UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Florida donated $125,000 to support Latino Leadership's programs that help families affected by Hurricane Maria relocate from Puerto Rico to Central Florida.
Just days after the hurricane, Latino Leadership and the Florida State Hispanic Chamber of Commerce established the Puerto Rico Family Response Center to provide emergency relief and referrals for housing, employment, schools and health care.
"UnitedHealthcare is partnering with Latino Leadership to address a significant challenge in our state – ensuring that families from Puerto Rico have access to the resources they need to lead a healthy and productive life," said Michael Lawton, CEO of UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Florida. "We are grateful for the opportunity to support Latino Leadership's compassionate and hands-on approach to helping Puerto Rican families get a new start."
Many of the Puerto Rican families who arrived in Florida after the storm relocated to Orange, Osceola and other Central Florida counties. Latino Leadership recently expanded the Puerto Rico Family Response Center into a permanent one-stop resource centrally located in Orlando to serve the Hispanic community.
"Since the first few weeks after Hurricane Maria, as people arrived with little more than their suitcases, we worked to fill the great need for shelter, medicine, food and clothing," said Marytza Sanz, president and CEO of Latino Leadership, which has helped more than 9,000 families transition to Florida. "As their needs have changed, with the support and welcoming spirit of partners like UnitedHealthcare, we can help more families fully rebuild their lives in Central Florida, their new home."
Latino Leadership and UnitedHealthcare sponsored Vive el Verano Latino | Live the Latin Summer family day to announce their partnership and welcome families who are experiencing their first summer in Orlando. More than 400 people attended the event that offered health checks, children's haircuts, new clothes and family fitness activities, and community organizations that provided information about local resources to help families get acclimated to their new home.
About Latino Leadership, Inc.
Latino Leadership, Inc. (L2) is Central Florida's most established grassroots organization committed to fostering the integration of the Hispanic community into mainstream America. The organization emerged as a voter registration project in 1999, which evolved into a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization incorporated in 2001. Latino Leadership's programs are focused into three major areas: education advancement, leadership development, and economic development. One of L2's most successful programs is Santiago & Friends | Family Center for Autism, which is the first fully bilingual, linguistically and culturally competent center in Central Florida. In 2017, after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, L2, in partnership with the Florida State Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, established the Puerto Rico Family Response Center (PRFRC) in Orlando as a humanitarian response to help alleviate the suffering of families impacted by the natural disaster. For more information, visit Latino Leadership at www.latino-leadership.org or follow @LatinoLeader on Twitter.
About UnitedHealthcare
UnitedHealthcare is dedicated to helping people live healthier lives and making the health system work better for everyone by simplifying the health care experience, meeting consumer health and wellness needs, and sustaining trusted relationships with care providers. In the United States, UnitedHealthcare offers the full spectrum of health benefit programs for individuals, employers, and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and contracts directly with more than 1.2 million physicians and care professionals, and 6,500 hospitals and other care facilities nationwide. The company also provides health benefits and delivers care to people through owned and operated health care facilities in South America. UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified health care company. For more information, visit UnitedHealthcare at www.uhc.com or follow @UHC on Twitter.
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