September 2026 Newsletter

Loreen Chant

CEO, Health Foundation of South Florida

Health Foundation Funds Lighthouse for the Blind Vision Program

Health Foundation of South Florida is proud to support Miami Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired’s Florida Heiken Children's Vision Program in closing vision care gaps for underserved schoolchildren! The Florida Heiken Children's Vision Program's mobile eye care units provide free, comprehensive eye exams and, when needed, prescription eyeglasses to low-income children across Florida. We've awarded Miami Lighthouse for the Blind a two-year grant to fund mobile optometric clinics that bring free, comprehensive eye exams, including dilation and prescription eyeglasses, directly to 1,851 low-income schoolchildren at 24 Title I schools across Miami-Dade and Broward counties.  This investment reflects our commitment to advancing health equity by removing the cost, language, and transportation barriers that keep vulnerable children from receiving basic eye care.

Overtown Youth Center Receives Multi-Year Investment to Establish Community Health Hub

Every neighborhood deserves a clear path to care. That's why we're making a multi-year investment to help the Overtown Youth Center (OYC) become an established hub for community health access. For more than 20 years, under CEO Tina Brown's leadership, OYC has served Overtown, Little Haiti, and Liberty City, supporting 5,500 individuals annually. This investment pairs on-site telehealth, delivered through an OnMed CareStation, with dedicated Community Health Navigators, meeting a real need in a community where 91% of OYC families earn under $51,000 annually, and Overtown faces some of Miami-Dade's highest rates of poverty and chronic disease mortality. Working alongside the University of Miami Global Health Institute, the program is projected to deliver blood pressure and diabetes screenings to 900 individuals, increase health knowledge and awareness by 75%, and connect 60% of participants to ongoing primary care.

South Florida Anchor Alliance Releases 2025 Year In Review

The South Florida Anchor Alliance (SFAA), an initiative of the Health Foundation of South Florida, is a collaborative of 20 regional institutions, including healthcare systems, education enterprises, and municipalities that joined forces in 2019 to create a more robust South Florida economy through collective local procurement and workforce development initiatives. The SFAA is a key pillar in advancing the Health Foundation’s strategy to increase economic well-being, and we remain steadfast in our commitment to furthering the collective vision set back then by all partners. Reflecting on the past year, we are proud of our collective achievements in fostering a more thriving South Florida. In 2025, the South Florida Anchor Alliance reached 381 local and small businesses and provided 300 students with scholarships for healthcare-related anchor jobs. We remain committed to accelerating connections between procurement opportunities and local, small businesses and to building a strong talent pipeline to ensure the region’s workforce is prepared to meet the evolving job demands of the anchors.

Health Foundation CEO Reflects on Drive to Achieve Equity

This May, Health Foundation CEO, Loreen Chant, received the Mosaic Miami Silver Medallion.  Amongst the highest civic honors in South Florida, Chant received the award at the 91st Annual Humanitarian Dinner. Mosaic Miami has released the remarks of all six 2026 Silver Medallion recipients, highlighting their reflections on their careers and community engagement.  Loreen shared, "What drives me is not the belief that opportunity and equity matter. It's the knowledge that they do."

Health Foundation of South Florida is a change agent, improving the well-being for all residents of South Florida, especially those most in need, through funding, expertise and advocacy.

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