Body & Soul and the Blues Community Challenge A collaborative partnership between Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and the American Cancer Society http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmHXgBcQvmY Presenter: Cle J. Jackson, Blue Cross Blue of Michigan, senior community liaison Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan is a nonprofit corporation and independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.
The emerging changes within health care and our economy make it increasingly important for our communities to harness the power of collaboration. Body & Soul and the Blues Community Challenge Initiative began as a partnership between the American Cancer Society and the Michigan Blues. It consisted of eight months of health education events and activities and a 12-week fitness challenge among African- American church congregations. Our focus was to leverage resources and program expertise on how we could better collaborate to meet diverse community health care needs and plan a course of action around expressed concerns, experiences and ideas for change.
The purpose of the Body & Soul and the Blues Community Challenge initiative is to: • Heighten awareness about the importance of health prevention and health outcomes in the African-American community by partnering with the African-American faith community. • Provide opportunities for health education that’s culturally relevant. • Increase health literacy to reduce the gap in health disparities in the African-American community.
Participants in the Body & Soul and the Blues Community Challenge initiative, since inception of the pilot in 2009 include: • 56 statewide African-American churches • Universities • Municipal governments • Businesses • State governmental agencies • Non-profit organizations
The Process: The Body & Soul and the Blues Community Challenge initiative includes pastoral invitational meetings and community dialogue around teamwork and improving health. All parties agree that the following could help facilitate more collaboration and improve health outcomes: • Pastor support and involvement • Church and individual incentives • Increased opportunities for education and self-improvement • Church activities that promote healthy eating • Church environment that promotes healthy eating • Peer counseling • Mutual meeting places • Grass root efforts
Program outcomes: • Total number of participating churches: 56 • Total participants in the 12-week fitness challenge : 3,840 • Total miles of physical activity logged: 590,879 miles • 38 Churches trained on the MIChild/State Children’s Health • Insurance Program (SCHIP) • >1000 women reached thru the American Cancer Society Tell a Friend Breast Cancer Awareness program • Significant changes in health behavior as respondent’s validated the benefits of healthy behaviors with an improved health rating of “very good to near excellence” rating (4.94, p .000) based on the pre - and post - intervention measurements • Received the 2010 and 2011 Michigan Cancer Consortium Spirit of Collaboration Award • Received the 2010 Communitas Award • Total dollars invested to support church health ministries initiatives and programs $72,000
Next steps: • Community asset mapping that outlines current efforts to decrease health disparities and address the social determinants of health • Identification of additional partners and intentional collaborative relationships • For churches interested in becoming part of the network, completion of the Michigan Department of Community Health Walking by Faith Healthy Congregation congregational health assessment • Investigation of additional corporate and foundation partners concerned with addressing health disparities
Thank You! It’s All About Health! Learn more about our programs by visiting http://www.ahealthiermichigan.org or finding us at bcbsm.com in the About Us section.
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