The SmileFaith Foundation is proud to introduce our partner, Healthcare National Marketing (HCNM), to the Central Appalachian Mountains of Southeastern Kentucky. HCNM was founded in Port Richey, Florida, as a call center environment enrolling citizens across the country into much needed health and dental care plans.
Almost a year ago, the SmileFaith Foundation began investigating ways to further impact the economically depressed area of Southeastern Kentucky, as treating the dental and medical needs of the impoverished seemed only to scratch the surface of the deep rooted needs of the people living here. SmileFaith, working together with HCNM, began exploring the possibility of bringing much needed jobs and hope for a future to an area devastated by the declining coal industry.
HCNM began working with local agencies in January of 2015, to discover ways to bring the success they had experienced in Florida to Kentucky. In February, SmileFaith purchased a building in Jenkins, leased the office space to HCNM, and in September, HCNM had their grand opening! Creating 50, fulltime jobs in Jenkins, Kentucky, with a plan of adding 50 more part-time jobs in six months was the goal in the beginning. The success of this location, however, has been phenomenal, and the part-time jobs were added in just six weeks! HCNM is now employing 100 people in Jenkins, Kentucky! That is 100 people working in the Promise Zone!
This partnership has gone much further in bringing hope to the hopeless. Known as the second chance employer in Florida by hiring people that have committed a felony, are recovering from addiction, or recently left rehabilitation, HCNM has instituted the same practices in Jenkins. People who could not get a job at a fast food restaurant are now working a fulltime job making $11.00 an hour, and they are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel of despair. One employee recovering from addiction travels an hour one way from Hazard, a city with a substantially larger economy than Jenkins, because she was unable to find anyone there to give her the second chance she so desperately needed to provide for her family. Today she has a job in Jenkins and hope for a bright future for her and her family!
In expectation of bringing more jobs and more hope to the Promise Zone of Southeastern Kentucky, this story needs to be shouted from the mountain tops! Businesses need to be encouraged to come to the mountains and experience the same success HCNM has found by hiring the hard working citizens living here. The people here love these mountains and do not want to uproot their families from their homes in order to find jobs. Having an opportunity to provide for their families while living in the part of the country they call home is possible if businesses, political leaders, and government agencies work together and are made aware of the possibilities found among the stunning mountains of Southeastern Kentucky and the beautiful, talented, and resilient people living here.
The link below accesses a very well done news article produced by Lauren Osborne of WYMT detailing what HCNM is doing in Jenkins, KY.
