https://www.ifpha.org/

The Institute for Preventive Healthcare and Advocacy has expanded programming to include outreach and education events at several local BIPOC churches to support with healthy eating, diabetes prevention, and chronic disease screening.

October – December 2022: IFPHA was able to connect with 71 BIPOC residents of Buncombe County through new church outreach and education events. IFPHA partnered with a local community health worker organization, UNETE, to outreach 84 community health workers and provided training and education on diabetes and heart disease prevention. IFPHA provided their monthly lunch and learn series on healthy eating and diabetes prevention for 11 BIPOC Buncombe residents and linked 67 home-bound Buncombe County residents to primary care provider services for ongoing prevention and screening. IFPHA is partnering with the UNC-Asheville Health and Wellness department for support with developing and implementing a process for collecting 'better off' data for CHIP performance measures - it is anticipated that these data points will be collected and available in March 2023.

In 2023, IFPHA's focus was on outreach to historic Black neighborhoods and churchs in Buncombe County. Three local churches engaged with programming in 2023, allowing IFPHA to provide regular education and learning sessions, vital monitoring for early detection of chronic disease, and group activities related to health equity. As 2023 data reflects, IFPHA's programming has continued to reach and effectively engage community in learning about a variety of health topics, including the connections between stress and health outcomes, and methods for improving health related to food/diet, exercise/movement, and connection/social supports.