What is SHOUT?

The Student Health Outreach Project, SHOUT, is a student-run project of the Children’s Defense Fund that strives to ensure that all of our nation’s children have access to the health care they deserve.

SHOUT’s ultimate goal is to reach all eligible children and sign them up for health coverage.  Students can fill an important role by partnering with community-based groups to help with outreach and enrollment efforts.  This role will include identifying uninsured children, educating families about the importance and availability of free or low-cost insurance, and helping families through the enrollment process.

SHOUT provides 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 want to pursue careers.  Students can benefit from this opportunity while providing an essential service to low-income working familes.

 

What is SPROUT?

SPROUT—the Student Poverty OUTreach program—is a student-run program of the Children’s Defense Fund.  SPROUT is modeled after and builds on the success of CDF’s SHOUT (Student Health OUTreach) program, which involves students in a national campaign to educate families about the availability of free and low-cost public health insurance and link the uninsured to enrollment.  As an expansion of SHOUT, SPROUT organizes students to help families receive public health insurance as well as other critical benefits that can life families out of poverty.  These benefit programs include CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program), Medicaid, EITC (Earned Income Tax Credit), and food stamps.

The goals of SPROUT are:
• To alert and educate students, residents, and participating community-based organizations about the crisis of poverty in working families in the United States.
• To inspire and mobilize students to reach out to impoverished children and families in their communities who are potentially eligible for government benefits, such as food stamps, CHIP(Children’s Health Insurance Program), and the Child Tax Credit.
• To enroll eligible children and families for government benefits and ensure that they receive quality health insurance and financial support.

SPROUT offers opportunities for students in California and throughout the country to make a significant difference in their community while developing skills and experiences to become lifelong advocates and community leaders.

For more information about how you can get involved with SHOUT or SPROUT, contact CDF-CA at cdfca@childrensdefense.org or (213) 355-8787.