Pictured (L-R): Superintendent Kevin Cotner, Mandy Nix, Barbara Terry, Senator April Weaver, Nate Dunn, Willie Dunn, Mary Phillips, Madalyn Watkins, (Front Row) Della Pugh
Senator April Weaver presented a $10,000. grant/donation today to the Bibb County Child Caring Foundation at a cermony held in the offices of the Bibb County Board of Education. She said the organization has been helping children in Bibb County for more than thirty years now (1995).
Uninsured children and their families have been a concern for quite some time.
Innovative programs have been implemented to meet the health care needs of
uninsured children. Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurance companies throughout
the United States have developed several programs and these programs often share
“Child Caring” as a part of their designation. Serving Bibb Couinty, Alabama a successful public-private partnership between Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama (BCBS of
Alabama), the University of Alabama College of Community Health Sciences
(CCHS), and the civic-minded Bibb County community. The partnership was
designed to expand the scope of the Alabama Child Caring Foundation and was
initiated to address a pivotal question, “What would happen if every child within a
community was assured access to medical care?”
BCBS of Alabama established the Alabama Child Caring Foundation in the fall of
1987 to provide insurance coverage of primary and preventive health care services
to uninsured school age children in Alabama. The Alabama Child Caring
Foundation is a non-profit foundation that accepts contributions from businesses,
congregations, civic organizations, charitable foundations, individuals and families.
BCBS of Alabama matches on a one-to-one basis each dollar contributed to the
foundation and provides the administrative support for the foundation to ensure that
all of the contributions are used to provide health coverage for uninsured children.
History of Bibb County Child Caring Foundation
The Bibb County Child Caring Foundation was formed in 1995 with the goals reflected in the organization’s mission statement: To assure that every child in Bibb County would be known to be enrolled in an insurance program, would receive medical care and health information appropriate for his/her age, and would develop a set of expectations about personal health, hygiene and prevention that would carry over to his/her siblings and, later, to his/her children.
Through the efforts of the organization, and the support of the community and school system, the Bibb County Child Caring Foundation has been successful in meeting many of the goals set forth through the mission statement. Bibb County served as a model for the state and for the nation as the community-based design of implementing school based health fairs to screen for early detection and provide outreach efforts to ensure that every child has a health coverage source.
The Bibb County Child Caring Foundation has offered head-to-toe health screenings in the Bibb County School System for over 30 years. The project began as a part of a grant with the University of Alabama and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama, and continued The Bibb County Board of Education, Capstone College of Nursing, and the communities within Bibb County have provided ongoing support for sustainability because of the great benefit to the county’s children. The health screenings are held in public schools, the private school, and daycare centers, screening over 3,000 children with parent permission annually at no cost to families. Early detection of health problems is the impetus for continuation of the health screenings. A great deal of good has been done for the community’s children through these health screenings. Implementation of the health screenings involves a large cross-section of community stakeholders working together. Additionally, the Bibb County Child Caring Foundation seeks to link uninsured children to available sources of health insurance at no cost to families.
