Elm City Health

A Collaborative Effort to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities in New Haven in which the Yale School of Public Health is a leading partner has received a $3.4 million grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that will allow it to continue for another five years.

The funding comes from the CDC’s Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) program, which seeks to reduce chronic disease inequities among Black and Latino residents.

The grant is the second consecutive five-year REACH award received by the Community Alliance for Research and Engagement (CARE), co-housed at YSPH and Southern Connecticut State University. CARE works closely with its New Haven community partners to implement community-driven interventions to improve health through research, assessment, and systems-level changes.

“Our accomplishments are really due to the partnerships we have throughout New Haven,” said Dr. Kathleen O’Connor Duffany, PhD ’15, MEd, director of research and evaluation at CARE and an assistant professor of public health.

Some of the impactful initiatives that were made possible with REACH funding over the past five years include the Greater New Haven Coordinated Food Assistance Network’s launch of more than 50 community-driven actions that helped improve access to healthy foods.

The Supporting Wellness at Pantries program, which aims to increase access to healthier food in pantries, expanded to 10 pantries benefitting over 25,000 clients each year.

CARE and New Haven Healthy Start established the New Haven Breastfeeding Task Force. A citywide awareness campaign engaged 79 local businesses. The task force helped train more than 260 doctors, nurses, and other health workers to address racial inequities in breastfeeding.

CARE supported the development of a “Safe Routes for All” plan to improve New Haven’s walking, riding, biking, and transit infrastructure. CARE worked with city leaders and residents from low-income and Black and Brown communities so that they had a say in the local policy development.

New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker, MBA, MEM ’10, praised CARE for its investment in and support of New Haven residents.

CARE Director Alycia Santilli, MSW, of Southern Connecticut State University’s College of Health and Human Services, noted that more than 30% of New Haven households are food insecure and that Black and Latino residents are much more likely to suffer from chronic diseases than their white counterparts.

She said CARE’s focus on supporting and sustaining these community-driven initiatives played a vital role in obtaining renewed CDC funding.

Dionne Lowndes, a registered nurse, is the maternal and child health manager at ACES Early Head Start in Middletown, Connecticut. A certified breastfeeding educator, she is also a member of New Haven’s Breastfeeding Task Force working to raise awareness of the health benefits of breastfeeding. Breastfeeding, she said, can also reduce a mother’s risk for high blood pressure and cancer.

Susan Harris, a member of Witnesses to Hunger, the New Haven Coordinated Food Assistance Network (CFAN), and CARE’s REACH Grant Steering Committee, recently organized a “school break grocery distribution” to assist families during school vacations when their children don’t have access to in-school meals.

“With this next five years of funding, CFAN is committed to continuing to identify solutions to food insecurity. This includes identifying policies and systems that can help pantries get more healthy food to families in New Haven because food is a right, not a privilege,” Harris said.