FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Betty Braxton, 704-920-1345
Date: April 10, 2008

Healthy Lives, Healthy Futures Community Wellness Program Gets Underway Kannapolis, N.C.

The Cabarrus Health Alliance in collaboration with the Cabarrus County Department of Aging and CMC-NorthEast Parish Nursing & Ministry have begun implementation of their well received Healthy Lives, Healthy Futures (HLHF) community wellness program. The Cabarrus Health Alliance has received a $1,140,959 grant, over seven years, from the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust of Winston Salem to implement the Healthy Lives, Healthy Futures (HLHF) community wellness program. The HLHF community wellness program works with low income youth, adults, older adults, and adults with disabilities in the counties of Cabarrus, Mecklenburg, and Rowan to prevent chronic diseases such as heart disease, stroke, and diabetes through positive behavior changes in physical activity and nutrition. The HLHF project staff is currently partnering with several local churches and senior centers for the first two years of the program and will continue to work with additional sites over a seven year period. At the conclusion of the program, 33 total community sites will be part of the HLHF community wellness program. The key element in the HLHF community wellness program is a community and faith-based train-the-trainer program for volunteer Community Health Advocates (CAs). At least two to three volunteers from each community site will be selected to become CAs. They will receive free training workshops provided by the Cabarrus Health Alliance to learn how to lead safe and effective exercise classes as well as provide basic nutrition information to program participants. Once trained, CAs will lead exercise classes with the assistance of the HLHF program staff until they are comfortable teaching on their own. The goal of the CA is to maintain and promote positive lifestyle changes within the community. “Training CAs to provide wellness services not only helps empower the community to make healthier choices, it sustains a higher quality of wellness within the community when a program like HLHF ends.” – Jenn West, HLHF Community Wellness Coordinator The HLHF community wellness program will also provide participating sites with free resources including: exercise equipment, health assessments, tobacco cessation classes, health promotion educational materials, and prizes and incentives to motivate participants and sustain the program. The Cabarrus Health Alliance offers comprehensive public health services, including women's and children's health services, chronic and communicable disease prevention, dental care, environmental health, case management, school health services, and health education. To learn more about the Cabarrus Health Alliance and its services, please visit www.cabarrushealth.org. The Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust was created in 1947 by the will of Mrs. William N. Reynolds of Winston-Salem. Three-fourths of the Trust’s grants are designated for use for health-related programs and services across North Carolina and one-fourth of the poor and needy of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Betty Braxton, 704-920-1345
February 22, 2008

The Cabarrus Health Alliance Receives $1,140,959 Grant from
Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust
Grant will support Healthy Lives, Healthy Futures Community Wellness Program.

Kannapolis, N.C. – The Cabarrus Health Alliance has received a $1,140,959 grant, over seven years, from the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust of Winston Salem, Betty B. Braxton, Public Relations Director, said today.

The funds will be used to implement the Healthy Lives, Healthy Futures (HLHF) community wellness program. The goal of Healthy Lives, Healthy Futures is to work with low income youth, adults, older adults, and adults with disabilities in the counties of Cabarrus, Mecklenburg, and Rowan to prevent chronic diseases such as heart disease, stroke, and diabetes through positive behavior changes in physical activity and nutrition. Trained volunteer community health advocates, with assistance from project staff, will teach weekly group exercise classes and provide nutrition education at participating sites and will utilize incentives to motivate participants and sustain the program, according to Paige Waldrop, MPH, Project Director.

“Our organization has successfully implemented this program in the past from 2001-2006. During this time, we provided basic exercise and nutrition training to 25 community volunteers, provided Healthy Lives, Healthy Futures programming to 17 low income sites including African American churches, and reached over 775 low income community members with Healthy Lives, Healthy Futures services. As a result of this program, we saw statistically significant decreases in the participants’ blood pressure and wait-to-hip ratios, along with positive increases in regular physical activity and consumption of fruits and vegetables,” Waldrop said. “The grant from Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust will give us additional resources to improve and expand upon our original Healthy Lives, Healthy Futures program and provide these preventative services to an additional 2,000 low income community members through programming at 33 new sites over the next seven years.”

The Cabarrus Health Alliance offers comprehensive public health services, including women's and children's health services, chronic and communicable disease prevention, dental care, environmental health, case management, school health services, and health education. To learn more about the Cabarrus Health Alliance and its services, please visit www.cabarrushealth.org.

The Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust was created in 1947 by the will of Mrs. William N. Reynolds of Winston-Salem. Three-fourths of the Trust’s grants are designated for use for health-related programs and services across North Carolina and one-fourth of the poor and needy of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Betty Braxton, 704-920-1345
February 21 , 2008

The Cabarrus Health Alliance Receives a $5,000 Grant from the
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation

Grant will support chronic disease prevention initiative, Healthy Lives, Healthy Futures

Kannapolis, N.C. – The Cabarrus Health Alliance has received a $5,000 grant from the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC) Foundation to provide exercise equipment to seven low-income community sites through the Healthy Lives, Healthy Futures program. This equipment includes such items as hand weights, exercise balls, mats, and jump ropes.

Funded largely by the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust, the Healthy Lives, Healthy Futures program works with low income youth, adults, and older adults in the counties of Cabarrus, Mecklenburg, and Rowan to prevent chronic diseases such as heart disease, stroke, and diabetes through positive behavior changes in physical activity and nutrition. Trained volunteer community health advocates, with assistance from project staff, will teach weekly group exercise classes at participating sites and will utilize the equipment to motivate participants and sustain the program.

“This grant provides the opportunity to improve access to chronic disease prevention programming among low income citizens, who often experience greater health disparities. The Cabarrus Health Alliance is proud to work with BCBSNC Foundation to improve the health of our community,” stated William F. Pilkington, Health Director of the Cabarrus Health Alliance.

“We believe that by supporting this great work, we are continuing to align our Foundation with organizations, programs and people capable of improving the health and well-being of North Carolinians,” said Kathy Higgins, President of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation.

Statewide, the BCBSNC Foundation invested more than $690,000 in grants to 14 organizations as part of this most recent grant cycle. The BCBSNC Foundation focuses on three key areas: improving the health outcomes of vulnerable populations served by safety-net organizations, promoting healthy and physically active communities, and increasing the effectiveness and capability of nonprofit organizations in the state. More information can be found at www.bcbsncfoundation.org.