June 15, 2023
Our mission at Premera is to improve our customers' lives by making healthcare work better. However, we cannot reach that goal if our communities are suffering. Individuals and families deserve to feel safe, supported, and connected to critical resources. Everyone deserves quality care that is tailored to their needs. Our priority is to invest in the communities where our members live and work by supporting care services for the people and places that need it the most.
Since its inception in 2017, the Premera Blue Cross Social Impact program has committed countless hours and millions of dollars toward understanding how to best support historically underserved communities in Washington and Alaska.
For example, just one of Premera’s many social impact program partners is the YMCA. Recently, Premera invested in supporting and growing the YMCA's group of Community Health Navigators. Their work improves health outcomes in Black and African-American communities in King County. The program is just two years old, and since its inception, the YMCA has focused on priority populations—East African communities, African-American communities, and Latinx communities—with a goal to hire more Community Health Navigators to represent more immigrant populations. An expansion of the program into south King County has been made possible in part by the grant from the Premera Social Impact program. The YMCA of Greater Seattle and Premera hope that the programs and assistance can expand to deepen health equity in Washington.
Read more, as featured in Crosscut, about all the work being done at YMCA to help our communities.