MCDOWELL COUNTY REACH
Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health
The disparities of health conditions, treatments and outcomes among African Americans must be considered as one of our culture's highest priorities to overcome. Due to the conditions that create these disparities, i.e., lack ofinsurance, lack of consistent treatment interventions and other economic and social determinants, community approaches must be developed to address serious health condition disparities, especially the devastating disease of diabetes. As a result, in July, 2008 a group of McDowell County citizens came together to form partnershipswith the medical community to devise prevention and intervention strategies to effectively eliminate diabetes among African Americans inMcDowell County, WV. The group also realized that in order to bring about change,the community must become involved in these prevention and intervention strategies.This is to be accomplished by creating awareness campaigns, special events and development of exercise areas accessible to citizens across the County to help prevent and combat the causes and depilitatingresults of diabetes.
W.E.B. Du Bois, a civil rights leader in his last message to the world in 1957, stated,
"Believe in life! Always human beings will live and progress to greater, broader and fuller life."
The McDowell County REACH Coalition desires to bring the words of this great civil rights leader to reality by providing means for African Americans to progress to greater, broader and fuller lives.
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