For Immediate Release 10/10/2018
Contact: Tamara Wadley
T: 786-509-8850 ∙ E: [email protected]
Published on Black PR Wire

PRESS RELEASE

MIAMI GARDENS, FL, October 10, 2018 — The City of Miami Garden’s Live Healthy Miami Gardens (LHMG) Initiative, has been awarded a grant from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) - Health Promotion Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) program. The grant provides funding to improve health, prevent chronic diseases and reduce health disparities in Miami Gardens.

“We are thrilled to be recipients of this grant which will allow us to continue the work we’ve begun in addressing the health outcomes of our Residents,” said Mayor Oliver Gilbert. “The work done through Live Healthy Miami Gardens, with continuous support from the Health Foundation of South Florida, has significantly raised awareness of health and wellness issues in our City and I am pleased we have this opportunity to solidify and extend our efforts to ensure our people are informed on how to improve and maintain more healthy lifestyles.”

According to Health Foundation of South Florida’s President and CEO, Dr. Steven Marcus, “It’s an honor for the City of Miami Gardens to receive national recognition from the foremost U.S. public health agency for the outstanding efforts of the Live Healthy Miami Gardens initiative, sponsored by Health Foundation of South Florida.” He added, “We salute the City of Miami Gardens and the Live Healthy Miami Gardens leadership team for their dedication to improving the health of the community.”

The proposed REACH RISE project will be implemented by the LHMG initiative, which started in 2014 to drive citywide changes that measurably improve the health and life outcomes of people who live and work in the City of Miami Gardens. LHMG is a collective impact, multi-disciplinary, cross-sector collaboration of seventy-seven community stakeholders and forty-six organizations, that was built upon the understanding that no single organization can solve tough problems on its own and that community involvement is essential to reducing health disparities.

The five-year REACH RISE project will align with the practices promoted by the CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP) program. The project’s goal is to reduce chronic disease cases and deaths in Miami Gardens by increasing resident access of preventive and primary care resources, increasing the supply of and demand for healthy local foods, and transforming built and social environments to sustain improved physical activity levels and nutrition quality. The City will leverage the combined capacities of the following organizations: Alliance for a Healthier Generation; Catalyst Miami; Florida Disability and Health Program; Florida Impact; Health Consultants of South Florida; Jessie Trice Community Health System; Urban Health Partnerships; and University of Florida, IFAS Extension Family Nutrition Program.

This project will build on work that has been funded by Health Foundation of South Florida since 2014, through a six-year, 3.75 million dollar grant. With these funds the City has developed a Healthy Community Partnership as part of the Foundation’s strategic and systemic effort to reduce poor health outcomes by engaging community residents to improve selected public health indicators. In addition to Miami Gardens, the CDC is funding thirty other recipients across the country to reduce health disparities among racial and ethnic populations with the highest burden of chronic disease (i.e., hypertension, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and obesity) through culturally tailored interventions to address preventable risk behaviors (i.e., tobacco use, poor nutrition, and physical inactivity).

###

Project Contact
City of Miami Gardens:
Thamara Labrousse
[email protected]
305-914-9072

Incorporated in May 2003, The City of Miami Gardens is the third largest city in Miami-Dade County with a population of 113,058. Miami Gardens is a solid, working and middle class community of unique diversity. It is the largest predominantly African-American municipality in Florida and boasts many Caribbean and Hispanic residents. REACH is a national program administered by CDC to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities. Through REACH, awardee partners plan and carry out local, culturally appropriate programs to address a wide range of health issues among minority populations.

The mission of Health Foundation of South Florida is to invest in and be a catalyst for collaborations, policy and systems change that improves the health of South Florida communities, with a focus on vulnerable, low to moderate- income populations. Established in 1993, the nonprofit foundation has awarded over $125 million to nonprofits providing programs and services in Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties. For more information, visit www.hfsf.org or call 305.374.7200.

—–

This press release was originally published on Black PR Wire.