Florida Blue Foundation awards $3.33 million to nine Florida nonprofits for mental health programs
The grants, announced Oct. 27, reach 21 counties. Several train peer specialists and new clinicians or ease burnout among therapists; others bring care into homeless shelters and to foster youth and rural veterans.
Jacksonville. Florida Blue Foundation, the philanthropic affiliate of the health insurer Florida Blue, is awarding $3.33 million in grants to nine nonprofit organizations for mental health programs across Florida, it announced on Oct. 27 in Jacksonville. The grantees serve communities in 21 counties, from Okaloosa and Walton in the Panhandle to Broward in the south.
The foundation said the programs address shortages in the mental health workforce, serve people experiencing homelessness, foster youth and veterans, and train peer specialists and recovery professionals. It did not give the amount of each grant.
Training the people who give care
Five of the nine grants go to the people who give care. Bridgeway Center in Okaloosa and Walton counties runs an internship and clinical training program for graduate students and early career professionals. NAMI Jacksonville trains and mentors Certified Recovery Peer Specialists, people who draw on their own recovery, in a service area of ten counties. The Center for Children's Rights trains young adults with lived experience as peer specialists for schools, health settings and the juvenile justice system in Clay, Duval and Nassau counties. Roundtable of St. Lucie County will train educators, health workers, faith leaders and others in trauma informed care.
The fifth, United Cerebral Palsy of Central Florida, will use its grant for a wellness program for its therapy staff, who work with children with developmental disabilities in Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties, with recognition, wellness meetings and therapy dog visits meant to curb burnout and keep staff.
Care where people are
Broward Partnership for the Homeless provides mental health and psychiatric care inside its shelters in Fort Lauderdale and Pompano Beach, for about 400 adults and seniors. RISE Community Solutions connects young people and their families in Osceola County with Family Support Navigators, caregivers with lived experience trained as recovery specialists. Heart Gallery of Tampa pairs foster youth with permanent families and offers trauma informed mental health support. Vincentian CARES finds and supports veterans at risk in six rural counties: DeSoto, Glades, Hardee, Hendry, Highlands and Okeechobee.
“Mental health touches every community, and everyone deserves access to support when they need it.”
Florida Blue Foundation is the trade name of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida Foundation, founded in 2001. Its grant areas are food security, mental well-being, healthy communities and health disparities.
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