HIP-Cuyahoga awarded “REACH” grant to continue efforts to improve health, prevent chronic diseases, among African Americans in Cuyahoga County

HIP-Cuyahoga awarded “REACH” grant to continue efforts to improve health, prevent chronic diseases, among African Americans in Cuyahoga County
Cuyahoga County Board of Health, on behalf of HIP-Cuyahoga, was notified that they have been awarded the Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. This grant award will provide $792,000 annually starting this October and run the next 5 years.
This project will help to advance work that was initiated in 2007, with significant progress made during the recent REACH grant cycle (2014-2018) in the areas of healthy eating, active living, and clinical and community linkages.  HIP-Cuyahoga hopes to improve healthy food access, physical activity and active transportation opportunities, increase breastfeeding supports, and increase the use of community and health support programs among African Americans in Cuyahoga County (see project abstract).
“This REACH award reflects the tangible ways numerous community partners are doing business differently in order to achieve our shared goal of creating community conditions where everyone can reach his or her full potential.  We are very grateful to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for this funding and the recognition that a new level of unprecedented collaboration among REACH partners has occurred in Cuyahoga County.  These and other partners have worked tirelessly over the past 9 years to build relationships of mutual respect and trust in order to more effectively work together to improve health through tackling the toughest determinants of health in our county such as structural racism and poverty. The work of this long-term partnership enabled creation of the current scope of work aimed at preventing chronic disease through a multi-sector, five-year collaborative effort.  This partnership truly reflects the very best of what we can achieve when we work across boundaries to address the most intractable determinants of health in our community.  Through this REACH funding, we look forward to authentically engaging people throughout our community in creating sustainable change for the long-term.” –  Heidi Gullett, HIP-Cuyahoga Co-Chair.
Health Improvement Partnership-Cuyahoga (HIP-Cuyahoga) understands that neighborhoods and communities are not all created equal, and some people are born and live in places where it is difficult to grow up healthy. The conditions in which people live, and the opportunities they have, form the foundation for health and without them, people are more likely to live shorter, sicker lives. The racial disparities in chronic disease health outcomes in our community are the result of historical and contemporary injustices linked to structural racism.
Funded partners for this grant include:
The Cuyahoga County Board of Health, A Vision of Change, Better Health Partnership, Bike Cleveland, Case Western Reserve University (the Center for Community Health Integration and the Prevention Research Center for Healthy Neighborhoods), Cleveland State University School of Nursing, Fairhill Partners, Kent Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative, Neighborhood Family Practice, United Way and the YMCA of Greater Cleveland.

About HIP-Cuyahoga

Health Improvement Partnership-Cuyahoga (HIP-Cuyahoga) is a multi-sector, equity-grounded collective impact community consortium. HIP-Cuyahoga’s vision is for our county to be a place where all residents live, work, learn, and play in healthy, sustainable, and prosperous communities. The HIP-Cuyahoga mission is to inspire, influence, and advance policy, environmental and lifestyle changes that foster health and wellness for everyone, through 4 key approaches: perspective transformation, collective impact, community engagement, and health and equity in all policy (see HIP-Cuyahoga brochure).