It was a busy summer and an exciting fall at Boston Community Pediatrics! Vaccines continue along with summer and fall programming, BCP's work in the community, and new staff members including additions to our growing mental health and care navigation teams! The recent surge of viruses including RSV, enterovirus, COVID, and flu has kept all of the providers including BCP's new pediatrician quite busy. BCP's continued commitment to telehealth visits, assisting with transportation, and seeing patients when they need to come in has been critical to our ability to meet patients where they are. With the holidays on the horizon, we have been looking back on the past few months to recognize all we have accomplished as a community. There is a lot to celebrate and we hope you enjoy learning about what we have been up to throughout the past few months!
xoxo - The BCP Team
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Summer and out of school activities are critically important to a child's self esteem and development. BCP care navigators, mental health clinicians, and pediatricians all supported Christopher, Nailah and Julian to find new programs that they had never tried before - football and cheerleading! They all absolutely loved their intensive programs, have become more confident in themselves, and their athletic abilities, while making new friends! We love how BCP providers work together to support families so that patients can thrive in the community! | | |
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You may remember reading in our previous newsletter about our incredible Camp Night, where over 60 patients came to meet with 6 camps, representing 18 summer experiences. We are thrilled to share that we were able to send more than 66 patients to summer camp. Summer programming is an expense that many families cannot afford to take on, but an experience that is so important for children's mental and physical health, especially after enduring isolation throughout the pandemic. In addition to these incredible opportunities, BCP also held our own daily summer programming, in collaboration with some fabulous community partners such as South End Soccer and Knucklebones, led by the care navigation team and wonderful summer interns. | |
We Hosted the Governor and First Lady! | |
In August, we were so pleased to have Governor Charlie Baker and First Lady Lauren Baker visit us at BCP! Dr. Riseberg gave the Bakers a tour of the office and discussed BCP's innovative model with them. A few patients also had the opportunity to speak with the Bakers and share their stories. It was quite an exciting day for all of us at BCP! | |
We Are Out in the Community! | |
BCP’s Hyperlocal Community Initiative was in full swing this summer and fall! We love being out in the community hosting workshops, supporting community organizations with a variety of programming, and spreading the word about all that BCP has to offer. | |
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Events such as National Night Out at the New Academy Estates; Family Day at Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción (IBA); and a college fair at The BASE gave our team the opportunity to connect with families. Our staff spent time speaking with families about our model, and learning about the specific needs of children in these communities. We were sure to pass out lots of BCP swag and even hosted a raffle with New Academy Estates, which had all of the attendees excited and talking about BCP! | | | |
We love getting to be a part of events and workshops with organizations who support youth throughout Boston. Our care navigation team collaborated with teen leaders at Shooting Touch who ran a basketball clinic focused on empowering girls through sport. United South End Settlements' (USES) Club48 welcomed us for another workshop on nutrition! This time, we focused on "eating the rainbow" and made smoothies with a variety of healthy produce. | |  |
We are continuing to vaccinate the community against COVID-19 and the flu! We held vaccine clinics this summer and fall with organizations such as the Fenway Community Center and Ellis Early Learning Center. At the Fenway clinic, Wally came to get his vaccine and encourage Red Sox fans to do the same! BCP is dedicated to keeping families healthy and offers COVID and flu vaccines to all caregivers at their childrens' appointments. If you are in need of a flu or the new bivalent COVID booster, we welcome you to come get vaccinated at BCP! | | |
We Celebrated Going Back to School! | |
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Back to school night at BCP was a big hit! Over 125 families came to the BCP office to get ready for the school year and participate in fun activities. Patients received backpacks, school supplies, hygiene products, groceries, and a gift card. Everyone enjoyed food from El Centro and ice cream from Zack's Ice Cream Truck! We also had a photo booth, art station, outdoor games, and turned exams rooms into mini libraries so patients could pick out age-appropriate books.
We are so grateful to all our incredible partners who made this night possible, especially The B Fund who provided the incredible backpacks, Hope & Comfort, the Fresh Truck, and of course, our amazing BCP Brigade Volunteers!
