FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 4, 2003
FY02-50
Six Local Organizations Announce Project to Implement Bush's Faith-Based Initiative in Six Inner-City Churches in Knox County
OAK RIDGE, TENN.—–“We want more and more faith-based charities to become partners in our efforts, our efforts to change America one heart, one conscience, one soul at a time,” said President Bush in December while launching his Faith-Based Initiative aimed at opening doors for faith-based groups to work with the federal government in addressing the needs of Americans.
Locally, a new collaborative partnership among the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), Baptist Health System of East Tennessee’s Parish Nurse Program, Knox County Health Department, Tennessee Department of Health’s Office of Minority Health, Knoxville Minority Health Coalition, and the Chi Eta Phi Nursing Sorority, Inc, Upsilon Chi Chapter has formed to work with faith-based communities to bring health information to minorities in the Knoxville community who might otherwise not have equal access to resources.
Called Consumer Health Resource Information Service (CHRIS), the project is the first faith-based initiative funded in Knoxville by the National Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. The goal is to disseminate consumer health information that addresses health disparities throughout inner-city churches with predominantly African American congregations.
The six Knoxville inner-city churches engaged in the project are: Payne Avenue Baptist, Greater Warner AME, Clinton Chapel, Lennon-Seney United Methodist, Rogers Memorial, and First Calvary Baptist.
Health disparities arise because minorities are more affected by certain health conditions than are other populations. They experience higher rates of cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, HIV infection/AIDS, and infant mortality, and have less access to immunization.
“This is the first faith-based project to address all of the health disparities consecutively in a single project in Knoxville with the potential of nation-wide replication,” explains Rose Foster, ORISE Medical Education and Outreach Group Manager. “It’s a collaborative community-health endeavor involving six inner-city churches and both state and local health organizations.”
The CHRIS project will span 15 months and will reach out to upwards of 700 people of all ages. ORISE is equipping each church with a computer workstation and will teach parish nurses how to access medical information on the Internet. These nurses will also receive specialized training from Baptist Health System of East Tennessee through their Parish Nurse Program.
“It is our profound hope that through this collaborative partnership, many positive health benefits will be gained from this project,” says Gale Dutcher of the National Library of Medicine’s Division of Specialized Information Services. Rose M. Durham, Project Lead of the CHRIS Project explains, “By providing more health information to inner city residents, they will be able to make better decisions regarding getting the health care they need and to make individual choices leading to healthier lifestyles.”
Under President Bush’s Faith-Based and Community Initiative, Centers for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives have been created in five cabinet departments – the United States Departments of Justice, Labor, Heath and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and Education.
Addressing health disparities is also a national priority. The goal of Healthy People 2010, laid out by the Department of Health and Human Services, is to increase both the quality and years of healthy life while eliminating health disparities by 2010 through educating and raising awareness of resources and health tests.