Funds will advance stability and provide critical resources for children in kinship and foster care across North Carolina

UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of North Carolina has announced $275,000 in grant funding to three local organizations supporting children in kinship and foster care across the state.

“Caring for the most vulnerable members of our community starts with meeting their most basic needs, and we are dedicated to supporting the children of North Carolina who face elevated challenges each day,” said Anita Bachmann, CEO, UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of North Carolina. “We’re honored to collaborate with these nonprofits in their efforts to keep kids healthy and in caring homes.”

Grant funds will help Methodist Home for Children, Boys & Girls Home of North Carolina, and Foster Family Alliance of North Carolina to expand or introduce new offerings for foster families as well as kinship families, defined as a family friend or relative who has assumed the role of primary caregiver for a child. Grants include:

• $125,000 to Methodist Home for Children to enhance programs that stabilize placements with families for children with dual diagnoses.
• $75,000 to Boys & Girls Home of North Carolina to increase preventive and aftercare services for families and support kinship placements.
• $75,000 to Foster Family Alliance of North Carolina to increase support groups, kinship navigation and resources for kinship families.

“Kinship families deserve to be supported in their child welfare journey, just as foster parents are,” said Gaile Osborne, executive director, Foster Family Alliance. “Collaboration with UnitedHealthcare has allowed our organization to increase capacity across the state to help kinship families navigate physical and mental health services.”

The support from UnitedHealthcare will further each organization’s efforts to foster stability and permanency for children, increase access to care and build healthier communities across North Carolina.

“UnitedHealthcare’s generous grant will provide much needed support to our ongoing efforts to stabilize struggling families in North Carolina,” said Marc Murphy, CEO, Boys & Girls Home. “Children in foster care often come to us having experienced trauma and behind their peers in so many key developmental areas. This collaboration will enable our staff to expand services to improve health outcomes for more children and families in our area.”

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children in foster care face increased barriers to health care, and 1 in 3 children enter foster care with a chronic medical condition. Additionally, 60% of children in foster care under 5 years old have developmental health issues, and more than 40% of school-age children face educational challenges.

“At Methodist Home for Children, we believe every child deserves a chance – and that includes the historically underserved population of children dually diagnosed with a developmental disability and mental health disorder,” said Bruce Stanley, CEO and president, Methodist Home for Children. “The generous support of UnitedHealthcare builds our capacity to equip dually diagnosed children to successfully re-integrate to their homes and school communities – and to live their lives as productively and independently as possible.”

UnitedHealthcare serves more than 1.7 million members enrolled in Medicaid, employer-sponsored, individual and Medicare and retirement plans in North Carolina, with a network of 141 hospitals, and over 60,000 physicians and other care providers statewide.

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 1.5 million physicians and care professionals, and 7,000 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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