Nashville Coalition Receives $4M Grant to Reduce Racial Disparities in Health

Backed by a four-year, $4.28 million federal grant, a "coalition of Nashville colleges, churches and health care providers" will work to reduce the "alarmingly high" rate of death from heart disease, stroke and diabetes among African Americans in north Nashville, the Nashville Tennessean reports. North Nashville's African Americans, who make up 90% of the area's population, are "more than twice as likely to die of strokes and diabetes than are white residents" of surrounding Davidson County. Led by the Matthew Walker Comprehensive Health Center, the Nashville Disparities Coalition is one of 24 community organizations in 16 states that have received federal money this month under the Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health program, an effort created to reduce "racial and ethnic disparities in health." The coalition plans to launch a "wide range of activities," including encouraging churches, schools and community groups to provide exercise, weight loss and smoking cessation programs. The group will also run health fairs and "door-to-door campaigns," and work with local restaurants to offer "more healthy types of food." Project director Linda McClellan said, "We hope to show an increase in people who participate in exercise, changes in diet, fewer deaths and fewer disabling complications from stroke and heart attack" (Snyder, Nashville Tennessean, 10/24).