REACH 2010 Black Women's Health Imperative

REACH 2010: At the Heart of New Orleans Coalition is a community-based, participatory-research project with goals to reduce heart disease risk factors among African American women. REACH stands for "racial and ethnic approaches to community health." The REACH Coalition includes the Black Women's Health Imperative; the Southern University and A&M College's School of Nursing in Baton Rouge, La.; the Healthy Heart Community Prevention Project; the City of New Orleans' Health Department; the Louisiana Office of Public Health's Cardiovascular Health Program; the Black Women's Health Project of Louisiana; and 40 area churches.

Although this program officially ended in December 2007, the Imperative is proud to report many achievements, which will inform our future work in cardiovascular disease issues and Black women:

We organized African American health professionals to provide free screenings and health counseling on risk factors for heart disease and prediabetes for more than 10,000 African Americans at church and community sites.
We conducted 500 health education classes focused on heart disease. We also worked with local communities and churches to implement the Black Women’s Health Imperative’s signature fitness program Walking for Wellness.
We planned and facilitated more than 150 SisterCircle^TM, self-help group sessions for women at local church,community and work sites. We also trained 35 REACH volunteers as self-help facilitators for these sessions.
We trained more than 300 volunteers to support our interventions.
We promoted community-wide physical activity and healthy eating programs, reaching more than 30,000 African Americans through multiple media outlets.