News Releases

Orlando, Fla. (August 17, 2020) – The Nemours Children’s Health System’s Florida Prevention Initiative has been awarded The 2019 Golden Brick Award from The Downtown Orlando Partnership,  honoring this 10-year-old General Academic Pediatrics’ program for its spirit of achievement, partnership, perseverance and service to the community.

Each year, Nemours Children’s Health System extends its mission beyond their downtown clinic walls to ensure children in the neighborhood have a healthy start to the school year. The Nemours Florida Prevention Initiative conducts its annual “Our Healthy Eyes and Ears” vision/hearing education and screening program with childcare centers in the downtown area, including the Rosen Parramore Preschool that serves over 160 at-risk young children each Fall. In addition, Nemours clinicians and the Florida Prevention Initiative team collaborate with Shepherd’s Hope to provide the uninsured back-to-school physicals and vision/hearing screenings. In 2019 alone, 320 children and youth were screened for potential vision impairment and/or hearing deficits in these two community initiatives.

“Even during a pandemic, it was important for the Downtown Orlando Partnership to recognize the individuals and entities that make our area stronger through collaboration,” said Josh Wyche, Executive Director. “The Nemours Florida Prevention Initiative’s ‘Our Healthy Eyes and Ears’ Project was selected due to focused dedication to positively impact the quality of life for children in underserved areas. Our future as a community is closely tied to the potential of each and every child. We should certainly be judged by how well we position young potential to flourish.”

Each year, Nemours initiatives like this identify children requiring further evaluation and care that if left undetected could lead to costly, long-term health disparities and negatively impact speech and language acquisition, academic achievement, and social and emotional development.

“Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, our program had to postpone services due to many child care sites temporarily closing during the shutdown, some permanently closing and/or having lower enrollments and limiting outside programs from coming into their centers to minimize the risk to staff and children,” said Kelly Rogers, Program Manager of the Nemours Florida Prevention Initiative. “But, as the school year is gearing up to resume, we are grateful to get back out in the community and are seeing an uptick in our scheduling of screenings for our youngest learners, some which have also lapsed going to their medical provider for their well-visits and immunizations during this pandemic.”

Nemours is always looking for new child care programs to collaborate with on its various health and wellness initiatives to offer these primary prevention education and secondary health screening services conveniently to children in child care, Rogers added.

“The Nemours Florida Prevention Initiative’s annual ‘Our Healthy Eyes and Ears’ screening and child care educational programs are among the ways that Nemours extends care beyond the walls of our facilities and provides services directly to children and their families in our community,” said Dr. Lloyd Werk, who serves as director of the Florida Prevention Initiative. “It is gratifying for our FPI team to be recognized for efforts that grow a healthier central Florida.”

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About Nemours Children’s Health System

Nemours is an internationally recognized children's health system that owns and operates the two free-standing children’s hospitals: the Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Del., and Nemours Children's Hospital in Orlando, Fla., along with outpatient facilities in five states, delivering pediatric primary, specialty and urgent care. Nemours also powers the world’s most-visited website for information on the health of children and teens, KidsHealth.org, and offers on-demand, online video patient visits through Nemours CareConnect. Nemours ReadingBrightstart.org is a program dedicated to preventing reading failure in young children, grounded in Nemours’ understanding that child health and learning are inextricably linked, and that reading level is a strong predictor of adult health.

Established as The Nemours Foundation through the legacy and philanthropy of Alfred I. duPont, Nemours provides pediatric clinical care, research, education, advocacy and prevention programs to families in the communities it serves.