Get to Know UrbanHealthWatch.net
PROVIDENCE, RI - Where do you go for news and tips about health? Where do you go to learn more about chronic diseases and health disparities impacting your community? How do you find out about resources, events, or services that may benefit you and your family’s health?
If you have not seen the commercials airing on Cox Cable in Rhode Island or seen the articles in The Providence American newspaper, there is a new destination to “Join the Discussions and Create the Solutions:” www.UrbanHealthWatch.net.
The blog Urban Health Watch (UrbanHealthWatch.net) is part of the Rhode Island Prevention Block Grant, a program funded by Rhode Island Department of Health (HEALTH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Like other initiatives under HEALTH’s Prevention Block Grant, Urban Health Watch is focused on achieving health equity by identifying the chronic diseases, environmental health issues, and social determinants that impact health care disparities and influence conditions for health. The blog is also charged with developing and distributing health information with an emphasis on reaching racially and ethnically diverse groups and implementing health education and risk reduction activities to improve the quality of life for Rhode Island’s most vulnerable populations, communities of color and urban families.
To do this, Urban Heath Watch is:
- Bringing health education into the community and delivering culturally appropriate messages on how to prevent and manage chronic diseases.
- Analyzing, packaging, and disseminating public health and medical information through collaborations with traditional centers of influence that are considered trusted environments and provide accessibility to target populations.
- Building the capacity of neighborhood organizations, churches and leaders to initiate health promotion and disease prevention activities.
- Translating medical research and findings about health promotion and disease prevention into actionable steps people can use everyday in life.
- Disseminating medical research findings and best practices through other media sources to raise the visibility and credibility of an expanded view of health.
To date, posts on the Urban Health Watch blog include ones that address prostate cancer and where to get free screenings for it; ones that provide insider updates on the important New England Regional Minority Health Conference that is coming in October to Providence, RI; and ones that highlight resources for community members receiving food stamps, for those needing breast cancer screenings, and for those fighting addiction.
Yet Urban Health Watch is not a one-way street. Readers, health groups, and community organizations have all begun sending events and engaging the blog. But the publishers are looking for more. Tell your family and friends; tell your clients and neighbors; and make a personal note of your own – Join the Discussions, Create the Solutions: UrbanHealthWatch.net.
For more information about Urban Health Watch or to share your event, story, or opinion, visit www.UrbanHealthWatch.net or contact the blog’s editor, two-time Metcalf Diversity in the Media recipient, Reza Clifton, by emailing urbanhealthri@gmail.com or calling 401-497-5246.
reza | Leaders/Organizations/Businesses in RI, Human/Civil Rights