Faith & Fitness Rural Health Innovations Project
The Randolph County Caring Community Partnership (RCCCP) through our Women’s Health Initiative proposes to expand our Faith and Fitnessprogram to an additional site in Audrain County and the inclusion of participants from Chariton County as a part of our current Faith and Fitnessprogram offered in Randolph County. This rural health innovation service will target African American women who are participants in our Sister Survivor breast cancer awareness and education program funded by the Mid-Missouri Affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. Our Faith and Fitnessprogram we will offer 12 weeks of the “With Every Heartbeat is Life” Community Health Workers Curriculum created by the US Department of Health and Human Services National Institute of Health. The “With Every Heartbeat is Life” is a free curriculum designed specifically for African Americans and offers cultural adaptations that are appealing and relevant to African American communities.
The Faith and Fitness program serves as a complement to our Sister Survivor program by providing additional group meetings focusing upon healthy lifestyle choices through self-healthcare management. In addition, participants will have an opportunity to engage in physical fitness activities through a faith and fitness center as a member of a GRACE Group. A GRACE Group is a group of 5 women that agree to exercise together a minimum of 3 days per week for at least 30 minutes and to serve as a source of emotional support for each other. The faith and fitness center provides an easily accessible, culturally sensitive, and highly personalized place to participate in physical fitness activities.
To monitor participant performance and follow up with health related screenings and other psychosocial supports our rural health innovation service will place emphasis upon the utilization of Health Information Technology through a client management system. This web based system will allow our staff and providers to connect internally or externally to coordinate a comprehensive continuum of care that will allow efficient tracking of client services and outcomes. Through this system our Site Coordinators will have the capacity to follow up with participants in regard to referrals made to service providers offering physical, psychosocial, and social health support services.
Our rural health innovation service will show success through the following outcomes:
- Increase in participant knowledge of health risk factors associated with cancer, cardiovascular, and diabetes
- Increase in access to health care and other vital services through resource and referrals made through the client management system
- Decrease in acceptance of a sedentary lifestyle through engagement in group physical fitness activities
Show Me Healthy Woman
Show Me Healthy Woman provides free breast and cervical cancer early detection services for low-income women through provider clinics across the state. Show Me Healthy Women (SMHW) has provided services in Missouri for 20 years.
Wisewoman
Wisewoman provides free heart disease screenings and lifestyle intervention sessions to Show Me Healthy Woman clients. Wisewoman services have been available in Missouri for 10 years.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services is partnering with the Randolph County Caring Community Partnership to increase direct contact with potential and current clients to connect them to Show Me Healthy Women and Wisewoman services. Services target low income women that meet the following qualifications.
