National Black Church Initiative is a subsidiary of the DC Black Church Initiative

The National Black Church Initiative
Core Program Initiatives

NBCI HEALTH DISPARITIES INITIATIVE

NBCI’s 24-church health model is an innovative approach for faith-based communities across this country to use itself as a health educator. Healthcare professionals and religious leaders created the model as a result of a round table discussion over three years. The compelling reason behind creating this model was to get at the stubborn health concerns that were consistently found in minority, poor and rural communities. This model has been properly evaluated by a number of healthcares professional who has declared it as a proven technique of delivering critical and targeted healthcare information to underserved communities or specific target groups. We are proud of the successes of this model and look forward to working with you. Here are the characteristics of NBCI’s 24-church health model:

• Using faith-based communities as educators;
• Delivering critical health information to targeted groups or underserved communities in both urban and rural settings;
• Working successfully with healthcare experts in providing accurate, critical health information;
• Putting into place a structure that is easily integrated into Kansas’ existing healthcare delivery systems;
• Working toward achieving program overall objectives and goals and a sincere attempt to reduce statistical numbers in disease categories through health information, health education and health promotion programs; and
• To assist in the important task of collecting critical data for the purpose of developing accurate health policies and effective programming.

We look forward to working toward a relationship whereby we can apply this model to specific communities to tackle stubborn health concerns among targeted groups. One of the chief benefits of a model like this is not only the delivery of programming but also the critical collection of data.

NBCI BABY FUND INITIATIVE

The Baby Fund is a response to the rising tide of abuse, neglect, and death among infants and young children in our society. The Fund will be both a source of assistance and advocacy to meet the needs of children who have little or no voices of their own. The universal Church has a moral obligation to protect children. The philosophical and theological underpinnings of the Fund can be understood by all faith communities, noting the supreme value place upon children in scripture when God said, “Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for such is the kingdom of God.” www.BabyFund.info

NBCI HEALTH AND WELLNESS INITIATIVE

CHILDREN

NBCI has discovered a novel approach for addressing the childhood obesity issue in America. We will pay particular attention to African American and Latino populations, ages 6-18. There are four rubrics that govern our childhood obesity initiative: diet management, physical exercise, behavior modification, and accurate, easy-to-read child healthcare literature.

We have created a childhood obesity kit that we are presently seeking sponsorship and marketing opportunities to make this kit available to all children in need of it. The kit is governed by the four rubrics stated above. It is an innovative, interactive and computer-based kit that children will find engaging and fun, with the explicit purpose of maintaining health and wellness and reducing destructive eating habits.

ADULTS

NBCI, through its 16,000 faith-based community, in 2006 will announce the largest, faith-based obesity program in the country. Titled “The Jerusalem Walk Program,” this initiative will create an occasion for congregations to walk together under the leadership of their pastor. Together, the pastor along with his or her congregation will walk the distance of one mile in an area near their church’s location. This program will begin in 2006, with test runs in Washington, DC and Charleston, SC.

We have also developed and adult health and wellness kit, which is based upon the latest scientific evidence, on how to safely reduce weight and maintain health. The four rubrics that govern this kit are: diet management, physical exercise, behavior modification and accurate health literature. Like the childhood obesity kit, we are presently seeking sponsors and marketing opportunities to get this into the hands of those who desperately need it, in order to reduce weight and maintain health.

Another exciting project that NBCI will launch this year is the African American Women Health and Wellness Project. The purpose of this project is to engage African Americans through out faith-based community in a wellness tour of 10 major cities, with an
emphasis on providing them with practical information, motivation and critical information concerning nutrition. We are working with a number of national retail organizations as well as the USDA Center for Nutrition and Information. The primary focus will be to emphasize USDA’s “My Pyramid” for adults.

FINANCIAL LITERACY

Two years ago, NBCI launched a groundbreaking initiative that emphasized savings, investment and long-term financial planning. NBCI has teamed up with the America Save campaign in order to work with faith-based communities to encourage them to have their low-income congregants begin to save for an emergency fund, for a home, or for transportation. This savings campaign, with the participation of certain financial institutions across the country, allows and individual who is making hourly wage, or those who fall within the federal poverty rate, to save from $5-$20 dollars for these funds, or whatever purpose they deem. This will allow those who sit at the bottom of the economic ladder to have a fund to rescue them from an emergency situation that they did not anticipate.

The second portion of this groundbreaking initiative provides critical, financial education to single or married professional the ABCs of long-term investment. NBCI, throughout the 16,000 churches, posses a unique opportunity to impact the saving and investment rates of American once this program is widespread.

We conducted a demonstration project in 2004 and 2005; it was extremely successful. Now we are looking for national sponsors to expand this to our network of churches.

TECHNOLOGY INFORMATION LITERACY (THE DIGITAL DIVIDE)

The faith community recognizes how critically important it is to have a technically wise and wired congregation. The access to technology and to IT education is critically important for the church to be on the cutting edges of this technological revolution. NBCI’s initiative has two primary goals:

• To make sure that every person in America, regardless of age or station in life, has access to technology.
• To make sure that IT education opportunities are open to all regardless of income or race.

We plan to work with large technology companies such as Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google to ensure that we fulfill our mission.

NBCI ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVE

The mission of this initiative is for NBCI to utilize its enormous ethical clout and influence to support policies and programs to educate our congregants on the importance of the environment and to preserve the environment for all future generation. We plan to partner with the Big 10 environmental organizations to bring about this reality.

We also are committed to creating green environments throughout our faith-based communities across the country. We have a special emphasis on teaching our children the theological tenets of our faith regarding protecting and preserving the environment.

NBCI is a part of the National Black Environmental Justice Network.