The Force for Health® & Alphas Launch
Strategic Initiative
to Advance the Dream Together
The Force for Health® Network is honored and humbled to work with some select Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Chapters across the Southwest region, for a new, custom-built, national health, civics and STEAM-based program specifically designed to:
- Help sustain the DREAM, legacy and impacts that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. made in this world
- Promote happier and healthier citizenship for communities that care
- Build fellowship and leadership skills while creating community impacts on issues important to its mission
- Involve participants in creating digital media and content to better prepare for an information technology based workforce
- Impact minority health disparities and outcomes within a single generation
- Increase pathways for participants into community health worker pipeline opportunities
- Promote intergenerational mentorship opportunities
- Promote fun and healthy competition by gamifying and rewarding healthy citizenship engagement outcomes
- Create new, sustainable, and “easy to execute” campaigns that will generate new revenue streams
Main Contact: Josh Williams, National Project Director
Programs Offered: 2 12 week programs – 2020 Spring and 2020 Fall
Cost: Basic Level Programs are FREE with *Premier offerings between $5 – $99/year
*100% net proceeds will benefit the various hosting LEAGUE partners.
Project Partners
Project Leaders
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Why a Force for Health Project Now?
Snapshot of Current Health Disparities
Recently, there has been uptick of younger (35 – 49 yrs) African Americans getting sick from diseases that are more prevalent in older age group (50-64 yrs), which is worth concern and call to action now. Yes, individual decisions play a large role, but so do the Social Determinants of Health, so it will take a highly coordinated and collaborative approach to educate our citizens and civic leaders to this alarming trend to start reversing this rate back down as quickly as possible.
Did you know?
African Americans are at highest risk for the top 5 health conditions that cause sickness and even death, starting with babies…
As babies – Infant mortality rates are 2.5 times higher than all other races, regardless of income ( https://www.usnews.com/news/healthiest-communities/articles/2019-08-01/black-babies-at-highest-risk-of-infant-mortality
Stroke – Risk of having a first stroke is nearly twice as high for African Americans as for white Caucasians, and African Americans have the highest rate of death due to stroke (source: https://www.cdc.gov/stroke/facts.htm)
Diabetes – African American have the second highest diabetes rates, behind Native Americans and Pacific Islanders
Heart Disease – More than twice as likely to die from heart disease than other whites and hispanics
Cancer – African Americans are have highest incident rates of lung and prostate cancer, along with the highest death rates, adding breast cancer death rates, as wellcauses
Force for Health® Intern Projects to Demonstrate Why This May Be the Case
We all can be the FORCE for CHANGE...
but it starts with owning your own health now,
then working with others to challenge the inequities
that are affecting health outcomes for ALL Americans
The goals of the program will be:
- Challenge participants to be proactive about their own health now, with access to free resources and health tracking tools
- Connect interested participants with community learning and impact engagement projects designed to build leadership and management skills, and add to their resume or portfolio of deliverables
- Incentivize engagement by gamifying activities into a Healthy LEAGUE Challenge, with an opportunity for prizes and recognition within the Force for Health® Network
- Increase access and exposure to multiple health and science-based population health and impact based professional pipeline development
- Create measurable impacts and health outcomes collaboratively
- Develop a new, sustainable revenue stream that is easy and fun to execute
- Help build a replicable and scalable model that can grow into a National Program, then shared with other Divine Nine members who want to follow
Upcoming Timelines for 2020
July 6 - July 31, 2020
You Do Matter, a non-profit based in LA, focused on connecting 4th – 12th grade teens with technology and empowerment programs, goes National through the Force for Health™ Network, launching a 5 week virtual summer STEAM² Camp Experience, with special focus on Advance the DREAM Module
This 4 week innovative program offers fun-filled project based learning with incentives for rising 4th through 12th grade students.
Each week, STEAM campers jump into action, participating in exciting STEAM projects, Becoming a Force for Health, advocacy literacy with technology, advancing your health literacy, community resiliency and concluding with their own invention or final IDEAS project to be presented to their community as their final project.
Our campers have the opportunity to expand their horizons during the summer, embarking on new adventures, and having fun! Our exceptional program and dedicated staff create an environment that forges lifelong friendships among our campers. We create a summer experience which us both history making and unforgettable!