The HBCU Wellness Project

Schools

Fisk University

The Fisk-Meharry Wellness Initiative has afforded an opportunity for Fisk
University to maintain our reputation and legacy of “town and gown”. Through
this partnership, we have been able to integrate our student body with
the local community around issues that really matter...our health. We have
empowered our students with opportunity, and have encouraged them to
become translators and disseminators of vital information in hopes of modifying
behaviors to eventually eradicate health disparities along racial lines.
Knoxville College

Knoxville College Staff envisioned an integrated public health and wellness program that would focus on health disparities in underserved populations. That dream is coming to fruition as Knoxville College announces the Center for Public Health due to the Meharry HBCU Wellness Project at Knoxville College. The HBCU Wellness Project is the cornerstone of the Center for Public Health and Wellness. Because of the center the college now offers a degree in public health, and is part of the college work program.

“The new Center for Public Health Program will fit naturally with the nation’s demand for public healthcare workers and Knoxville College’s strategy for serving the community,” explains Isabell Huie, M.P.H., M.S., Public Health Director for Knoxville College Center and Meharry-Knoxville College HBCU Wellness Campus Coordinator.

Knoxville College was founded in 1875 by the Board of Freedman’s Mission of the United Presbyterian Church in North America. It was chartered by the state of Tennessee in 1901 to promote religious moral and educational leadership among the freedman. Now accredited in the state of Tennessee, the College is proud to offer programs such as the HBCU Wellness Program to promote healthier lifestyle choices to the surrounding community.

The HBCU Wellness Program uses student ambassadors to identify health disparities in the underserved population. Programs are then designed by the students and implemented to address the identified areas. “The overall purpose of the program
is not only to promote healthier lifestyle choices but to encourage the program participants to consider health related careers,” says Huie.
LeMoyne-Owen College

Over the past three years, since the seating of the HBCU Wellness efforts at
LeMoyne-Owen College, the College has benefitted in a variety of ways:

> The College’s infrastructure has expanded resulting in increased personnel thus
increasing the local workforce. We were able to hire five staff persons to lead in
implementation of institutional and community outreach.

> The College’s infrastructure has expanded technologically. The College gained a
state-of-the-art videoconferencing center which not only enables us to interface
with the HBCU Wellness network, but it has also provided opportunity for us to
conference with other entities – e.g., our partners with the Department of Defense
funded Partnership for the Asthma Trigger- Free Homes (PATH) asthma project.

> The Wellness programs’ emphasis on community outreach and the formation of
partnerships has resulted in the development of relationships with more than 100
agencies in the Mid-South region. These agencies have not only supported the
student health ambassadors’ health projects, but they have also been accessible
to the College at large. Moreover, agency experience with the Wellness programs
has often proven to be foundational to the formation of additional partnerships.
For example, the Wellness program fostered a relationship with the Memphis
Health Center (MHC) that predated the PATH asthma study’s partnership with the
same medical facility. It was the HBCU Wellness program’s success with MHC
that allowed for an expanded relationship with the PATH asthma research study.

> Through the College’s Wellness programs, and the participation of student
health ambassadors in a variety of community outreach efforts including
the Mid-South Fair (70,000+), the Southern Heritage Classic (68,000+), and numerous other health fairs and community outreach events, we estimate an impact of reach more than 100,000 Mid-Southerners. Further, with our ability to host the CoverKids’ program and the hiring of a Hispanic translator/community outreach consultant, we are developing a significant outreach to Memphis’ growing Hispanic population.
Lane College Since the conception of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Wellness Project in 2006, Lane College (LC) has actively assisted in finding better solutions for community residents to gain better access to health care through
the use of the resources provided through the project. The project has provided
free educational literature and brochures, educational workshops, health
activities, testing/screenings, health fairs, and information about access to
healthcare agencies and healthcare professionals. These critical factors
permit LC to be a vehicle through which the community learns about
health disparities, how to prevent them, and how to maintain one’s
health once diagnosed.
Lane College has opened its doors to numerous community partners.
The HBCU Wellness Project has changed the lives of individuals by
promoting education, providing needed access to healthcare, developing a
network of caring healthcare professionals and
utilizing community outreach opportunities.
The project’s primary focus is on the elimination
of health disparities. This focus involves
partnering with community partners and
healthcare organizations to offer educational
workshops and free and confidential screenings for citizens. Student Health
Ambassadors gather surveys, analyze data, and track participants’ health
knowledge. At least one major activity is sponsored each month.
The Project has also assisted the target community and Lane
College students in community-based service learning, developing
effective intervention programs, and assisting the college to better
prepare its students for graduate school and/or careers in the
healthcare professions.
Meharry Medical College

The Tennessee Meharry Medical College HBCU Wellness Project was funded by the Tennessee Legislative Black Caucus in an effort to engage the four, private historically black colleges and universities to assist with health and wellness initiatives among underserved communities across the State of Tennessee. This project evolved under the direction of Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice as a grassroots effort to enhance the mission of Meharry Medical College through the provision of campus-community health promotion activities and cultivating the development of collegiate student health ambassadors guided by the principles of service learning and health services theory and practice. The project’s major emphasis is on reducing and eliminating the incidence and prevalence of preventable diseases and conditions such as HIV/AIDS, diabetes, cancers, cardio-cerebrovascular problems and the incidence of infant mortality rates that disproportionately impact Tennessee citizens.

Meharry Medical College became the coordinating center as a natural occurrence of its history in the training health practitioners in medicine, dentistry and public health. Fisk
University, Knoxville College, Lane College and LeMoyne-Owen College were contracted to facilitate the objectives of the project that include:

> Conducting needs assessments for local communities and campuses
> Integrating service learning concepts and activities through curriculum
> Selecting 25 Student Health Ambassadors (SHA) who would develop 25 projects per site
> Assessing of short and long term outcomes of service learning activities
> Cultivating and developing interest among SHA in the healthcare professions