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With so many families in Miami-Dade County facing significant financial challenges, The Children’s Trust is proud to announce that it will partner with 9 agencies to support public benefits enrollment for children and families seeking assistance and resources. At its July 10 meeting, The Children’s Trust Board of Directors approved a total of nearly $8 million over 5 years for The Trust’s Health & Wellness: Public Benefits Enrollment Initiative, including more than $1.5 million starting this October.
Census data shows that nearly half of Miami-Dade children live in impoverished or low-income households with poverty rates even higher among single parent households. Many of these children, families and others qualify for benefits for nutrition, insurance, home energy, housing, as well as low- or no-cost after-school and summer programing and child care. However, some do not receive them due to enrollment barriers such as lack of awareness, family literacy level, language barriers, differing immigration statuses among family members, excessive paperwork, and other procedural hurdles.
The Trust’s Public Benefits Enrollment Initiative seeks to assist families with public benefits enrollment by funding organizations in the community that can help families access these critical benefits and overcome enrollment barriers.
Programs will provide one-on-one enrollment assistance and renewal/recertification to maintain eligible benefits over time. Support also includes tracking each application’s status to determine approval status. In total, services are expected to support the annual enrollment of at least 3,000 families into various public benefits programs.
The 9 public benefits enrollment partner agencies funded are listed below:
Citrus Health Network, Inc.
Community Health of South Florida, Inc.
Family Central Inc.
Family Resources Center of South Florida, Inc.
Haitian Neighborhood Center Sant La, Inc.
Jessie Trice Community Health System, Inc.
Start Off Smart, Inc.
Sundari Foundation, Inc.
Young Men’s Christian Association of Greater Miami (YMCA)
