Shaping Our Appalachian Region, Inc. (SOAR), has announced UnitedHealthcare has joined its East Kentucky partnership network. 

As a partner, UnitedHealthcare will sponsor an Innovation Ecosystem Workshop at the 2019 SOAR Summit; an onboarding retreat for the SOAR Innovation Team; the creation of LaunchPad services through Salesforce for SOAR Innovation staff; and other professional-development opportunities. In addition, UnitedHealthcare donated $35,000 to support additional SOAR initiatives and programs.

SOAR, formed in 2013, is a nonpartisan economic development agency with a mission to expand job creation; enhance regional opportunity, innovation and identity; improve the quality of life; and support area stakeholders working to achieve these goals in Eastern Kentucky. UnitedHealthcare’s partnership will help enable SOAR to continue to build capacity aligned with its Regional Blueprint, specifically in the area of innovation-driven small businesses, startups, and entrepreneurs.

Earlier this year, SOAR launched SOAR Innovation, a collaboration with the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development’s KY Innovation office, to provide services to entrepreneurs and existing small businesses that are innovation-driven or have the capacity to implement innovative practices such as e-commerce and exporting.

“UnitedHealthcare is grateful for the opportunity to support SOAR’s efforts to foster innovation, entrepreneurship and the shared goal of improved economic growth in Eastern Kentucky,” said Keith Mason, UnitedHealthcare director of advocacy and engagement

“We are pleased to have UnitedHealthcare join our partnership network,” said Jared Arnett, executive director of SOAR. “UnitedHealthcare is joining a network of more than 200 businesses, organizations and individuals invested in our Regional Blueprint, and the collaborative and transformative work taking place across Appalachia Kentucky.”

SOAR’s Regional Blueprint has seven goals:

• Broadband | Increase the availability of affordable, high-speed broadband, through fiber, to businesses and residents; and increase adoption rates throughout the SOAR region.

• Workforce | Develop our regional workforce to be competitive in the digital economy and emerging industries.

• Small Business | Create more and expand existing small businesses within the region by taking full advantage of the digital economy.

• Healthy Communities | Reduce the physical and economic impact of obesity, diabetes and substance abuse.

• Industrial Recruitment | Increase the amount of industrial employment, which includes manufacturing, natural resources, processing and distribution by expanding existing companies and attracting new ones.

• Local Foods | Create a local foods movement by connecting local producers to markets for their product both within and outside the region.

• Tourism | Establish Kentucky’s Appalachian region as a tourism destination.

For more information about SOAR, visit www.thereisafuture.org.  For more information on SOAR’s Partnership Program, contact Joshua Ball, associate executive director, at (606) 766-1160 or by email at joshua@soar-ky.org. 

About UnitedHealthcare

UnitedHealthcare is dedicated to helping people live healthier lives and making the health system work better for everyone by simplifying the health care experience, meeting consumer health and wellness needs, and sustaining trusted relationships with care providers. In the United States, UnitedHealthcare offers the full spectrum of health benefit programs for individuals, employers, and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and contracts directly with more than 1.2 million physicians and care professionals, and 6,500 hospitals and other care facilities nationwide. The company also provides health benefits and delivers care to people through owned and operated health care facilities in South America. UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified health care company. For more information, visit UnitedHealthcare at www.uhc.com/or follow @UHC on Twitter.