Cardiovascular Disease Enhanced Dissemination and Utilization Centers (EDUCs) Awardees

Awardee

Housing Authority of Baltimore City
Baltimore, Maryland

Target Population

The project's target population includes public housing residents, particularly African American families.

Proposed Strategy

This project will use both community- and environmental-based approaches to increase heart-healthy behavior among children and adults in public housing developments. Specific strategies include:

1. Conducting community cardiovascular health screening and referral services.
2. Conducting community health worker train-the-trainer programs.
3. Implementing environmental change activities, including working with neighborhood grocers and fast-food establishments to increase the availability of heart-healthy food, schools to improve nutrition and physical activity, and establishing safe places to engage in physical activity.
4. Encourage the development of community partnerships and coalitions in order to increase policymakers' awareness of cardiovascular disease issues.

The proposed strategies will focus on two NHLBI performance goals:

• Prevent development of risk factors.
• Detect and treat risk factors.

Anticipated Outcome

This project aims to achieve the following:

• Increase awareness and adoption of appropriate lifestyle behaviors to promote cardiovascular health.
• Increase community adoption of environmental change activities, such as increased availability of heart-healthy food and safe places to engage in physical activities.
• Increase in number of local partners concerned with and willing to advocate to improve the community's cardiovascular health.
• Increase in the number of trained community health workers to implement heart-healthy lifestyle change activities.