If a tree falls in the woods…

Often during our Senior Leadership meetings, we discuss how best to educate people about the great work we are doing. I have used the age-old analogy that if the tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it matter that it fell?

If we are doing all this hard work, and we are not yet known nationally, does it matter? Of course the short answer is, of course it does. The work we are doing benefits the children we are fortunate enough to care for and that means the world – regardless of who knows it.

Dr. Yvette Janvier (Medical, Toms River) and Dr. Jill Harris (Autism, Fanwood) recently confirmed that their article, “Screening for ASD in Underserved Communities: Early Childcare Providers as Reporters,” will be published in the national journal Autism. The article examines the identification of Autism in children who live in the inner cities. This work was so very important because of the impact on the children who are under diagnosed. but also because the national recognition makes people start to ask, “Who is this Children’s Specialized Hospital?”

I can’t tell you how many times I have been told, “I had no idea that you served that many kids or had that many physicians!”

We recently found out that Dr. Manuel Jimenez (Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics) was selected by the Pediatric Society to present at the Plenary Session on his work on Adverse Childhood Experiences, Literacy, and Kindergarten Problems this April.

I was so excited to share his great work with you all. This is the kind of stuff we need to shout from the rooftops!

This work was started while he was a resident at the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. At this time, he created a program at Elijah’s Promise – the Soup Kitchen in New Brunswick – to begin focusing on children who were served there.

He helped to provide books to these children and encouraged their families to read to them. He continued his work as a fellow at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and returned to RWJ as the first Chancellor Scholar for the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, where we share his time.

What Dr. Jimenez found was that the average child who was coming to the clinic at Elijah’s Promise had only a few books, where the average child not living in poverty had hundreds of books. It is one of the most essential factors in preparing these children for kindergarten.

We are so very proud of all of the hard work that you all do each and every day, and all of your efforts to help us make more families aware of the great things that happen at all of our sites!