Charity for the Community: Crozer-Keystone Community Foundation

By Kaitlin Irwin

Crozer-Keystone Community Foundation is the epitome of charitable contributions to the Delaware County. The overarching mission of the foundation is to create a healthier Delco through public health programs, grants, and philanthropy. Headquartered in Media, PA, the foundation also has offices in Upper Darby, Springfield, and Chester.

Crozer-Keystone Community Foundation reaches out to the community in a variety of ways. One of those is through gold standard public health programs focused on improving children’s and maternal health. For example, the Healthy Start Program includes early home-visiting programs for low-income mothers, allowing the foundation to help set baby and mom on the right track right from the start of the pregnancy until the child is 2 years old. Closing the feto-infant mortality racial gap is a critical point for the foundation. This is why multi-faceted programs are put into place to help African-American mothers and children in Delco.

A collaborative effort called Babies First tackles the challenge of reducing the percentage of low birth weight babies and deaths in Delaware County. Through WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) services, this statistic is decreasing. WIC’s supplemental nutrition programs helps provide the food and nutrition that mothers and children 0-5 need to live healthy strong lives from the outset. Over 9,000 clients have benefitted from WIC, making it a pivotal effort in the Healthy Start Program. Moreover, the foundation also assists with medical-legal partnerships that address the psychological and mental stress of pregnancy. Not all Healthy Start Programs offer this kind of support, but the foundation’s efforts have been supported for the past 20 years, enabling them to provide solid assistance and resources for the community.

Alongside the foundation’s Healthy Start Program is the Nurse Family Partnership, which provides home visits from nurses to new mothers. This is yet another stride that is being made in Delco to address some of the toughest issues that the population is facing. Besides that, the grants that the foundation makes to nonprofits in the community builds upon all of these programs, giving the foundation more opportunities to look at other health areas. Philanthropy in Delco has skyrocketed and the foundation is one of the few resources in the country that helps generous individuals make contributions to their community.

 Crozer-Keystone Community Foundation’s ambition and commitment can be seen in all that they do. By analyzing the needs of the population, they are able to educate donors, create efficient giving vehicles, and disperse those funds where they’re needed. There is a lot of need in Delco, but the strong partnerships created by the foundation has helped to strengthen health and social services, advance health equity, and improve pregnancy and birth outcomes for women, babies, and families in Delaware County. Visit the foundation online at http://ckcommunityfoundation.org/ or call 610-744-1010.