RATIONALE

African Americans suffer disproportionately from many health conditions that occur during all stages of life (i.e. obesity, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), diabetes, cardiovascular disease), consequently, health messages should be targeted at African Americans of all ages. Nonetheless, many health outreach efforts are aimed at children, teenagers and middle-aged adults. One possible reason for this may be related to the captivity of these populations in certain settings (i.e. schools for children and teenagers and clinics for middle-aged adults). There are very few settings, however, in which to reach young African American adults (i.e. ages 19-35). Therefore, we propose a health outreach project directed toward young adults participating in various artistic events in Baltimore City.

SPECIFIC AIMS

Within the context of a web-based organization called Poetology.com that promotes poetry, spoken word, and other artistic activities and events in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and nationwide:

1. To develop a campaign surrounding general health issues; STD prevention, health promotion (diet, physical activity), and alcohol, tobacco and other drugs using poetry, spoken word, and music.
2. To use this campaign to outreach to young African American adults (i.e. ages 19-35) who participate in Poetology activities.

OUTREACH PLANS

Website Activities

We will develop a separate website (attached to the Poetology website) to promote health events conducted by the Morgan-Hopkins Center for Health Disparities and the Public Health field in general (i.e. World AIDS day and National Diabetes Month). For informational purposes, we will provide links to various health organizations (i.e. Baltimore city health department, CDC, etc.). We will update the website weekly or semi-monthly.

CD Project

To promote the health campaign, we will develop a CD featuring health messages in the form of poetry and music. The CD will feature the work of four professional poets and four amateur poets. We will advertise the development of the CD and hold auditions for contributions from amateur poets online. This will also serve as advertisement for the health campaign as a whole. The CD will be distributed free at Poetology events and online (with the purchase of another CD to avoid shipping costs).

Poetology Health Event

To promote the campaign, we will hold at least one event to exhibit the campaign agenda and other local talent. The health campaign will be implemented throughout Poetology’s various activities including online, festivals, concerts, and other venues.

EVALUATION

We will monitor the number of hits to the health component of the website and the links to determine if website activity will increase after the campaign. We can also conduct a brief-online survey to assess attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors related to health before the campaign and 6 months after the campaign.

SIGNIFICANCE

This project will attempt to target health messages to young African-American adults trough art and music. If our campaign is successful, it will reach over 35,000 on-line art and music lovers in over 40 states and 8 countries. Furthermore, our CD will be promoted and distributed nationwide with the professional poets. This outreach effort should positively influence health attitudes and behaviors of young African American adults.