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Description of Organization:
The Center for African American Health is committed to improving the health and wellbeing of the African-American community. The Center partners with a wide variety of health organizations and more than 80 black churches in its health education and outreach efforts to provide culturally-proficient, disease prevention and chronic disease management programs to thousands of African Americans in Metro Denver. The Center is focused on alleviating the major health disparities that negatively impact the African-American community and promoting active and healthy lifestyle behaviors. Among the Center’s program priorities are an annual health fair, year-round self-management classes for people with diabetes and other chronic diseases, health literacy training and breast cancer navigator services.

Description of project:
The Denver Health Disparities Project is a collaboration of the Center for African American Health (lead organization), the Inner City Health Center (ICHC), a non-profit volunteer-based health care facility, which provides assistance with screening and outreach and JVA Consulting, a private business focused on improving nonprofit capacities and impact (research and evaluation). The Denver project aims to promote greater awareness and increased participation in screening and educational events for three of the foremost diseases affecting African-Americans: colon cancer, heart disease and diabetes. The project’s three primary objectives are increasing awareness of health disparities among African Americans in Metro Denver through education and culturally proficient outreach campaigns grounded in African American churches, improving patient-provider interactions by raising awareness and improving health literacy, particularly among African Americans of low socio-economic status and improving coordination and utilization of research and outcome evaluation to assess the projects progress and advance effective health disparity programming. The Center for African American Health will conduct culturally-appropriate outreach and disseminate health care literature on the three targeted diseases at black churches throughout Metro Denver and at major cultural events in the community.