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We are Continuing to Grow! | |
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As the BCP community continues to grow, so does our team! Please join us in welcoming Dr. Jennifer Gill, May Perez, and Sarah Casilli-Murray!
Dr. Gill has been supporting BCP since we opened in 2020 initially as a Board member, and now we are very excited to have her join our fabulous team of pediatric providers. Joining our Care Navigation team is May Perez, who has been involved in community organizing and has worked in a wide variety of social service settings with young people, especially within the immigrant community in greater Boston. BCP’s newest mental health clinician, Sarah Casilli-Murray is an experienced licensed independent clinical social worker and has worked in schools and community health providing individual and group counseling to students along with partnering with families to support their children holistically. We are so excited to welcome Jen, May, and Sarah to the BCP team!
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We Celebrated BCP at Fenway! | |
In July, the BCP team went to Fenway Park for a staff outing (which has now become a tradition since winning the Red Sox Foundation 2021 IMPACT award). As a bonus, we were able to celebrate Big Papi's induction into the Hall of Fame! We loved getting to spend time together outside of the office and feel lucky to have seen a great game as the Red Sox defeated Cleveland! In true BCP fashion, we had to sport our own custom Red Sox gear and take lots of pictures. The fabulous leaders of BCP's tutoring program, Rebecca and Lindsay, even caught a ball! Thank you to the Red Sox Foundation for your generosity in providing tickets for us - we are incredibly grateful for the opportunity to spend time together at Fenway and celebrate our team. | |
We Rocked the 32nd Annual Rodman Ride for Kids! | |
We Have New Partnerships! | |
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We are delighted to share that BCP has received a grant from the Moderna Charitable Foundation to support our integrated care navigation model. BCP is breaking down silos and decreasing stigma by taking the burden of coordination off families and providing truly integrated care, where providers are not just co-located, but are actually working together to best support BCP patients.
We are honored to have received this support from the Moderna Charitable Foundation and to be among one of the organization's first grantees.
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Dr. Riseberg is Being Recognized! | | |
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BCP's Founder, Dr. Robyn
Riseberg, will be receiving an Extraordinary Women Advancing Healthcare Award by
The Women’s Edge (formerly The Commonwealth Institute), the leading nonprofit organization devoted to advancing all women leaders. This award is the first of its kind in the nation to reach across diverse sectors of healthcare – from life sciences, healthcare education and systems, to healthcare foundations, professions and public health. It recognizes and celebrates remarkable healthcare leaders, who work in Massachusetts, for their outstanding career achievements and impact.
Please join the BCP team in congratulating Dr. Riseberg and her fellow awardees for their outstanding achievements!
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We Learned About the Impact of
BCP Nutritious!
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BCP Nutritious, BCP's weekly cooking class and one of our most popular programs, is really making a difference! Participating patients have groceries sent to their homes, and then together over Zoom cook meals with fresh and in-season ingredients, and then patients are able proudly share their meals with their families.
Emily Murphy, one of our amazing summer interns evaluated and synthesized data to determine the effectiveness of the program at improving cooking skills, confidence, and eating behaviors, specifically fruit and vegetable consumption, and examined the impact of this program on increasing family engagement during meal time.
The majority of patients surveyed strongly agree that as a result of BCP Nutritious, they are willing to try new foods (78%). Many patients reported that as a result of BCP Nutritious, they eat more than one type of fruit and vegetable everyday (52%), and many others (41%) do most days.
Overall, the data shows many positive outcomes of the program such as increased exposure to new and healthy foods, equitable access to participation (the class is virtual and ingredients are distributed to the families via Door Dash), and encouraging family meal time.
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Emily presenting on the impact of BCP Nutritious at the Teaching Kitchen Research Conference in October |
BCP NUTRITIOUS PARENT TESTIMONIALS
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"She is loving cucumbers now, [this class] has been huge help.”
“He has been re-using the recipes to eat more fruits and veggies”
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Give to BCP Through Amazon Smile! | |
BCP is now on AmazonSmile: You shop. Amazon gives. | Shop at smile.amazon.com and Amazon will donate 0.5% of eligible purchases to Boston Community Pediatrics, with no fees or extra costs. Simply browse, order, and enjoy giving! | | | |
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