WOHD health grants announced

WEST ORANGE COUNTY  Officials representing the West Orange Healthcare District have announced four local non-profit recipients of grants to foster better health services in West Orange County.

“This is an exciting way to kick off the new year,” West Orange Healthcare District Executive Director Tracy Swanson said. “These four nonprofits are truly deserving of these grants because they are making major impacts in our community. We’re looking forward to seeing the difference they will continue to make in the lives of so many in West Orange County.”

In their announcement on Jan. 12, officials dedicated $470,043 total to The Birth Place, UCP of Central Florida, Howard Phillips Center for Children & Families and Quest Inc. All applied in fall 2015 and met the requirement of a foremost mission to enhance, give or preserve health care to local residents.

The Birth Place, at 213 S. Dillard St. in Winter Garden, received a $169,200 award. It offers safety-net maternity care to women at risk for a bad birth result, such as the impoverished, uninsured and underinsured. Via a trailblazing, evidence-based service delivery model, funding bolsters expanded access for more than 240 citizens of West Orange County to this care, as well as psychosocial and mental health counseling and educational support.

Officials awarded $148,843 to UCP of Central Florida, which has a location at 1297 Winter Garden-Vineland Road in Winter Garden. It serves youths with special health needs and developmental delays and disabilities. Funding goes toward initiatives to reduce obesity, improve nutrition and overall health, give family support for better family operation via social services and enhance communication availability by assistive technology.

Howard Phillips Center for Children & Families, a medical facility at 601 W. Michigan St. in Orlando, received $137,000 for its advocation of the needs of young people with developmental, medical and emotional challenges. This money will help a mobile health unit give integrated comprehensive medical, mental health, nutrition education and family-centered case management services to adolescents at Ocoee and West Orange high schools who are underserved or uninsured.

Quest Inc., which has offices throughout Central Florida, obtained $15,000 from West Orange Healthcare District to fund applied behavioral therapy, communication and physical therapy to children in the district. The families of children with physical or cognitive developmental delays will have a lesser burden for care insurance would not cover. Otherwise, children often would suffer significant setbacks and an end to their therapy.

The next set of grant applications will be for fall 2016. For more information, visit wohd1949.org or call (407) 296-1812.

Contact Zak Kerr at [email protected].