WellCare Health Plans : Harmony Health Plan Sponsors Greater Works Foundation Community Festival

CHICAGO and TAMPA, Fla., June 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Harmony Health Plan, Inc., a subsidiary of WellCare Health Plans, Inc. (NYSE: WCG), is joining Greater Works Foundation and others for the first Community Festival, an all-day event featuring community resources for youth jobs, health screenings, and celebrity and youth basketball tournaments.

The festival will take place June 25, from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m., at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) Gymnasium, 3040 S. Wabash Ave., Chicago, Illinois. It will have activities for all ages including the first annual Harmony Road Runner AAU Basketball Tournament, a celebrity basketball game, a pastors versus musicians basketball game and the Double-Dutch Movement Celebrity Jump Off. Music and entertainment will be provided throughout the day.

Among 20 to 24-year-olds, nearly 60 percent of African Americans, 37 percent of Hispanic or Latinos and 26 percent of Caucasians were out of work in Chicago in 2014, according to a University of Illinois at Chicago study. The numbers were even higher for 16 to 19-year-olds. The jobless rate for African-American 16 to 19-year-olds was 88 percent and 85 percent, respectively, for Hispanic or Latino youth.

To help address this, the Community Festival will provide several opportunities for youth and young adults to interview for employment, sign up for job training and learn about other resources through Great Works Foundation's and Wades World Foundation's 'Live to Dream' program. 'Live to Dream' provides opportunities for Chicago youth to gain skills and life-long careers by partnering with employers, trade schools and unions. In addition, Harmony and other vendors will provide health education, screenings and other community resources that can help festival attendees live healthier, better lives.

'The Greater Works Foundation is honored to partner with Harmony Health Plan on this inaugural community event,' said Donny Donnel Jones, its founder. 'Our sole purpose is to change the direction and lives of our youth and generations to come through educating and empowering them through trade school. We hope this event grows each year and becomes 'the' source of summer jobs for your youth.'

'By helping people to address social service needs, three positive outcomes are more likely to occur: people will lead better, healthier lives; there will be greater support for the social safety net, and the overall costs of health care will be reduced,' said Dr. Robert L. Hilliard, Jr., state president, Harmony Health Plan. 'Harmony recognizes the importance of supporting groups like Greater Works to help make results like these a reality.'

'Healthy outcomes cannot be achieved by just meeting medical needs,' said Miguel Torres, Harmony Health Plan's senior director of sales and marketing. 'By reaching out to groups like the Greater Works Foundation, Harmony can help strengthen our member's communities.'

As of March 31, 2016, WellCare and Harmony Health Plan serve approximately
207,000 members in Illinois, including 164,000 Medicaid members, 15,000 Medicare Advantage plan members and 28,000 Medicare Prescription Drug Plan members.

About WellCare Health Plans, Inc.
Headquartered in Tampa, Fla., WellCare Health Plans, Inc. (NYSE: WCG) focuses exclusively on providing government-sponsored managed care services, primarily through Medicaid, Medicare Advantage and Medicare Prescription Drug Plans, to families, children, seniors and individuals with complex medical needs. WellCare serves approximately 3.7 million members nationwide as of March 31, 2016. For more information about WellCare, please visit the company's website at www.wellcare.com or view the company's videos at https://www.youtube.com/user/WellCareHealthPlan.

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SOURCE WellCare Health Plans, Inc.