SPROUT® Program

FACT: 1 in every 6 children in California live at or below the Federal Poverty Line.  

Many of these children are eligible for public benefits programs like Healthy Kids, Child Health and Disability Prevention (CHDP) Program, CHDP Gateway, Access for Infants and Mothers, California Children's Services, California Kids, Family PACT, Indian Health, Kaiser Cares for Kids, EITC, WIC, Food Stamps, CalWORKS, and subsidized child care; however, many families do not know about these benefits, do not realize they are eligible for them, do not know how or where to apply to receive them, and/or cannot take hours away from work to apply.  If all qualifying families with children received the cash benefits and food assistance for which they are eligible, over 3.8 million people could escape poverty. Child poverty would be reduced by 20 percent and the number of families living in extreme poverty (the bottom half of the poverty line) would be reduced by 70 percent.

 As an expansion of SHOUT, SPROUT (Student Poverty Reduction OUTreach), also a student organized, led, and ran program of the Children's Defense Fund, outreaches to families to enroll eligible children in public health insurance programs and other critical public benefits programs.  The goal of SPROUT is to lift children and families out of poverty by assisting with their daily basic needs.

SPROUT offers opportunities for students to make a significant difference in their community while developing skills and experiences to become lifelong advocates and community leaders as well as join CDF's All Healthy Children and Cradle to Prison Pipeline Campaigns.

Children's Defense Fund has several successful SPROUT programs in various states. Currently, CDFCA is expanding the SPROUT programs to University of California Berkeley, San Francisco State University, and Cal Poly Pomona.

Currently, SHOUT Programs are being established at San Francisco State University, and UC Berkeley.

If you are interested in starting or getting involved in a SPROUT program in Northern California, please contact Nina Moreno at (510) 663-2218.  For Southern California, please contact Jennifer Kim at (213) 355-8791.

SHOUT® Program

There are 763,000 uninsured children in California, and 419,650 of them are eligible for free health insurance through Medicaid (also known as Medical in California) and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), Healthy Families. Medical and Healthy Families is a federal investment in children's health coverage that reaches out to millions of uninsured children whose family incomes are too low to afford private insurance. But children will not receive health care coverage through these programs automatically. Their parents must apply for it. The problem is that many parents may not know that Medical and Health Families exists or that their children might be eligible.

The Student Health Outreach Project (SHOUT) was first piloted at Columbia University in New York City and included graduate and undergraduate students from various departments. These students were trained by Children's Defense Fund-New York outreach staff on how to complete the joint Medicaid/SCHIP (known as Child Health in New York City) Application. Once trained, student volunteers were placed in community-based organizations to assist families with the enrollment process. Since the initial New York project, SHOUT programs have spread to several states across the country, including California.

SHOUT is a student organized, led, and ran program of the Children's Defense Fund which trains college/university students to become state Certified Application Assistors and enroll eligible children in health insurance programs.

SHOUT programs provide students with an opportunity to develop effective leadership, time management, and coalition-building skills. It allows students to work with local advocates, giving them a chance to develop relationships with professionals who are working in areas where they may want to pursue careers. Students can benefit from this opportunity while providing an essential service to low-income working families.

Children's Defense Fund-California has several successful SHOUT programs, including the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).

If you are interested in starting or getting involved in a SHOUT program in Northern California, please contact Nina Moreno at (510)663-2218.  For Southern California, please contact Jennifer Kim at (213) 355-8791.