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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Lakeva Evans, MPH, Linda Contreras, MPH, and Maurine Jones, PhD. Center for Health Equity, Inc., 355 B North Monroe Street, Tallahassee, FL 32301, 850 577-1462, lkcontreras@centerforhealthequity.com

Gadsden Woman to Woman Sisters Together is a project whose mission is to decrease infant and maternal mortality among African Americans in a rural north Florida county by improving the health of women before they become pregnant. The program addresses maternal health risk factors with strategies designed to increase physical activity and improve eating habits. Group participants were recruited through community awareness activities, door to door canvassing, referrals from partner agencies such as Healthy Start, the center's own Federal Healthy Start (Gadsden Woman to Woman) program, the Gadsden County Health Department, churches throughout the county, and through self referrals. The Gadsden Woman to Woman Sisters Together program has utilized peer facilitated groups to address physical activity and nutrition, recruiting 6 cohorts per year of post partum, non-pregnant African American women. Groups last for six weeks, with women meeting once a week for two hours. The trained peer Family Health Advocates lead the community participants in several activity-based lesson plans that include cooking demonstrations, setting up walking groups, exercising with a trainer, taking trips to a local grocery, and sampling new and exciting foods. The MotherCare portion of the program is a faith-based initiative that focuses on informing congregation members about the importance of good nutrition and developing policy related to nutrition and church functions. The program has empowered pastors, senior mothers, and church volunteers to implement the faith based nutrition component. These individuals are agents for change in the congregation to encourage healthy lifestyles.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participants (learner) in this session will be able to

• List three strategies to address physical activity for interconceptional women in a peer led group setting.
• List three strategies to address nutrition for interconceptional women in a peer led group setting.
• Understand how to implement a faith-based approach to nutrition education for women in a rural community.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No