Neal Communities, southwest Florida’s premier, private homebuilder, has donated $25,000 to Healthy Teens, an organization dedicated to the success and wellbeing of Florida teens in Manatee and Sarasota Counties. Healthy Teens’ mission is to empower youth to make positive, healthy decisions for their success and wellbeing, providing peer-based health and life skills education and mentoring to hundreds of local youth between the ages of 11 and 25 each year. The donation from Neal Communities will support this work by funding further education scholarships and local programming.
“Since I joined Healthy Teens in 2021, Neal Communities has been a hugely generous partner in empowering the health and wellbeing of our youth,” said Jonathan Evans, executive director of Healthy Teens. “Helping them create positive, healthy and successful futures for themselves is a shared passion between our organizations.”
This donation is an increase from the $10,000 donations Neal Communities made to Healthy Teens in 2023 and 2022. The $25,000 sponsorship will partly be used to create a scholarship contest for high-school seniors currently volunteering with Healthy Teens as Teen Health Educators. Healthy Teens plans to start the program quickly, with an application process beginning in February 2024. The applications will be judged by a panel comprised of representatives from the Healthy Teens Board of Directors, the Healthy Teens volunteer Advisory Council and Neal Communities. The scholarships will be awarded at the Youth Health Awards on May 8, 2024, Healthy Teens’ flagship event. Neal Communities will be the presenting sponsor for the event.
In addition to the scholarship program, Healthy Teens students will visit the Neal Communities headquarters in Lakewood Ranch to provide a “lunch and learn” educational program for Neal Communities employees, where the students will present on a topic that they also educate their peers on.
“Healthy Teens is an excellent organization that is helping young people succeed in life, and we are excited to support them in that,” said Pat Neal, founder and chairman of Neal Communities. “These students are learning about business, relationships and helping others, and those lessons will serve them well into their futures.”
Founded in 2010, Healthy Teens has helped more than 175 Teen Health Educators receive leadership and public-speaking experience, provided peer education sessions for more than 10,000 teens, and worked with more than 60 organizations and agencies to help teens learn about topics such as mental health and resilience, substance abuse, peer pressure, bullying and much more.
Neal Communities has a philanthropic culture and a core belief that “Where You Live Matters.” The latest giving is part of more than $8 million Neal Communities has donated to local charities and causes throughout Southwest Florida.
