSON in support of CPHEI.
CPHEI is a collaborative effort with the Maryland Family Network to improve overall health and environmental health for EHS center children from birth until age 3 through programs that support early literacy and lifelong healthy habits, including nutrition, physical activity, quality family time, and mindfulness. CPHEI delivers health services to 11 EHS centers in Baltimore and three Patty Centers in Frederick, Annapolis, and Baltimore, Md., representing more than 400 children and their families; to date these efforts have benefited more than 3,000 children and their families.
EHS services are federally funded and free for families who meet income requirements or qualify for public assistance. According to the 2020 Baltimore City Early Childhood Care & Education Landscape Analysis, there are approximately 41,600 children from birth to age 4 living in the city. While births citywide decreased by 13% from 2014-18, births to Latina mothers increased as have the number of births in the northwest, southwest, southeast, and northeast areas of the city. Approximately 23% of residents live below the poverty line, and nearly 40% of families with children live below 150% of the poverty line.
More than 630 students from UMSON’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) and RN-to-BSN programs, Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) Entry-into-Nursing program, MSN Community/Public Health Nursing specialty, and Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) specialties participate in CPHEI and provide the critical health services to EHS/Patty Center children as part of the School’s ongoing service learning commitment.