Recorded presentation

Laverne M. Carter, PhD, MPH, MA¹, Margaret Grayson, Board Chair², Melicia Whitt, PhD³, and William Johnson, Board Vice Chair². (1) Managing Principal, The Carter Consultancy, Inc., 6007 Old Stratford Court, Alexandria, VA 22315, (2) The Southeast Missouri Community Partners for Progress, 319 W. North Street, Sikeston, MO 63801, (573) 471-9466, semcpp@sbcglobal.net, (3) Public Health Sciences, Wake Forest University Health Sciences, Medical Center Boulevard, Wake Forest, NC 27157

The third largest concentration of Blacks in Missouri is located in the Southeastern area of the state in a geographic region that has come to be known as “The Bootheel”. The area, which is characterized by the shape of the heel of a boot, consists of six counties. Approximately 18,000 Black residents are dispersed through out 31 communities within the counties. In 2000, a group of residents made a bold decision to create a community-based organization to mobilize residents and develop solutions to the growing health problems and injustices. The Southeast Missouri Community Partners for Progress, Inc. (The Partnership) is an organization created by and for Black residents in the Bootheel. Since its inception, the organization has conducted more than 40 community-based focus groups. Black residents have repeatedly provided stories of “low-to-no” access to health care, neglected environmental conditions that have led to major health problems and death, discrimination in service delivery, increasing incidence of chronic diseases in those under the age of 35, and a failure of designated funds to reach the 31 Black communities that are most in need.

Armed with evidence, program and policy ideas and support from external researchers, The Partnership has engaged in a movement to create broader choices for improved health for the Black residents of southeast Missouri. This session will provide conference participants with information on the critical needs and challenges faced by rural black communities and a model for implementing community driven health program and policy initiatives.

Learning Objectives:

• Session participants will be able to describe at least four special needs and challenges faced by a community that is predominately Black and located in remote rural areas.
• Session participants will be able to describe at least two methods used by a rural Black community to study and implement solutions that allow greater health choices and options.
• Session participants will be able to describe the seven key components of a model for creating health interventions in rural communities that impact the physical, social, and economic well-being of rural Black residents.

Keywords: African American, Community Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

Recorded presentation