About American Pace

What Is American Pace?

American Pace operates community resources centers where low-income, aged, and disabled individuals can obtain information and apply for available private and governmental programs that support health, nutrition, housing, utilities, transportation, and personal communications.

The goal of American Pace is to assist individuals and families to become self-sufficient and to protect the vulnerable in their daily living. American Pace is supported financially by American Care, a healthcare company serving low-income individuals.

American Pace allows American Care to deliver the healthcare needs of its patients by addressing the social needs of those patients, consistent with a Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) model of care.

Part of the ACCESS Florida Community Network

American Pace is part of the Community Network of the ACCESS Florida Program, an arm of the Department of Children and Families (DCF). This program's goal is to "protect the vulnerable, promote strong and economically self-sufficient families, and advance personal and family recovery and resiliency."

American Pace staff helps applicants apply for public assistance from the one-stop ACCESS Florida offices that operate at each of American Care's medical centers. From these offices, which are also known as Assisted Service Sites, American Pace associates skillfully take the client from initial orientation to problem resolution, providing the practical and compassionate support the client needs along the way: food assistance, temporary cash assistance, and Medicaid.

Our associates provide informational brochures, explain the application process, provide paper applications, assist with completing and submitting applications, and help check the status of the client's case. In addition to ACCESS services, American Pace assists clients applying for the federal Low Income Subsidy program, electricity subsidy, telephone and internet subsidy programs, food pantries, and housing programs.

Programs We Help With

The Food Assistance Program helps low-income individuals and families buy the food they need.

The Temporary Cash Assistance Program provides short-term cash benefits to families with children under the age of 18 (or under 19 if full-time secondary school students), as well as pregnant women in their last trimester.

The Medicaid Assistance Program provides medical coverage to low-income individuals and families through a variety of eligibility categories.

To ensure the timely and smooth processing of each client's application, every community resources office is equipped with computers, printers, copiers, telephones, and fax machines so clients can apply online.

Corporate Citizenship

As part of our corporate citizenship, we feel privileged to be part of the solution individuals and families need to recuperate after adverse circumstances. American Pace plays a vital role in providing access to quality health care and health insurance, which is often difficult or impossible to obtain in low-income communities. The medical centers in which the American Pace community resources offices are located have all been designated as Areas of Critical Need for primary care by the Florida Department of Health.

Individuals and families who visit our offices often come to us in frustration, after they have exhausted other possible solutions to their particular problem: hunger, homelessness, unemployment, or health issues that have gone unattended for lack of insurance. It takes a special person to serve this population well. In addition to the technical and practical skills required, our associates bring abundant patience, compassion, and understanding to every interaction.

Although clients visit to solve very practical problems, without expressing it they also come to find the human warmth and encouraging words so needed when facing these circumstances. The same client who may have arrived discouraged often returns to thank his or her community resources associate for helping find a way out of difficulty. We have found that it is deeply rewarding to know, for example, that thanks to the food assistance approved through one of our offices, families' children will not go hungry.