HATTIESBURG, Miss.- The School of Social Work at University of Southern Mississippi has received a grant of $910,000 as part of the Connecting Kids to Coverage grant from The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
The grant money will go to support initiatives needed to enroll eligible children who don’t have health coverage. The school is one of 38 recipients nationwide.
“A team of outreach and enrollment specialists will be created to provide enrollment services, education, and enrollment training,” said Laura Richard, assistant professor of social work and project director. “Specialists will both recruit and train agency personnel who will help individuals enroll and bring services to community agencies.”
The grant will help to replicate the work already being done at the Southern Miss School of Social work, with hopes that it spills over into the city of Hattiesburg’s Educate, Enroll, and Empower (E3) Health Initiative. That initiative is a year-round Medicaid and CHIP enrollment and re-certification project.
The School of Social Work team will focus on uninsured children and families in State Public Health District 8. That includes Covington, Forrest, Greene, Jefferson Davis, Jones, Lamar, Marion, Perry and Wayne Counties.
For more information about the School of Social Work in the Southern Miss College of Health visit www.usm.edu/socialwork.
