FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Septmeber 29, 1999

For further information, contact:
Susan G. Zepeda
Chief Executive Officer
Phone: 714-245-1650
Fax: 714-245-1653

GRANT TO BRING HEALTH SERVICES TO SANTA ANA BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB

September 29, 1999 - The HealthCare Foundation for Orange County has awarded a $335,000 "Partners for Health" Grant to Childrens Hospital of Orange County (CHOC), St. Joseph Hospital of orange, The Boys and Girls Club of Santa Ana and Maternal Outreach Management System (MOMS), to bring a range of health services to the Boys and Girls Club facility.

This grant, the first major grant of the new Foundation, provides funding for program management, nursing, health education and outreach services at this popular, centrally-located recreational site. Additional support for the project comes from the partners themselves.

In accepting the grant Saturday, at the Foundation Board Annual Meeting, David R. White, President of the Board of the Boys and Girls Club, noted that there are more than 30,000 children under 14 years of age who live within a mile of the Boys and Girls Club. The Club, considered a neutral or safe zone amid several gang territories, offers after-school recreation programs, as well as job-readiness coaching, academic tutoring and classes for parents in English as a Second Language. White says the Club is "thrilled to be partnering with St. Joseph Hospital and CHOC, to offer health care to people in our neighborhood. The Boys and Girls Club sees this as a prototype, which we hope to take national, through other Boys and Girls Clubs around the Country."

Sally Gallagher, Vice President/Operations at CHOC, was instrumental in gaining broad support for the project, envisioned as a multi-year pilot project. "Looking forward," says Gallagher, " means looking out, to the community" in which the hospitals are based, reaching out to people who don?t have access to health care. Ron Di Luigi, Vice President for Advocacy at St. Joseph Health System, expressed appreciation for the project?s collaborative partners and the leadership of the HealthCare Foundation, in advancing services to address health needs in Orange County.

Jeffrey Wilcox, CHOC Foundation Executive Director, sees "Partners for Health" funding as a boost to this important thrust for CHOC in an era of managed care, helping it to "go into the community and touch the lives of children. This turns a page on the future of CHOC."

Foundation Grants Committee Co-Chair, Lilia Powell, expressed pleasure to be working with the collaborative?s partners, to "bring such needed services" to a site known and accepted by parents and teens. The Countywide Health Needs Assessment issued last spring underscored the difficulties low-income, uninsured families experience in obtaining primary and preventive care.

The HealthCare Foundation for Orange County is a private foundation, funded by the proceeds of the sale of United Western Medical Centers to Tenet. The Foundation?s charitable mission, approved by the Court in July 1999, is to assist low-income families in central Orange County to obtain needed health information and treatment. Most Foundation funds must be granted to or through qualified local non-profit hospitals.

Proposals for the second cycle of "Partners for Health" grants are due to the Foundation offices by October 29, 1999. Further information and application forms may be requested from the Foundation at 714-245-1650.