Communities in Action
The Community Health Worker Health Disparities Initiative uses the value and unique impact of trained community health workers (CHWs) to promote heart health and to connect people to health care in communities nationwide.
Knowing what works is essential to bringing programs to your community. This section contains implementation strategies, evaluations and outcomes, lessons learned, and success stories from selected Initiative projects.
Strategic Champions
The Strategic Champions are nine organizations that received funding from the NHLBI to implement innovative activities to broaden the use of the NHLBI’s curricula and materials to address heart health in the community. The Strategic Champions established partnerships and implemented sustainable CHW heart health programs that targeted specific ethnic groups.
- Central Massachusetts Area Health Education Center
- Housing Authority of the City of Columbia
- Morehouse School of Medicine
- New York University School of Medicine, Center for the Study of Asian American Health
- Partners in Health and Navajo Nation
- Project Concern International
- Southeast Arizona Area Health Education Center
- University of Alabama at Birmingham
- Visión y Compromiso
NHLBI Curricula Targets Different Ethnicities
Below are examples of past projects that have used the NHLBI’s heart health curricula to implement programs. These projects are broken down by ethnicity.
African American Communities
- About With Every Heartbeat Is Life: Learn how and why the manual for the African American community was created.
- New Orleans, LA, Public Housing: Through a Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-NHLBI partnership, a nonprofit organization adapted the NHLBI’s heart health program.
- Charlotte, NC, Public Housing: The NHLBI partnered with the Charlotte Housing Authority (CHA) to train CHWs to deliver heart health education in public housing communities.
- West End Medical Center, Atlanta, GA: West End Medical Center, Inc., Public Housing Primary Care Program used the With Every Heartbeat Is Life curriculum.
American Indian/Alaska Native Communities
- The NHLBI and the Indian Health Service Develop Honoring the Gift of Heart Health Program: In partnership with the Indian Health Service, a project to disseminate the Honoring the Gift of Heart Health manual and training program was developed.
- Honoring the Gift of Heart Health in Five Alaska Native Communities: The Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium worked with community wellness advocates (CWAs) and health educators to successfully conduct heart health education in five villages in southeast Alaska.
Filipino American Communities
- Project Addresses Heart Health Disparities in Two Filipino American Communities: Two community health centers in Honolulu, Hawaii, served as pilot sites for Healthy Heart, Healthy Family, the manual for Filipino Americans.
- New York University Uses NHLBI Program for Filipino American Heart Health: New York University’s Center for the Study of Asian American Health provided education and support to Filipino American communities with the Healthy Heart, Healthy Family manual.
Hispanic/Latino Communities
- NHLBI-HRSA Partnership to Improve Hispanic/Latino Heart Health in Community Health Centers on the U.S.-Mexico Border: From 2002 to 2005, the NHLBI worked with the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to promote heart health education through community health centers on the U.S.-Mexico border.
- Personal Touch Brings Healthy Heart Messages to Washington, DC, Hispanic/Latino Community: From 1994 to 1998, the NHLBI worked with an alliance to raise awareness about heart health in Hispanic/Latino communities in and around Washington, DC.
Promoting Heart Health in the Americas
PAHO and the NHLBI funded three 3-year (2007-2010) community-based projects to adapt the Your Heart, Your Life manual for use in low-resource communities in Argentina, Chile, and Guatemala. The NHLBI-PAHO partnership generated international interest in using the CHW model to deliver heart health education in selected UnitedHealth and NHLBI Collaborating Centers of Excellence, and it stimulated the creation of a CHW subcommittee to collect and share lessons learned among projects.
Last Updated: June 2014