COMMUNITY NEED

Heart of Florida United Way is committed to better understanding and responding to community needs. We accomplish this by convening and listening to Central Florida leaders, including elected officials, partner agency leaders, the clients we serve, and more.

Analyzing Central Florida’s Mental Wellness Through an Orange County Mental and Behavioral Health Report

For example, this year we worked with Orange County Government to launch a research report that examined the mental and behavioral health system of care in Orange County. We worked with Dr. Lauren Josephs of Visionary Vanguard Group to conduct a comprehensive analysis with more than 200 community stakeholders who work in, contribute to and utilize the mental and behavioral health system in Orange County.

Primary concerns ranged from lack of knowledge about mental health insurance benefits to language barriers to increased demand that exceeds the system’s capacity — to name a few.

We are now using this information to develop programming and campaigns that will better support mental health within our community.

Evaluating the Real Cost of Living in Central Florida

Additionally, as part of our State of Our Families event, we researched what it actually costs to live in Central Florida. We found that it costs approximately $35,424 for a single adult and $93,228 for a family of four to survive in Central Florida.

ALICE households are some of the most susceptible to increasing costs of living. ALICE®, an acronym for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed, represents the growing number of individuals and families who are technically above the federal poverty line, but struggle to make ends meet. These families are working, but are unable to afford the basic necessities of housing, child care, food, transportation, health care, and technology. That means that even if a family of four is earning $93,000, there is still no room for savings.

In response, Heart of Florida United Way has worked with local media to educate our community about this reality, as well as continue to develop and support programs that help our neighbors in need.