The Florida KidCare Local Coalitions were created to build lasting capacity within their communities to increase enrollment in Florida KidCare and keep children in the program during the renewal process. There are 19 target areas for local coalitions throughout the state that capitalize on their strengths and capabilities of cooperative partnerships to reduce the uninsured children rate within their communities. The central focus of each coalition is to ensure that agencies, organizations, schools, businesses, faith-based organizations and any other community-oriented entity work collaboratively to conduct Florida KidCare outreach and to provide families and advocates a community-based network for providing families with application assistance and retention support for the state’s Medicaid and CHIP program, Florida KidCare.

The primary goals for the Florida KidCare local coalitions are to:

1. Build lasting capacity in communities to continue progress toward the initiative’s objectives
2. Address complex health care issues which cannot be solved by an individual or sole organization
3. Establish partnership models which can achieve larger impacts than individual organizations
4. Collaborate extensively with the local offices of Agency for Healthcare Administration, Florida Healthy Kids Corporation, Department of Children and Families, Department of Health, and Department of Health’s Children Medical Services’ Managed Care Plan

Capacity Training

Florida Covering Kids & Families provides the local coalitions with an opportunity to enhance their community impact through the Florida KidCare Local Coalitions Capacity Building Training. Coalitions in ever-changing environments, like that of Florida KidCare, need to be adaptable in order to be effective and sustainable. This training allows participants in existing local Florida KidCare Coalitions to develop skills, increase knowledge and build adaptive capacity. Adaptive capacity is a coalition’s ability to monitor, assess, and respond to internal and external changes. Each coalition selected to participate in a capacity training are awarded a small stipend to offset the costs for hosting the day and a half long training. This opportunity allows for the coalition to receive direct technical assistance in expanding the capacity, as well as, community partnerships in the coalition, thereby improving their ability to serve uninsured children in their counties. The training concludes with a planning session to assist the coalitions with organizing a local business roundtable. Each coalition selected for this training is expected to conduct a business roundtable to engage at least five new business partnership commitments.

To view a list of current Local Coalitions, click here.