Thursday, April 18, 2024
4/18/2024
AbstractThe King County Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (KCREACH) proposal is designed to improve health equity among African Americans/Blacks and Asian Americans, the two largest racial/ethnic populations living in South Seattle, SeaTac, and Tukwila ? a contiguous area in in the county where at least 20% of residents live at or below poverty level. We collaborated with partners to select the proposed strategies to improve nutrition, physical activity, and community-clinical linkages based on review of community health assessments and data, readiness and experience of local organizations, coordination with local and state community health improvement initiatives, and reach. The nutrition strategies include creating a purchasing cooperative of small ethnic grocers and food banks to expand low or no cost offerings of low or no-cost fresh produce; increasing the number of small ethnic grocers and farm stands who participate in Fresh Bucks/Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT), working with food banks to adopt healthy nutrition standards; and promoting breastfeeding in workplaces and expanding culturally appropriate breastfeeding services. The physical activity strategies include building capacity among African Americans/Blacks and Asian Americans to engage in bike, pedestrian and transit projects that local government will be planning and designing in their neighborhoods during the project period in KCREACH communities. The community-clinical linkages strategies include strengthening referral patterns to culturally appropriate clinical and preventive care (e.g. tobacco cessation) through pharmacists, Community Health Workers (CHWs), and community-based organizations (CBOs). The strategies are fortified by a robust plan for community engagement, communications, continuous improvement, and evaluation to assess associations between KCREACH activities and process and health improvements. In five years, KCREACH will 1) increase the number o f places (e.g., ethnic grocers, food banks, and farm stands) and people with access to healthy food options, including culturally appropriate actions to support breastfeeding; 2) increase the number of places and people with access to physical activity by actively involving KCREACH area residents in bike, pedestrian and transit projects; and 3) build partnerships to increase referral, access, and use of community-based health programs (e.g. tobacco cessation and preventive care programs via neighborhood pharmacists, CHWs, and CBOs) for African Americans/Blacks and Asian Americans. The highly focused approach will accelerate local changes to increase daily consumption of fruit and vegetables, increase physical activity, reduce exposure to tobacco, and reduce the prevalence of chronic diseases. KCREACH will sustain impact by leveraging current and future initiatives in King County.Together, Public Health ? Seattle and King County, the Healthy King County Coalition, and Seattle Children?s Hospital comprise the leadership for the KCREACH community coalition. These partners bring complementary experience and strengths in grounding the work developed through their joint work in prior community health initiatives such as CPPW, CTG, and PICH. The KCREACH team stands ready to start the next chapter in the history of our work to improve health equity among African Americans/Blacks and Asian Americans living in the contiguous areas of South Seattle, SeaTac, and Tukwila in King County, Washington.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
