UnitedHealthcare Awards $675,000 in Grants to Help Kansans with Disabilities Find Meaningful Employment

UnitedHealthcare awarded more than $675,000 in grants to community organizations that help Kansans living with disabilities find meaningful employment.

Pictured Left to Right: Val Renault, Communications Coordinator, Skills to Succeed (Olathe, Kansas); Sheila Simmons, Program Coordinator, Assistive Technology for Kansans; Rocky Nichols, Martha Hodgesmith, Rosie Cooper and Stephanie Breaker with Skills to Succeed; Jesssica Thompson, Griffin Hammis with Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities; Sara Sack, Assistive Technology for Kansans; Tim Spilker, CEO of UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Kansas (Overland Park, Kansas); Kim Perry and Jo Duncan with Johnson County Developmental Supports (Olathe, Kansas); David Hanson, Johnson County Mental Health Center (Shawnee, Kansas); Matt Angell, Kristina Fouquet, Meriah Brown with the Mental Health Association of South Central Kansas. Source: UnitedHealthcare

The grants are part of UnitedHealthcare’s Empower Kansans program, a three-year, $1.5 million initiative that, in addition to helping Kansans with disabilities find jobs, brings together people living with disabilities, and local and regional community and business leaders, to support Kansas businesses and the economy.

The grants awarded today represent the third and final round of awards. The recipients include:

• Johnson County Developmental Supports (Olathe) – for developing a national internship model for people with disabilities in partnership with Johnson County;
• Johnson County Mental Health Center (Olathe) – to help people overcome barriers to employment such as needed car repairs, bus passes, tuition and employment-interview attire;
• Assistive Technology for Kansans (Parsons, Wichita, Topeka, Salina, Oakley) – providing materials and training for people living with disabilities;
• Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities (Parsons, Lawrence) – to develop and demonstrate the impact of combining career development models with employer engagement and alternative funding techniques for people with disabilities seeking employment;
• Mental Health Association of South Central Kansas (Wichita) – for implementing the Thinking Skills for Work program, which is designed to improve employment outcomes for people living with mental illness;
• Skills to Succeed (Olathe) – to create a job development & placement model for people with autism in Johnson, Wyandotte and Miami counties.

Grantees were chosen in consultation with the Empower Kansans Advisory Committee composed of Kansans living with disabilities, advocacy organizations, and local and regional community and business leaders. In 2013 and 2014, UnitedHealthcare awarded more than $700,000 in grants to 12 Kansas organizations.

“The power of community and the commitment to helping people integrate into daily life have been remarkable,” said Timothy M. Spilker, president of UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Kansas. “We are grateful for the opportunity to work with community and business leaders statewide in helping people identify skills, passions and talents that support their overall wellness as healthy individuals and contributors to society. Empower Kansans is making a positive impact on people’s lives, our state and our economy.”

UnitedHealthcare is part of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH), which has more than 2,000 employees in Kansas and currently serves more than 500,000 Kansans through UnitedHealthcare Medicaid, employer-sponsored and Medicare health benefit plans.

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 850,000 physicians and care professionals, and 6,000 hospitals and other care facilities nationwide. Globally, UnitedHealthcare serves 45 million people in health benefits and 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.

Click here to subscribe to Mobile Alerts for UnitedHealth Group.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/multimedia/home/20150410005987/en/