Austin, Texas

The Austin Children’s Health Project (ACHP) provides services to children in the greater Austin area. The patients seen by the ACHP include medically underserved children from urban school sites and one resource center identified to have a high population of low-income families. Many children who attend these schools come from newly immigrated families. These newly immigrated populations are less likely to be up to date on immunizations and have often received limited or no preventative health care. The ACHP brings pediatric primary care directly to children in need through long-term relationships with schools in the Austin area. The intent is to provide these children with a medical home. The staff works closely with school nurses in order to focus services toward children with the most need — those with no current primary care provider.

Bringing consistent, high-quality medical services to isolated communities and providing care without regard to ability to pay, the ACHP helps to overcome persistent barriers to health care in the region: geographic isolation, lack of transportation, lack of insurance and lack of financial resources.

An estimated 75% of the patients served by the ACHP are uninsured, and 24% have Medicaid or CHIP; 59% of patients are Hispanic, 12% are African American, 5% White, about 1% are Asian or other.

In the Austin area, rates of poverty amongst families with children are quite high. Fifteen-and-a-half percent of families with children under 18 years of age live in poverty, as do 34.7% of female-headed households with children under 18 years of age and 44.4% of female headed households with children under age five. Sixty-two percent of students in the Austin Independent School District are considered economically disadvantaged. Nineteen-and-a-half percent of all children living in Travis County are uninsured.