Healthy Kids — Healthy Communities
PIN Health Series Part II
April 15, 2025, 6:04am EDTBy Karen Kirkpatrick
According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, more than half of Georgia’s 120 rural counties don’t have a pediatrician and approximately 170,000 children in the state are uninsured. That results in thousands of children who are not seen regularly by a healthcare provider. Studies have shown that children with access to healthcare have better overall health and well-being, which in turn means healthier families and healthier communities.
Kids-Doc-on-Wheels (KDOW), which started in 2017, has been supported by the Partnership for Inclusive Innovation (PIN) since 2022. KDOW works to get healthcare to those who need it most by meeting kids where they are — at school. KDOW is a mobile healthcare unit that serves children in Title 1 schools who don’t have insurance or access to a primary care physician. KDOW provides comprehensive care including well and sick visits and immunizations to children in 30 schools. These visits contribute to improved health outcomes and set up students for academic success.
“Having accessible medical services through KDOW on each school’s campus makes such a positive impact on students’ well-being,” said April Fallon, the director of community and student support for Rockdale County Public Schools (RCPS), where KDOW serves a number of students. “It provides them with the support they need to stay healthy and focused on their academics. KDOW services also provide a huge convenience for families who may have a hard time leaving their employment.”
Since starting KDOW, the need has only grown, said Dr. Lynette Wilson-Phillips, KDOW founder and medical director. “We’ve seen our uninsured population triple in the time frame that we’ve been delivering services,” she said.
Unfortunately, that increase in demand has come at a time of decreasing funding, she added. During COVID, some school districts had additional resources to partner with KDOW and allow them to provide services for their students. After COVID ended and those resources were discontinued, the PIN grants were vital in allowing KDOW to continue.
“Rockdale County Public Schools has worked diligently to make available student supports, which are often coordinated with community partners such as KDOW,” said Zelphine Smith-Dixon, chief student support officer for RCPS. “Our partnership with KDOW met an unmet need for some of our most vulnerable students who would not have access to healthcare otherwise. In addition, the partnership met the unmet needs of working families who had access to healthcare but required a flexible service model.”
In addition to providing grant funding through PIN’s Economic Opportunity pillar, PIN has facilitated collaborations with other economic opportunity projects and provided introductions to other potential funders and technology resources, and helped provide site expansions to its telemedicine platform. In addition, KDOW has leveraged the funding to access additional social and financial capital.
Through its Student Engagement pillar, PIN has provided paid summer interns who also support the program, while they gain skills they can use throughout their working lives. The PIN Summer Internship program connects civic-minded college students with innovation-driven organizations committed to making a positive public impact.
“KDOW is a great fit to host summer interns because of the high level of public innovation and impact that KDOW has,” Cody Cocchi, PIN’s student engagement manager, said. “College students want to work there not only because of the ability to build hands-on experience in the medical profession but also because the organization has created a novel strategy for addressing the inaccessibility of healthcare in medium, small, and rural communities. By bringing the doctor and doctor’s office to these communities, KDOW shows how innovation can serve communities and impact health outcomes in real-time.”
Two 2024 interns helped the chief operating officer with the development of processes and procedures and worked on social media and messaging campaigns, Wilson-Phillips said. This year, two more interns will continue supporting outreach efforts and will help to design surveys for parents and patients.
“So many communities across Georgia don’t have direct access to a pediatrician or to regular healthcare,” Jamal Lewis, the economic opportunity pillar manager, said. “We want every child in the state to have a chance at a healthy life. That makes this an important project for PIN to support.”
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