Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #115190

Linda Shapiro, AM, MBA¹, Donna J. Thompson, MSN¹, and Elizabeth Calhoun, PhD². (1) Access Community Health Network, California Avenue and 15th Street, Chicago, IL 60608, 773.257.5086, shali@sinai.org, (2) School of Public Health, Department of Health Policy & Administration, University of Illinois, Chicago, 1603 West Taylor Street, Room 758, Chicago, IL 60611

REACH OUT is a Chicago-area collaboration that draws on local faith leadership to mobilize African American women and Latinas to seek early breast and cervical cancer screening. Funded by the CDC's REACH 2010 program, this initiative deploys lay health advocates from nine African American and eight Latino churches to educate and recruit peers to be screened for cancer at partnering health centers. Through REACH OUT, more than 6,200 women have attended educational sessions and over 2,000 women were referred for services. Results show that women who received church-initiated health education and retained knowledge about breast and cervical cancer were more likely to be screened. Drawing on this success, program leaders leveraged $4.5 million from private donations and state and federal funding to replicate and expand the demonstration program to an additional 22 churches statewide. Anchored by a partnership between the Illinois Department of Public Health and Access Community Health Network, this larger initiative, the Illinois Stand Against Cancer, assures a continuum of care for uninsured and low-income women by making referrals, providing case management, and following up on abnormal results. In its first year, the Stand Against Cancer reached, educated, and screened over 6,000 women and provided clinically indicated follow-up services. A critical step to assuring this success included a public forum where Illinois gubernatorial candidates provided written pledges to fund cancer screening services. To pay for services, the Stand Against Cancer also has maximized funds available under the federal Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention and Treatment Act.

Learning Objectives:

• To begin to develop strategies for sustainability.
• To identify opportunities for sustaining community-based health initiatives.
• Discuss key components in advocating for community health funding.

Keywords: Sustainability, Health Advocacy

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.