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$10,000 CHIP grants will support healthy cooking, a walking program, cancer screening for women in 3 S.C. communities
Aug. 22, 2011
Refuge Community Outreach members accept a $10,000 check to support its Witness Program for screening of breast and cervical cancer for African-American women in Spartanburg and Cherokee counties. From left are Helen Pendarvis, administrator of Refuge Community Outreach, Ricky Talley, pastor of Refuge Fellowship Ministries, Dr. James R. Hébert, director of the S.C. Statewide Cancer Prevention and Control Program, Kimberly Comer, South Carolina Cancer Disparities Community Network liaison to the project, and Pastor Jacqueline Talley, who will direct the program.
Delores Fedrick, left, program director of the Eat for Life health intervention program sponsored by the Chester County Literacy Council, accepts a $10,000 check to fund the one-year program. Dr. Swann Arp Adams, right, is the Arnold School of Public Health liaison to the Eat for Life program. Dr. James R. Hébert, center, is director of the S.C. Statewide Cancer Prevention and Control Program.
Members of Jones Chapel Baptist Church accept a $10,000 check to fund walking trails and support exercise programs that the congregation wants to develop at the church site in rural Orangeburg County. Holding the check are Harold Hailey, left, chair of the church's trustee board, and Margaret Jones, secretary of church's health ministry. Others, from left, are Dr. James R. Hébert, director of the S.C. Statewide Cancer Prevention and Control Program, Dr. Daniela Friedman, Arnold School Faculty liaison to the project and SC-CPCRN Co-Principal Investigator to the project, and Nicholas Jones, co-chair of the church trustee board.
Public health programs in Inman, Orangeburg and Chester are each the recipient of a $10,000 mini-grant from the South Carolina Cancer Prevention and Control Research Network's (SC-CPCRN) Community Health Intervention Program (CHIP).
Refuge Community Outreach, a non-profit community development corporation based in Inman, will work through an effort called the Witness Project to train volunteers who will encourage women in Spartanburg and Cherokee counties to seek screening for breast and cervical cancer.
The program is aimed at reaching some 750 African-American women in the two-county area over the one-year life of the grant, said Pastor Jacqueline Talley, who will direct the program.
"African-American women in Spartanburg and Cherokee counties will be the primary population to be served. African Americans in Spartanburg and Cherokee counties have higher age-adjusted breast cancer mortality rates than white women," Talley said. "Historically, the church has been a pillar of the community and a place that African Americans trust for not only their spiritual needs, but also their social and family needs."
The program will train 30 community volunteers to become Lay Health Advisors (LHAs) and Witness Role Models (WRMs), who are breast or cervical cancer survivors, through eight-hour training sessions and follow-up booster sessions. The trained volunteers, called "Witnesses," will be responsible for conducting at least three presentations each within the two-county area, Talley said.
The LHAs and WRMs will be asked to attend a follow-up booster session before conducting community presentations. WRMs provide personal testimonies about their journey with breast or cervical cancer by talking about their experiences, stressing the importance of early detection, and addressing women's fears. The LHAs will provide instruction on breast self examination, provide general facts about breast and cervical cancers and provide information about available resources.
Witness participants will be referred to other appropriate community resources for free or low-cost cancer screenings.
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Jones Chapel Baptist Church, a predominantly African-American church in rural Orangeburg County, will use the mini-grant to develop walking trails and organize exercise programs, said Miriam J. Evans, director of the church's health ministry program which reaches youth, adults and seniors through a wide range of activities.
The walking trails on the grounds of the church will enable area residents to exercise, an activity that is aimed at reducing the risk of cancer as well as chronic problems of obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure that affect African Americans. A health needs assessment revealed that many church members suffer from these chronic health problems.
"All of these conditions can improve or be better managed if individuals integrated walking into their daily activity," Evans said. "Walking is a great source of activity for persons of all ages. Jones Chapel is not only located in a rural area, but the majority of residents are African Americans, who have rates of obesity."
Evans said church leaders also want to partner with other organizations, such as S.C. State University and the Orangeburg County Recreation Department, to develop and promote the program.
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Eat for Life, a dietary intervention program under the auspices of the Chester County Literacy Foundation, will work with representatives of churches in Chester County who will meet weekly to develop healthy cooking skills, said program director Delores D. Fedrick.
"The targeted population for Eat for Life comprises representatives from churches throughout Chester County. They depend on doctors and the healthcare system for 100 percent of their healthcare," said Federick.
In the group's application for the grant, however, Fedrick referenced a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association that revealed that 50 percent of health and wellness is dependent on the choices of the individual with regard to nutrition and physical activity, 15 percent of health and wellness is determined by family history, 15 percent is determined by the environment, and 20 percent of health and wellness is dependent upon interactions with doctors and the healthcare system.
"Eat for Life will address the preventive healthcare that many depend on their doctors to provide," she said. "Eat for Life has the promise of community health improvement."
Based on a program created by Emory University, the effort is aimed at teaching African-American women to cook healthier meals, shunning the salt and fat that many have come to rely on over the years, Fedrick said.
The mini-grants are offered by the South Carolina Cancer Prevention and Control Research Network (SC-CPCRN), funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Cancer Institute.
