Orlando Health Awards 2024 Community Grants

Orlando, FL (Dec. 19, 2023) – Orlando Health has awarded grants to 18 local organizations through its community grant program. As part of Orlando Health’s ongoing commitment to be engaged and involved in Central Florida, the organization offers competitive grants to assist in coordinating, enriching and supporting efforts that help promote health and wellness in the community.

The program focuses mostly on funding initiatives that align with the Community Health Needs Assessment, specifically those that enhance access to care. Applicants submit a letter of intent, and if selected, are invited to present a full proposal. For the 2024 cycle, Orlando Health awarded nearly $600,000 total. Orlando Health team members at The Howard Phillips Center for Children and Families and Readmission Advocates Collaborating in Healthcare (REACH) also received grants for projects that extend care beyond the hospital walls.

“It is our honor and privilege each year to award grants to organizations who are making strides in Central Florida when it comes to health and wellness,” said Lainie Fox Ackerman, assistant vice president, Orlando Health External Affairs and Community Benefit. “Investing in these incredible partners is another step forward in building a healthier Central Florida.”

The 2024 recipients are as follows:

• Camaraderie Foundation
• Central Florida Community Arts
• Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida
• Find, Feed & Restore
• Foundation for Orange County Public Schools
• Hearts, Hands and Hope
• Hope CommUnity Center
• Hope Partnership
• The Howard Phillips Center for Children and Families
• IMPOWER
• Libby’s Legacy Breast Cancer Foundation
• Orange Blossom Family Health
• Osceola Community Health Services
• Quest
• Readmission Advocates Collaborating in Healthcare (REACH)
• Servant's Heart International Ministry
• United Way of Lake and Sumter Counties
• United Against Poverty Orlando
• Winter Park Day Nursery
• Zebra Youth

Recipients were honored at a ceremony at Exploria Stadium, home of Orlando City Soccer Club and Orlando Pride, where Orlando Health serves as the official medical team. As part of the celebration, Orlando Health officially presented recipients with their checks and told impactful stories about each organization. Central Florida Community Arts, one of the grant recipients, also performed a series of holidays songs for attendees.

About Orlando Health

Orlando Health, headquartered in Orlando, Florida, is a not-for-profit healthcare organization with $9.6 billion of assets under management that serves the southeastern United States and Puerto Rico.

Founded more than 100 years ago, the healthcare system is recognized around the world for Central Florida’s only pediatric and adult Level I Trauma program as well as the only state-accredited Level II Adult Trauma Center in Pinellas County. It is the home of one of the nation’s largest neonatal intensive care units, one of the only systems in the southeast to offer open fetal surgery to repair the most severe forms of spina bifida, the site of an Olympic athlete training facility and operator of one of the largest and highest performing clinically integrated networks in the region. Orlando Health has pioneered life-changing medical research and its Graduate Medical Education program hosts more than 350 residents and fellows.

The 3,429-bed system includes 29 hospitals and emergency departments – 25 of which are currently operational with four coming soon. The system also includes nine specialty institutes, skilled nursing facilities, an in-patient behavioral health facility under the management of Acadia Healthcare, and more than 375 outpatient facilities that include physician clinics, imaging and laboratory services, wound care centers, home healthcare services in partnership with LHC Group, and urgent care centers in partnership with FastMed Urgent Care. More than 4,750 physicians, representing more than 100 medical specialties and subspecialties have privileges across the Orlando Health system, which employs more than 27,000 team members and more than 1,500 physicians.

In FY 23, Orlando Health cared for 197,000 inpatients and 6.6 million outpatients.  The healthcare system provided nearly $1.3 billion in total impact to the communities it serves in the form of community benefit programs and services, Medicare shortfalls, bad debt, community-building activities and capital investments in FY 22, the most recent period for which this information is available.

Additional information can be found at http://www.orlandohealth.com, or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @orlandohealth.