Improving Healthcare Accessibility
The Heart & Hands Pediatric Clinic is a registered non-profit organization focused on delivering health care to underserved children through school-based health centres. The program was founded in 2019 and establishes health clinics within community schools, to provide immediate and preventative care to children and their families, with on-site doctors and allied health professionals.
The Lester B. Pearson School Board and Montreal Children’s Hospital have come together to create collaborative clinics that surrounds a child, in an environment they trust. Through a team-based approach, Heart & Hands draws on school staff, medical professionals and families to understand each child’s unique circumstances and provide holistic care solutions.
David Estok
David has worked for H&H since December of 2023, in his role as the manager of the organization.
Following his retirement from his position as a school principal for the LBPSB, David has found rewarding work in helping to manage the daily operations of our two clinics in Verdun and Lachine. As with Karen, David’s work in the educational sector has proved to be very helpful in ensuring the smooth functioning of our clinics, both of which are located in school buildings of the Lester B Pearson School Board. In addition to administrative duties, part of David’s work also includes outreach within the communities served by the clinic, developing connections with partner organizations that help further the mandate of Heart & Hands to bring health services to children and families of Verdun and Lachine.
It bears noting that Karen and David worked together professionally in the past at Children’s World Academy, where Karen ran the largest daycare in the school board, and where David was the principal. They are delighted to be able to work together again, bringing their skills to help with the provision of health care services to underserved communities.
Karen Heather
Karen has worked for Heart & Hands since the opening of our second clinic in Lachine at Lakeside Academy in the fall of 2024.
Her position in our organization is as Heart & Hand’s Assistant Manager and Administrative Assistant, and her outstanding organizational and interpersonal skills make her superbly suited for this role. Karen has a background in the health sector, having worked for many years as a pediatric nurse in the neonatal intensive care unit at the Montreal Children’s Hospital. Later in her professional life, she spent a number of years running school-based daycare programs in several different schools of the Lester B Pearson School Board. The mandate of Heart and Hands is to provide health care services in educational settings and Karen’s professional experience at the MCH as well as in elementary schools is ideally suited to the goals of this important work. We are incredibly lucky to have her as part of the H&H team.
For more information, please contact us at (514) 620-9270 or info@lakeshorekiwanis.ca