'Coaches For the Kids' Gifts $1.15 Million to Kentucky Children’s Hospital
LEXINGTON, KY. (March 28, 2022) — University of Kentucky Football coach Mark Stoops and the board of directors for the Coaches for the Kids Foundation presented a two-year, $1.15 million gift to Kentucky Children’s Hospital (KCH). To date, the foundation has gifted over $2 million to KCH to fund several initiatives that support KCH patients, providers and staff.
“I’m very proud to be a part of the Coaches for the Kids Foundation," said Stoops. "It has always been and always will be an important mission for me, my family and my staff to help raise money for Kentucky’s Children’s Hospital and the children of the Commonwealth. It’s a mission that is very close to my heart and I want to thank the generous people in the Big Blue Nation for all of their support.”
This gift will fund three projects:
- Zero Suicide Academy is a training program for providers and staff to effectively identify individuals with suicide risk through screenings for patients at every visit. Training will begin in the late Spring of 2022 for all KCH clinical and non-clinical staff.
- LOCUS home monitoring technology for medically complex infants. This system is a bridge to health for infants discharged home between surgeries and at high risk for mortality. For families that may not have access to medical facilities in their home county, LOCUS provides them with a safe, accurate and user-friendly technology to monitor their children at home between visits, drastically reducing fatalities among these patients.
- In combination with generous gifts from other donors, the CFTK Foundation will support the purchase and operation of a mobile clinic to serve pediatric patients in rural areas of Kentucky. The mobile will have the capacity to see up to 1,100 patients per year in pediatric cardiology, hemophilia/blood disorders, high BMI and adolescent mental health. The unit can also serve as a primary pediatric service with the ability to complete routine well visits and sports and school physicals.
The production of the mobile clinic is underway and is expected to hit the road later in 2022.
“With the support of Coach Stoops and the Coaches for the Kids Foundation, we have the potential to help thousands of children, from medically fragile infants to high school students,” said Scottie B. Day, M.D., physician-in-chief for KCH. “Too many of Kentucky’s youth have limited access to healthcare, but with expanded mental health screening, home monitoring and a mobile clinic, we can deliver our expert care to every corner of the Commonwealth."
As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $476.5 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.
In 2022, UK was ranked by Forbes as one of the “Best Employers for New Grads” and named a “Diversity Champion” by INSIGHT into Diversity, a testament to our commitment to advance Kentucky and create a community of belonging for everyone. While our mission looks different in many ways than it did in 1865, the vision of service to our Commonwealth and the world remains the same. We are the University for Kentucky.