Published on September 8, 2017
Updated on January 12, 2018
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
September 8, 2017
MEDIA CONTACT:
Lisa Berry
703-519-2107
Lisa.Berry@preventcancer.org
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Through its community grants program, the Prevent Cancer Foundation® is proud to support 10 projects focused on increasing cancer education and screening in communities across the country, from Honolulu to Reading, Pennsylvania. The projects were selected in a highly competitive grant cycle, and each will receive $25,000 for a one-year grant period.
The projects focus on a diversity of goals, including breast health education and screening, genetic counseling, quality improvement of colorectal cancer screening and cancer prevention and health promotion. These programs will have a direct impact on a range of communities that include migrant farm workers, health care providers and Cambodian, African-American and Latino populations in the U.S.
Since 2007, the Foundation has awarded community grants in 30 states, tribes and territories through the Community Grants program.
2017 recipients:
Baltimore City Health Department will train health care providers to increase awareness and use of fecal immunochemical tests (FIT tests), a stool-based colorectal screening test, along with motivational interviewing and other colorectal cancer screening tests. Their goal is to bring Baltimore closer to “80% by 2018,” a nationwide goal to have 80 percent of the recommended population screened by 2018. The program aims to provide colorectal cancer messaging and education to 2,000 residents in target neighborhoods.
Chicago Family Health Center (CFHC) plans to increase early detection of colorectal cancer through increased access to fecal occult blood tests (FOBT) or FIT tests, both stool-based screening tests, by enhancing their provider reminder system. CFHC has five clinics throughout Chicago and serves mostly uninsured or underinsured Hispanic and African-American patients. The project expects to increase the clinics’ rate of colorectal screenings by 15 percent (from 51 percent to 66 percent) by the end of the grant period.
Farmworkers Self-Help Inc., in Dade City, Florida, will use bilingual and bicultural outreach workers to provide breast, cervical, colorectal, lung and skin cancer education to mostly undocumented immigrant farmworkers and to expand their understanding of connections between their good nutrition, exercise and health. The project will also facilitate any necessary follow-up care. The team will canvas migrant camps, housing projects, churches, flea markets and other venues to educate community members one-on-one and will also conduct group-training sessions at community events.
FORCE: Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered, based in Tampa, Florida, will expand their Peer Navigation Program to reach individuals affected by, or at high risk for, hereditary breast, ovarian or related cancers who lack access to risk management and prevention resources in rural Kansas. Through this project, FORCE will provide 150 people confidential one-on-one telephone support from highly-trained volunteers and a free personalized resource guide with information to help them find health care professionals who specialize in hereditary cancer.
Norton HealthCare in Louisville, Kentucky, will introduce a cancer education program, “Promotoras Tobacco Cessation in the Hispanic Community,” led by trained community educators to encourage Hispanic residents to stop smoking. The outreach component will use pláticas (conversational chats) as a method to assess the participants’ readiness to quit, taking cultural factors into account. The promotoras (community educators) will provide participants with relevant information and smoking cessation resources.
Penn State Health–St. Joseph Medical Center Foundation will reduce cultural, linguistic and socioeconomic barriers and improve access to breast health for Latinas in Reading, Pennsylvania, through targeted outreach, education and patient navigation. The program will use a promotora (community health worker) approach, and the group aims to provide one-on-one and group education for 500 Latinas, as well as screening mammograms for 100 of these women.
Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains in Denver will provide clinical breast exams and mammograms to medically underserved women at three of their clinics. In addition to medical services, the group will provide one-on-one preventive cancer education and assistance in navigating the health care continuum.
The Cambodian Family in Santa Ana, California, will use culturally and linguistically tailored health education workshops to reach 100 Cambodian women and their spouses. The workshops aim to promote healthy lifestyle changes, increase breast health knowledge and breast cancer awareness and improve access to screening services through bilingual case management and patient navigation.
The CHOW Project in Honolulu will implement a hepatitis B education program with the goal of testing at least 250 at-risk Pacific Islanders. The project will link those who test positive for the virus with hepatitis B care coordinators who will ensure they get necessary medical care and treatment to prevent liver cancer. In addition to testing, the program will provide culturally-sensitive and linguistically-appropriate hepatitis B education to patients.
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston aims to reduce the incidence of cervical cancer by improving access to screening and clinical management of cervical dysplasia (precancerous changes). They will train and mentor 50 medical providers located in five under-resourced regions in Texas. This will increase provider capacity to identify women with cervical cancer dysplasia and triage and treat them according to national guidelines, as well as build provider skills to find and treat dysplasia in underserved populations.
The awarded projects were chosen in a multi-stage review process, with statements of intent from organizations in 46 states. Grants were made possible by Awesome Games Done Quick.
Learn more about cancer prevention and ways to reduce your cancer risk.
About The Prevent Cancer Foundation®
The Prevent Cancer Foundation® is one of the nation’s leading voluntary health organizations and the only U.S. nonprofit focused solely on cancer prevention and early detection. Founded in 1985, it has catapulted cancer prevention to prominence and fulfills its mission through research, education, outreach and advocacy across the country.
For more information, please visit www.preventcancer.org.
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