Center for Minority Health

University of Pittsburgh Center for Minority Health Launches Public Phase of $1 Million Fundraising Campaign

ASPH Friday Letter
October 23, 2007

To support the further development and sustainability of the Healthy Black Family Project, the Center for Minority Health (CMH) in the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh hosted "An Evening of Casual Elegance" on Saturday, October 6. CMH has been awarded a challenge grant from the DSF Charitable Foundation, which will provide a 150 percent match up to $1.5 million. Approximately 160 guests attended the event, hosted in a private home in Pittsburgh’s Mount Washington neighborhood. Mr. William Strickland Jr., president and CEO of Manchester Bidwell Corporation and recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Genius Award in 1996, served as co-chair of the honorary planning committee with his wife, Mrs. Rose Strickland.

"This event launched the public phase of our strategy to raise the money for our portion of the challenge grant to advance the development and sustainability of the Healthy Black Family Project," said Dr. Stephen B. Thomas, Philip Hallen Professor of Community Health and Social Justice and director of the Center for Minority Health. The Healthy Black Family Project is an innovative community-based health promotion and disease prevention intervention designed to reduce and prevent diabetes and hypertension in Pittsburgh’s African-American community. Interventions include physical activity, nutrition education, smoking cessation, stress management and self management of chronic disease. Approximately 6,000 individuals have enrolled in the program.

"The overall goal of the Healthy Black Family Project is to close the gap in health status between blacks and whites through coordinated community mobilization that is culturally relevant and grounded in a public health approach," said Dr. Angela Ford, associate director of the center.

Dean Donald S. Burke of the Graduate School of Public Health, described the significance of the event. "Public health faces many challenges, but there is no greater challenge to public health than the elimination of health disparities. The challenge of eliminating health disparities is a daunting one. It will require more than just good intentions. It will require excellent science, visionary leadership, and a deep moral commitment. The Center for Minority Health and its leadership bring exactly these strengths to the Graduate School of Public Health, the University, and the region at large," he said.

May 2006 to May 2007 marked the silent phase of the fundraising campaign, during which $400,000 had been raised toward the challenge, Dr. Thomas announced. "Over the next seven months we must raise an additional $600,000 to reach our goal by the April 2008 deadline," he said.

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