Miami Heat Donates $1 Million to Address Healthcare in South Florida Minority Communities

The NBA’s Miami Heat is partnering with Direct Relief to address healthcare concerns among South Florida’s minority communities.

Direct Relief is a humanitarian aid organization that helps improve the health and lives of people affected by poverty or emergencies, regardless of their political views, religion, or ability to pay. The Miami Heat, along with the Micky & Madeleine Arison Family Foundation, made a $1 million donation to Direct Relief’s Health Equity Fund. This will give the organization the chance to work toward health equity by ensuring health centers and free and charitable clinics have access to necessary medicines and funding.

“With this donation to Direct Relief, we hope to not only highlight the inequities that exist in healthcare in South Florida’s minority communities but to begin to close the gap,” said Eric Woolworth, president of The Heat Group’s Business Operations, in a written statement. “And, thanks to our partnership with World Central Kitchen, we will provide meals from local, minority-owned restaurants for the frontline healthcare workers, allowing us to express our appreciation for their exhaustive work, especially during the pandemic.”

“Direct Relief has the privilege of working closely with the network of deeply committed non-profit healthcare providers—health centers and free and charitable clinics and their teams—that employ the tenets of meaningful healthcare, care that is high-quality, accessible, affordable, and culturally appropriate,” said Thomas Tighe, Direct Relief president and CEO.

“Located in medically underserved areas, these providers are anchors in their communities, and often provide health education, child and after-school care, rental assistance programs, mobile healthcare, access to healthy food programs, and other critical social services that are responsive to societal factors that play a role in patient health. Community Health of South Florida Inc. (CHI) is a shining example of one of these critical community health centers.”

“CHI is honored to receive donations, lunch, and this festive visit from Direct Relief and the Miami Heat,” said Brodes H. Hartley Jr., CHI CEO. “I know our staff will be delighted with the gifts and recognition. They have selflessly devoted themselves to patient care throughout this pandemic.”