West Virginia Healthy Kids and Families Coalition

For the national Champion for Children, the WV Welfare Reform Coalition joined with the Coalition for West Virginia’s Children and the WV Healthy Kids Coalition to present Senator Jay Rockefeller with a gift of children’s artwork to recognize his dedication and work on behalf of families. Lou Ann Johnson, from his state office accepted the framed picture of children’s art on behalf of the Senator.

The Coalition for West Virginia’s Children presented the Community Award to the Jefferson County program, "First in Your Family". This is a new program that is dedicated to help students be the first in their families to attend college and be successful with their goals. Dee and Tom Taylor, founders accepted the award from Susan Walters, a long-time advocate.

Express Lane Eligibility Web Site Debuts
The Children's Partnership has recently established a new Web site, devoted to forwarding the concept of "Express Lane Eligibility." This resource is designed to provide advocates, community leaders, and policymakers with the tools they need to provide health insurance to more than 4 million uninsured children enrolled in other public programs. Express Lane Eligibility describes processes to easily identify and enroll eligible uninsured low-income children into subsidized health insurance programs. It is based on the premise that many potentially eligible uninsured children already participate in need-based public programs, such as School Lunch, Food Stamps and WIC, making these public programs important health insurance outreach and enrollment links. The Web site provides research, nationwide examples, online resources, a report on California's experiences, and a place for advocates to share ideas not listed.

The National Express Lane Eligibility Web site can be found online at: www.expresslane.info. For more information, please contact Holly Kenny, Healthy Policy Specialist at The Children's Partnership, at 858.566.7257 or hkenny@childrenspartnership.org.