Countywide : Schools Throw Party to Thank Agencies

Two school districts threw a party at the Anaheim Marriott hotel this week to thank city and county agencies for helping them win two $400,000 Healthy Start grants from the state Department of Education.

The money will be used for Healthy Start centers at Loara High School, Ball Junior High School, Palm Lane Elementary School and Thomas Jefferson Elementary School, where coordinators will assist residents seeking services such as help learning to read, dental work and recreation.

“The idea is to provide one-stop shopping,” said Jane Davis, a Loara High teacher who helped write the grant proposal.

About 30 agencies and groups from Anaheim and Orange County contributed time and money to the projects, which include the Anaheim Union High School District and the Anaheim City Elementary School District, Davis said.

Davis and three other Loara teachers have worked on the project for more than two years--with help from a $50,000 planning grant last year to establish the centers, she said. The planning stages involved contacting the Health Care Agency of Orange County and its programs for children and adolescents, as well as the Orange County Department of Education.

Organizers were concerned about helping families get access to the myriad social service and health-care programs spread throughout the city and county, Davis said.

“No one particular group is set up to do this,” said Becky Watrous, a Healthy Start team member at Loara. “The agencies have all worked independently and we’re asking everybody to learn each other’s language and share information and provide more services in a more efficient way.”

The three-year grants will pay for a coordinator to go into the community and assess the needs of children and their families, she said.

“In some ways, it is a grass-roots thing, but we are also tapping all the resources we can find in our county,” Davis said.