NSBN Projects - East Hollywood

"We have floated around the idea of how great it might be to have a health clinic on our campus, and how awesome it would be to able to build a new building. And then NSBN came along and helped us to make some real concrete plans."

Andy Johnsen
Former Co-Director, Santa Monica Boulevard Community Charter School

Santa Monica Blvd. Community Charter SchoolDuring NSBN's community engagement process at Santa Monica Blvd. Community Charter School (SMBCCS), the residents identified the lack of healthcare services as their primary concern. Despite a significant number of existing facilities (Children's Hospital, Kaiser Permanente, Hollywood Presbyterian-Queen of Angels, etc.), the legal status of most parents and students prevented their access to them. Further, the LA Free Clinic's Hollywood/Wilshire Health Clinic (only 2 ½ blocks from the school) is located within an LA County facility and provided no pediatric services. NSBN has worked with LAFC to expand their pediatric services at the site and to develop a referral network with SMBCCS where students and their families can enroll in the LAFC clinic and appropriate healthcare insurance programs at the campus, receive counseling, dental and obesity screenings on-site, and participate in health education programs at the school's parent center. Already, before a formal contract was signed, LAFC has already provided counseling, dental screening, and 2 health education workshops.

Santa Monica Blvd. Community Charter SchoolFurther, NSBN has created a new partnership with the Coro Foundation Health Leadership Fellowship program where 5 fellows will be assisting with technical capability and service assessment for both LAFC and SMBCCS as well as assisting with the implementation of the UCLA/Medlink HIPPA compliant Virtual Private Network (VPN) that will allow partners to assess the relationship between increased healthcare services at the school and clinic with increased educational achievement through grades and attendance.

Santa Monica Blvd. Community Charter SchoolNSBN is pleased to announce that final design for SMBCCS/school expansion has been approved. The school campus has implemented the planning concept developed in the master plan of student intake on Ridgewood (as opposed to Van Ness) for a safer arrival and departure for students. SMBCCS is currently pursuing additional funding (the school currently has $4 million in hand) for the full build-out of the master planned expansion project (including the addition of more Pre-k classrooms) and has retained a professional fund raising consultant referred by NSBN. Even before build-out of the expanded campus, health and dental screening are already being provided by the LA Free Clinic on the SMBCCS campus and will be enhanced when the renovations at the LA Free Clinic facility are completed (in 2007) and all services can be transitioned to that site.