UnitedHealthcare and Chicanos Por La Causa Open myCommunity Connect Center in Maryvale to Broaden Access to Social Services for Low-Income Residents

From UnitedHealth Group:

UnitedHealthcare and Chicanos Por La Causa Open myCommunity Connect Center in Maryvale to Broaden Access to Social Services for Low-Income Residents

• The myCommunity Connect Center is part of UnitedHealthcare’s new myConnections™ pilot program to create innovative social service and community programs that enable individuals and families to improve their well-being and independence

PHOENIX (Feb. 18, 2016) — 

UnitedHealthcare and Chicanos Por La Causa, Inc. (CPLC), have opened a community center in the Maryvale neighborhood of Phoenix that will broaden access to social services for low-income residents.

The myCommunity Connect™ Center, located in the Maryvale Community Service Center, is part of the myConnections™ pilot program, which UnitedHealthcare developed to provide low-income individuals and families with access to essential social, medical and behavioral services that can have a significant impact on their health and quality of life.

The greatest barriers to better health for many people enrolled in Medicaid are not clinical issues, but rather social or financial barriers, such as lacking access to safe and affordable housing or having no way to travel to a job or needed services. myConnections integrates, organizes and distributes support services for consumers and provides people with greater access to safe housing, transportation, education and job training, which are essential to good health.

“We launched the myConnections pilot program to offer a comprehensive community-based service model to integrate, organize and distribute support services associated with improving people’s lives while driving savings across the health system,” said Austin Pittman, CEO of UnitedHealthcare Community & State. “We are honored to work with trusted community-based organizations such as CPLC to support healthy communities. Our partners have been instrumental in helping us open the doors to this Community Center, and we are grateful for the opportunity to help people get on the path to better health.”

A celebration marking the opening was held earlier today at the myCommunity Connect Center. Attendees included: Congressman Ruben Gallego; State Representatives Rebecca Rios, Ceci Velasquez, and Reginald Bolding Jr.; Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton, Vice Mayor Daniel Valenzuela and Councilman Michael Nowakowski; Peoria City Councilmember Bridget Binsbacher; David Adame, President & CEO, Chicanos Por La Causa; and Austin Pittman, CEO, UnitedHealthcare Community & State.

“We are honored to be partnering with UnitedHealthcare to continue to build on our mission of helping Phoenix residents become economically empowered as they pursue their educational and life goals,” said Adame. “We look forward to collaborating with UnitedHealthcare as we pursue our combined goal of promoting healthier living within our communities.”

The myCommunity Connect Center will offer comprehensive services for all aspects of the myConnections pilot program including mobile food markets and women, infant and children (WIC) services, as well as medical, behavioral and dental services. The six components of myConnections include:

• myCommunity Connect™ – Facilitates access to social services.
• UnitedHealthcare myWork Connect – Helps unemployed adults achieve the skills needed to obtain living-wage jobs.
• myHousing Connect™ – Connects low-income individuals with appropriate housing to reduce health care costs, improve outcomes
• UnitedHealthcare myData Connection™ – Improves communications and information-sharing across social service providers to enable whole-person health.
• UnitedHealthcare myMoney Connect™ – Creates more efficient, cost-effective access to money, integrated with a wellness rewards program.
• UnitedHealthcare myRide – Improves access to nonemergency medical transportation service.

Consumers, including Medicaid beneficiaries, will be able to access these services at the Center with the help of community partners who will have staff at the location.

Through the myCommunity Connect Center, the myConnections program has already: 

• created an alliance with Chicanos Por La Causa and other critical agencies;
• provided access to $20 million in capital to help Chicanos Por La Causa create an affordable, multifamily housing complex and deliver support services to residents;
• created a partnership with Dress for Success, an organization that is focused on providing women with appropriate clothing to assist them on their journey to become job ready, and with St. Joseph’s the Worker, an organization that supports individuals by helping to reduce or eliminate any barriers to employment;
• provided referral services to more than 400 consumers and over 700 social services;
• provided over 2,800 meals in more than 700 diabetic food pantry pickups;
• provided jobs for more than 250 consumers and more than 200 bus passes to facilitate transportation to work;
• helped more than 200 people with housing support services;
• improved access through relationships with WIC services, which expect 44,000 visits to the center this year, serving over 5,000 women, infants and children;
• developed the first-of-its-kind collaboration with St. Mary’s Food Bank, Chef Green and local growers, with learnings to be analyzed by Arizona State University/Georgia Tech;
• tested alternative transportation methods with the food pantry and with over 60 home deliveries;
• launched UnitedHealthcare myMoney Connect to UnitedHealthcare Community Plan members; and
• developed a new system that added 50 social service providers, many of which will have multiple locations.

These community service platforms promote health, well-being and independence by improving access to essential community and social-support resources.

UnitedHealthcare is part of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), which has more than 6,800 employees in Arizona and serves more than 1.8 million Arizonans through UnitedHealthcare employer-sponsored, Medicare, TRICARE, health exchange and Medicaid health benefit plans.

About Chicanos Por La Causa
Chicanos Por La Causa, Inc. (CPLC) is a community development corporation (CDC) that provides services in Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico. Since 1969, CPLC has been changing lives by developing self-sufficiency and instilling empowerment in those we serve. Our focus areas are economic development, education, housing, and social services. CPLC provides a better life through offering business and employment opportunities; ensuring everyone has the solid foundation of an education; providing hope through a pathway of recovery, restoration, and resiliency; and ensuring that a safe, secure, affordable home is available to every individual we serve. Today, we have 48 programs & services, 700 employees, and 60 offices, making CPLC the third-largest Hispanic non-profit in the nation and the largest non-profit CDC in Arizona. For more information, visitwww.CPLC.org.

About UnitedHealthcare
UnitedHealthcare is dedicated to helping people nationwide live healthier lives by simplifying the health care experience, meeting consumer health and wellness needs, and sustaining trusted relationships with care providers. The company offers the full spectrum of health benefit programs for individuals, employers, military service members, retirees and their families, and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and contracts directly with more than 1 million physicians and care professionals, and 6,000 hospitals and other care facilities nationwide. UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified Fortune 50 health and well-being company. For more information, visit UnitedHealthcare at www.uhc.com or follow @myUHC on Twitter.

  Tags: UnitedHealthcare, Press Release, Announcements, Social Responsibility