For Centene employees across the country, community involvement is a core pillar of their work. Centene‘s purpose is to improve the health of the communities we serve, one person at a time, and that means embracing opportunities to support local nonprofits and give back to causes that make the places our employees work even better places to live.

April is National Volunteer Month, and we proudly celebrate our employees who make it their mission to give back to their neighbors and improve the health of the communities they live in. Throughout the United States, we have partnered with local organizations and non-profits to maximize our ability to provide community outreach and address members’ health, and to tackle issues, like hunger or lack of transportation, which can hinder healthcare access.

We deeply value all 699 nonprofits that we supported in 2021.

As an example of one such investment, in 2021, Centene again partnered with the Strong Youth, Strong Communities (SYSC) initiative. This program, led by a partnership between Centene, the Pro Football Hall of Fame and Hall of Famer Darrell Green, is designed to equip and assist youth and youth-serving organizations with the tools they need to develop themselves and their communities. Every year, in Centene markets, employees work with community members to bring SYSC Summits to life. The Summit experience is locally driven, and brings together local leaders and stakeholders in schools, government, and other social supports to facilitate success among youth and to strengthen their communities.

At Centene, we not only celebrate our employees’ community service efforts, but also encourage it and make it an accessible part of their job:

• Centene’s Community Outreach and Employee Involvement Office is at the forefront of Centene’s commitment to social responsibility and employee community engagement. Their primary functions are to lead employee community service and social impact efforts, direct and nurture community partnerships, and manage the Centene Charitable Foundation.
  
  
• Centene’s Employee Community Engagement Program helps employees create meaningful impacts through service opportunities that support local nonprofit partners and initiatives that generate positive change.
  
  
• All 74,000-plus employees are encouraged to give their time and skills to their communities through local involvement that reflects not only the purpose and goals of Centene, but also personal interests. To support employees’ passions for making a difference, all full-time employees receive eight hours of Community Impact Time to provide service to nonprofits of their choosing during normal work hours.
  
  
• As the COVID-19 pandemic was underway in 2020, Centene’s Crisis Volunteer Time Off Policy was established for clinical staff to temporarily leave Centene and join medical reserve forces whose main priority was helping combat COVID-19 in their communities. Our policy provided paid leave and benefits for up to three month of volunteer service. As the pandemic evolved, this policy was expanded to include nonclinical staff who joined the efforts to serve in critical roles at COVID-19 vaccination and testing sites.

We know that community engagement benefits our employees, too. Research shows that giving back through time and talent significantly boosts our mental and physical health, life satisfaction, self-esteem and happiness, while reducing depressive symptoms. We believe the emphasis we place on helping employees serve in their communities is one of the reasons we are consistently recognized as one of the best places to work and most admired companies in the world.

Year-round, Centene works to foster the improvement and growth of communities through a combination of our service offerings and philanthropic giving that is strengthened through employee community service efforts. We applaud all our employees and partners who give their time to serve their communities and help their neighbors.