(gentle music)
- REACH is very important to the health of our nation
in that it shines a light on those communities
that experience a disproportionate burden
of largely preventable conditions.
The REACH program was created in 1999
in response to a bold goal of helping people
to eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities.
REACH was created to challenge a long-held view
that racial and ethnic health disparities were intractable,
but in fact, we understood that it wasn't
that it was a problem that we could not resolve,
but we needed to come at it from a comprehensive
community-driven and culturally-tailored perspective.
- REACH came to our division in 2016 in a transition mode
and we were honored to get such a well-respected program
regarding health equity.
We integrated the program into our existing efforts
to address health disparities across the country
while still creating a space for the uniqueness
and rich history that REACH has in our division.
REACH aims to improve health across the country
and reduce the burden of chronic disease,
especially for those individuals who have the highest burden
of the disease, and they are the most vulnerable.
The key point of REACH is that that work is done
through communities and through community engagement
where the voices of those who actually are experiencing
the greatest health risks are part of the solution.
Despite decades of work to reduce health disparities,
they still exist and in fact they're getting worse
for some populations.
- [Leandris] Health disparities are differences
in health outcomes and their causes among groups of people.
Health disparities typically reflect differences
in where people live, where they learn,
where they work, where they play,
and how that social context either sets them up
to experience a greater burden of a health problem or not.
- We were supported, through REACH,
to help the Place Matters initiative,
which is an effort to help understand the importance
of place for health, the places where we live,
work, study, and play.
So the REACH grant was very important to help support
the infrastructure and training of our leaders working
in the Place Matters initiative.
- REACH communities have seen decreases in smoking,
they've seen increases in fruit and vegetable purchases,
they've seen decreases in obesity,
they've seen better control of hypertension,
they've seen increased access to physical activity
for their community members.
In fact, between 2014 and 2018,
2.7 million more people had access to good nutrition,
1.3 million people in the REACH communities
had improved access to physical activity.
770,000 people across this country had better linkages
to their healthcare system to address their diabetes
and their hypertension, and 650,000 people
had environments improved for tobacco-free living.
- [Brian] So it's important that we put communities
in the driver's seat, to help lead efforts
to solve challenges related to health,
and conditions for health in their communities.
REACH helps us to achieve that.
- [Leandris] Good health is our greatest resource
and REACH has the power to change minds and systems
and set communities on a path toward better health.
- [Ruth] The vision for REACH is to continue the momentum
and spread all the lessons we've learned across this country
into many other diverse communities where we can improve
the health of the individuals that live there.
(gentle music)