Grantees
From left to right: Marisol Morales and Elena Alvarado from the National Latina Health Network; Dr. Elizabeth G. Nabel, Director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; Tim Gunn, Project Runway mentor and Chief Creative Officer of Liz Claiborne Inc.; Kim Jefferies Leonard from The Links Foundation, Incorporated; and Meredith Green and Emily Lard from The Cardiology Associates Foundation.
The Heart Truth’s Community Action Program
Through funds provided by Heart Truth partner Diet Coke, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health have come together to create a competitive grant program to address the lack of awareness about women and heart disease called The Heart Truth Community Action Program. This program aims to empower community organizations to assist women—especially those of color, low income, or in rural areas—in identifying personal risk factors for heart disease and motivating them to take action to lower their risk.
The Community Action Program seeks to:
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Increase awareness among women that heart disease is their #1 killer.
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Promote The Heart Truth, Red Dress symbol, and the campaign’s key messages.
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Provide heart disease risk factor screenings to inform women of their personal risk for the disease.
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Educate women about lifestyle behaviors that promote heart health and lower their risk for developing heart disease.
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Encourage and motivate women to take steps to adopt a heart healthy lifestyle.
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Increase outreach to underserved women, particularly those of color, low income, or in rural areas.
The Heart Truth Community Action Program’s 2009 Grantees are:
- The Cardiology Associates Foundation (CAF)
- The National Latina Health Network
- The Links, Incorporated
The Cardiology Associates Foundation (CAF)
As part of The Heart Truth’s Community Action Program, the CAF, located in Jonesboro, Arkansas, will be conducting events such as screening, conferences and workshops, and health fairs to educate underserved women—especially those of color, low income, or in rural areas—on the risk factors, prevention, and treatment of heart disease. The CAF will use the Red Dress Pins, Heart Truth Speaker's kit, and many other pieces of the campaign's educational literature. Additionally, CAF has developed a partnership with the local ABC affiliate KAIT-8 on a program called "In The Red,” promoting CAF’s programs and events, providing educational awareness pieces on women and heart disease throughout this year, and keeping information streamlined on the KAIT Region 8 Web site.
The National Latina Health Network (NLHN)
As part of The Heart Truth’s Community Action Program, the NLHN will conduct heart health education sessions using the NHLBI's Su Corazón, Su Vida curriculum and The Heart Truth educational materials. NLHN will partner with Sembrando Flores to train five Latina team leaders to facilitate the sessions in Spanish, reaching at least 100 Latinas who will become Heart Health Ambassadors in Miami, Florida. These Ambassadors, in turn, will identify at least one personal healthy behavior activity and incorporate this behavior change into their everyday life. Additionally, NHLN will host a community-wide event where the Heart Health Ambassadors will showcase their "healthy life styles" activities learned during the training (e.g., cooking circles, walking clubs, gardening).
The Links, Incorporated
Through The Heart Truth Community Action Program, the HeartLinks to Heart Health program will target African American women in underserved communities to increase more than 1,000 participants' awareness of risk factors for heart disease, and effect behavioral change related to risk behavior. Eight Links chapters across the United States will serve as local program sites. Each chapter will conduct a minimum of eight sessions of NHLBI’s With Every Heartbeat Is Life community education program and two screening events, which will be evaluated with pre- and post- measures. Follow-up evaluation will be conducted six months post intervention.
