Florida governor praises Hope Florida program participants

(The Center Square) — Gov. Ron DeSantis and first lady Casey DeSantis held a news conference Monday to recognize 13 top-performing Hope Florida CarePortal Churches.

Hope Florida's mission is to create pathways to prosperity for communities and individuals, to help them become more economically self-sufficient and to instill hope. Casey DeSantis spearheaded the project, which is implemented through the Florida Department of Children and Families.

DeSantis said that the best thing the government can do is help facilitate programs within communities because solving problems from a legislative perspective is not that simple.

"Hope Florida really recognizes that and recognizes that the government has an important role, but that government is ultimately not gonna be the one to solve these problems because if they could have solved them, they'd have solved them by now," DeSantis said.

Under the leadership of the first lady, DeSantis used his government role to facilitate the support people needed, including working with the faith community and mobilizing churches. The business community was also involved in Hope Florida, nonprofit groups and individual volunteers.

"Someone goes in and they need help, and they're going into a government bureau, if you put them into this, what we've created this care portal, now all of a sudden the needs go out to all these different stakeholders," DeSantis said.

DeSantis awarded the top two churches with $50,000 each and awarded 11 top churches with $25,000 each through the Hope Florida Fund. The churches honored were: Spanish River Church, Grace Family Church, RiverLife Church, Oasis Church, Radiant Church, South Shore Community Church, Grace Bible Church of Highlands County, Idlewild Baptist Church, North River Church, Action Church, Bayside Community Church North River Campus, University Carillon United Methodist Church and Calvary Chapel of Fort Lauderdale.

None of the funds came from taxpayers.

DeSantis noted because of this, churches and other community organizations are better equipped to help people, having their services directed where they can best help and support families and individuals.

"So a church down the street may know that a mom got evicted from her apartment, needs a place to stay, has two young kids - they're gonna be there, they're gonna help, and they're gonna have a solution that's likely going to be sustainable," DeSantis said.

DeSantis said that the program has extensive support from the private sector. Companies like Walmart, Simply Health, AT&T, Tampa Electric Company and Humana have all contributed to the Hope Florida fund.

"We have nearly 5,000 nonprofits and charity organizations that are signed up as part of the Hope Florida network and that are used by our Hope Navigators," DeSantis said. "So instead of having…somebody that's just like a bureaucrat, we've now transformed that into a navigator where their role is really to navigate the person coming in through all the possibilities."