Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH)

MISSION

Catalyze evidence-based and innovative environmental, systems, structure, and policy changes to improve population health and reduce the burden of chronic disease
Achieve health equity in Cleveland and target areas of Cuyahoga County

Purpose

The purpose of this program is to rapidly implement evidence-based and innovative approaches to improve nutrition and physical activity among Black/African American and Hispanic populations in under-resourced areas of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County.

What is the problem and why does it matter?

A core value of public health is that every person should be able to reach his or her full health potential. CCBH, with local partners and the CDC, seeks to remove barriers to health linked to race or ethnicity, education, income, place, or other social factors.

Widespread health gaps remain among racial and ethnic minority groups:

In 2017-March 2020, non-Hispanic Black (50%) and Hispanic (46%) adults had a higher prevalence of obesity than non-Hispanic White adults (41%).

In 2017-March 2020, the prevalence of diabetes was 21% among Hispanic adults, 19% among non-Hispanic Black adults, 18% among non-Hispanic Asian adults, and 12% among non-Hispanic White adults.

What is being done?

This program supports the implementation of culturally tailored and evidence-based strategies that improve health, and reduce chronic disease burden among our priority populations in Cuyahoga County. These approaches are intentionally designed to be synergistic with each other and the cross-cutting strategies of both communications and evaluation are woven throughout the strategy areas.

Nutrition: promote healthy food access by increasing purchasing and distribution of healthier foods as a means to improve health behaviors and outcomes utilizing fruit and vegetable (FV) vouchers/Produce Prescriptions and Food Service Guidelines https://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/index.html

ECE Strategy: reduce racial and ethnic disparities and inequities among our young children by expanding nutrition, physical activity, and breastfeeding policies through the implementation of the Ohio Healthy Program (OHP) and implementation of a Farm to ECE program (OHP-https://odh.ohio.gov/know-our-programs/Early-Childhood-Health-Program/Ohio-Healthy-Programs) (Farm to ECE-https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/strategies/farm-to-ece.html)

Physical Activity Strategy: improve health outcomes and reduction in racial and ethnic disparities, through increased physical activity by creating environmental conditions that make it safer and more inviting to engage in walking, biking, or scooting for transportation and recreation (link to CDC PA page here) https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/index.html