Health Organization Helps Community Before and During Pandemic
Caption: President of First Ladies Health Initiative (FLHI) Tracey Alston (dressed in red) poses with healthcare providers in 2018 at the First Ladies Health Day. Photo by Stevesimage from FLHI’s Facebook.
High death rates from COVID-19 in the African American community has highlighted the fact that many African Americans have lacked adequate health resources for years. Although some public officials are just now learning the severity of this problem; one Chicago health organization, The First Lady’s Health Initiative (FLHI), has been working to make health resources accessible in disparaged, underserved communities.
President/Executive Director of the First Ladies Health Initiative Tracey Alston said, “Our First Ladies Health Initiative is 100 percent dedicated...we're focused on health... we literally transform the houses of worship [churches] into mini clinics.”
Helping The Community During COVID-19 Pandemic
Recently, FLHI has been collaborating with Mayor Lightfoot and some city aldermen on the mask donation “Chicago Together! Make a Mask, Give a Mask, Wear a Mask.”
Alston said, “I thought of it as a partnership opportunity for the First Ladies of Chicago to make a difference in the lives of those that are very much in the fray of this, which includes the homeless, and those that are in food deserts that would need this mass program that we're in. This promotion is going to actually serve the homeless and neighborhood community clinics and of course this is definitely something that we want to support.”
Just as the name implies, residents can create a face covering and donate that homemade or purchased face covering or mask to designated aldermen and churches associated with the First Ladies Health Initiative. FLHI collected donated masks every Tuesday and Saturday until May 16 and sent them to essential workers, health clinic workers and organizations serving those in high-risk communities at specific locations.
Beside helping with the mask donation, the organization has also added to its focus on healthcare using its connections to government to help brainstorm economic solutions.
Every Monday, Altson and her team speak with elected officials, health leaders, and actors during a weekly private conference call entitled “Solutions...Not Just Conversations.” Alston has spoken with Yaa Simpson (Epidemiologist, Chicago Department of Public Health), Rep. Danny Davis (IL - 7), Sen. Dick Durbin (D -IL), actress Lynn Whitfield, among others.
Alston said, “I just decided that I wanted to start with those legislators that could give us answers, one, about funding for the churches, and two, about funding for businesses. And three, was what they could do to tell us about resources that we could look to to be able to help our community.”
Additionally, these discussions are later opened up to the public during their weekly discussion called “Solutions… Not Just Conversations - Public Forum.” These conversations are held via FLHI’s social media.
Caption: A health provider checks the blood pressure of an attendee at the FLHI’s Health Day. Photo by Stevesimages from FLHI’s Facebook.
Improving Health Within The Black Community
In 2008, after noticing Black women were becoming infected by HIV at an alarming rate and the lack of resources in many communities of color, Alston created The First Ladies Health Initiative with ten first ladies also referred to as pastor wives by FLHI.
The faith-based 501(c) non-profit organization started in Chicago and now has other chapters in Los Angeles, Northwest Indiana, and the Sacramento/Oakland areas. FLHI has 60 plus participating first ladies and churches. For almost 13 years, the group has been able to help screen and educate 200,000 Chicagoland residents about preventable chronic diseases and cancers.
Alston, the granddaughter of a pastor, viewed the initiative as an opportunity for the pastor's wives to help educate and improve the health of their congregation and surrounding community. Although their first goal was to bring awareness and destigmatize HIV/AIDS within the African American community using Chicago Black churches as their platform, the group also educates the community on health issues such as stroke, cancer and diabetes.
FLHI has provided free health screenings, educational symposiums, and health walk events. Often they have transformed areas of their respective churches into mini clinics after worship services.
“Imagine going to church and you're hearing the service and you're hearing the choir and you're, you know, participating in just a day at church,” said Alston. “And at the end of church, when you come out [to] the lobby, the basement, the parking lot, whatever the choice is made [and it] transforms into a major clinic. We have over 40 health providers that really come through for us.”
Caption: President Tracey Altson poses with Walgreens employees at a health day event. Walgreens is the sponsor of the initiative. Photo Courtesy FLHI’s Facebook.
A big part of the success of the initiative is largely due to Walgreens Company. The corporate name of the organization is The First Ladies Health Initiative sponsored by Walgreens. Over the years, Walgreens has provided their mini clinics with equipment such as blood pressure screens. Additionally, the Chicago-based pharmacy has also provided services at FLHI events like administering flu shots to those in need. “Walgreens saw the need, and they saw the opportunity to be of service,” Alston stated.
Views On COVID-19 Within The Black Community
Alston believes that COVID-19 showed others what African American communities have been experiencing for years. “My name for COVID-19 is timeout. It put us in timeout, but it put us in timeout with a highlight on our community. And unfortunately, what we've known all along has come to the awareness of America. African Americans are in the worst health position than any and that has economic effects, but it also has health effects,” she explained.
One of the contributing factors to the underlying health conditions and higher death rates that Alston has noticed is that African Americans country-wide tend to live in food deserts. Consequently, residents have relied on neighborhood stores that lack fresh fruit and vegetables. Health providers have told Alston that the definiticy in nutritious meals has led to an increase in type 1 diabetes in Black children, an underlying condition that could make people diagnosed with it more susceptible to COVID-19.
Alston said, “That's just not okay. It's not okay. And that is because of the nutrition that they are receiving [or] the lack of nutrition that they are receiving. It's very common for a Chicago public school student to live in a specific area that will have Cheetos [chips] and juice as breakfast.”
She added that Chicago Public Schools is often how children receive healthy meals.
In the end, Alston believes that new awareness of health issues in the Black community due to the novel coronavirus could help eliminate food deserts in the future. “It's about closing the gap on the food industry or let me say closing the gap on the [disproportionate] amount of food stores available in the African American community,” she concluded.
FUTURE PLANS
Although COVID-19 could prevent the first ladies from having large health events in the future, Alston shared that The First Ladies Health Initiative has always tried to help improve the health of the community and still plans to fight for better and more resources. She said, “I feel very confident that the future is going to be a lot better than the past as it relates for the health of the African American community.”