provided by ADVENTHEALTH
During this holiday season, AdventHealth surprised two local nonprofit organizations, New Image Youth Center (NIYC) and IDignity, with a special gift of $1 million each.
NIYC is an after-school and summer program providing mental health services to youth in Parramore, and working to create a safe space for children to learn and grow.
IDignity collaborates with government agencies, churches, businesses and the community to assist the disadvantaged through the complex process of obtaining legal identification.
“Community partners such as New Image and IDignity are vital to our mission of bringing wholeness not only to the patients in our hospitals, but into our communities,” said Meghan Curren, community engagement director for AdventHealth’s Central Florida Division. “Access to mental health care for kids is a huge need in Central Florida. And we have learned that not having official identification is a huge barrier to accessing a whole range of services necessary to health and wellbeing. We’re thrilled to gift New Image Youth Center and IDignity with resources that help them further extend their missions.”
AdventHealth was aided in the surprise by none other than Santa Claus, who also delivered toys for the kids at NIYC and wallets for IDignity’s clients.
“When they made the announcement, we even had younger children who began to cry because it’s a miracle,” said Shanta Barton-Stubbs, executive director of NIYC and a licensed therapist specializing in play therapy.
AdventHealth’s $1 million gift will help NIYC to build their new permanent home in Parramore.
“We are only here because amazing people believe in the mission,” Barton-Stubbs said. “And so for our kids to see the faces of some of those people who believe in the mission, it proves that they are not forgotten about.”
For IDignity, AdventHealth’s $1 million gift will help fund the organization’s first operational headquarters in downtown Orlando.
“We’ve been around 15 years in this community and now we’ll be able to be around for the next 100 at least, continuing to be a great resource of helping people access proof of their identity,” said Michael Dippy, executive director of IDignity. “AdventHealth, ever since we started, has wrapped their arms around IDignity and helped us dream about, if money is no issue, what can IDignity do.”
