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 September is Sickle Cell Awareness Month What Can People with SCD Do?
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 It is especially important for people with medical conditions, such as SCD, that put them at increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19, and those who live with them, to protect themselves from getting COVID-19. Study finds people with sickle cell disease who developed coronavirus disease have high rates of hospitalization, intensive care unit admission , and death. For more information, see <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/people-with-medical-conditions.html"> CDC’s recommended precautions for people with medical conditions.
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 Additionally, people with SCD may have difficulty accessing healthcare providers who are knowledgeable about SCD. These challenges need to be considered when planning COVID-19 prevention measures. For more information, see <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/people-with-medical-conditions.html#hemoglobin-disorders"> CDC’s recommended actions specific to those with hemoglobin disorders such as SCD.
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Sickle Cell Awareness Month

Thompson & Associates provides training and technical assistance in Trauma-Informed Care to support the work of Stronger2 Community Partners. As a component of the Health Literacy Curriculum, Partners are equipped with a foundational understanding of trauma as well as tools and strategies to ensure that their work under the grant is trauma-informed. In addition to the training, partners have access to consulting support in the implementation of trauma-informed practices within their organizations. Taken together, these supports contribute to increasing Community Partners’ ability to successfully engage with the diverse population that they serve.

Thompson and Associates

The Emmanuel Worship Center is a Seventh-day Adventist Congregation located at 8145 Richmond Highway, Alexandria, VA. It’s a congregation with a great potential for growth.
 The organization is striving to establish educational facilities in the Mount Vernon area and make a positive impact on the surrounding community.
 Its mission is to offer family and health education to build strong families, healthy lifestyles, youth empowerment, and such psychosocial and spiritual services that are for the well-being of persons residing in the Mount Vernon and contiguous areas. 
 
 We are eager to reach out to everyone in the community, bringing them information on the Covid-19 Virus as well as methods to avoid infection and maintain excellent health.

Emmanuel Worship Center

Established in 1994 in Washington D.C., the National Hispanic Medical Association (NHMA) is a non-profit association representing the interest of 50,000 licensed Hispanic physicians in the United States.
 The vision of the organization of to be the national leader in improving the health of Hispanic populations.
 The mission of the organization is to empower Hispanic physicians to lead efforts to improve the health of Hispanic and other underserved populations in collaboration with Hispanic state medical societies, residents, medical students, and other public and private sector partners.
 On the Stronger2 Project, NHMA plans to coordinate virtual events and support in-person events to provide continuing medical education credits to diverse sets of health professionals to enhance their understanding of Health Literacy for the Hispanic community

National Hispanic Medical Association

Grapevine Health is a digital health communication, outreach and engagement company that supports under-resourced communities to achieve better health. Our approach to community-centered educational support is rooted in partnerships defined by mutual trust and respect. 
 During Covid-19, our team has increased on-the-ground outreach in underserved communities to better understand health information gaps, identify coronavirus-related misinformation, and tailor our outreach to maximize engagement. By authentically relating to the people around us, our goal is to cultivate emotional connections with community members that drive and sustain better health outcomes.
 For the Stronger2 project, Grapevine Health will be hosting and leading "Ask the Doctor" sessions to facilitate meaningful conversations between trusted messengers and Black community members in Fairfax County, with a focus on vaccine education and combating misinformation.

Grapevine Health

Located at 6415 Little Ox Road, Fairfax Station, VA, the Church of the Living God, NOVA is a Bible believing church that expounds the Word of God by teaching, preaching, and evangelizing in accordance with the commission of Christ. Our partnership with the Fairfax County Health Department&apos;s Stronger2 Project aligns with our goal to administer projects that would aide in the betterment of the community. We are striving to create and implement activities that will serve the community by educating and informing members on various health topics. Our aim, through this project, is to increase health literacy by educating and empowering residents in areas of their health, in hopes that they can make health-conscious decisions and greatly reduce any health disparities they may face in their pursuit of healthcare and living better and healthier lives.

Church of the Living God of Northern Virginia

The Virginia State University (VSU) is a public Historically Black land-grant University, located close to the Appomattox River at the apex of Ettrick, Colonial Heights and Petersburg, Virginia. Founded in 1882, VSU was developed as the United States’ first state-supported four year institution of higher education for African-Americans. The University has a 231 acre main campus and a 412 acre agricultural research facility know as Randolph farm. The main campus includes more than 50 buildings, including 18 academic buildings. The VSU College of Education serves as a proud partner and external evaluation lead for the Stronger2 project. Led by Dr. Willis W. Walter, Dean for the College of Education with research support services provided by Dr. Kimberly Gaiters-White, Dean of the College of Education and Professional Studies for Jacksonville State University in Alabama, the VSU Evaluation team leads the planning team efforts, provides technical assistance and conducts qualitative data collection. The VSU team serves as the lead contractors in conducting qualitative analysis, examining key outcome indicators, assisting in data visualization, and project improvement.

Virginia State University

Founded in 1957, George Mason University (GMU) is a vibrant, young public University, located in Fairfax, Virginia--only 18 miles from the nation’s capital. With the diverse student body of over 37,000 students from 130 countries and all 50 states, GMU is ranked one of the most diverse universities in the country. Mason is also a Research I university with more than $150 million externally funded research expenditure annually. The College of Health and Human Services (CHHS) of GMU serves as a partner for program evaluation and technical support for the Stronger2 project. Led by Dr. Alicia Hong and Dr. Farrokh Alemi, the GMU team leads the development of the Stronger2 web application for information sharing and data collection. The team leads development of online survey instruments, quality improvement tools, and data analysis for program evaluation. They also assist other aspects of program evaluation and data collection.

George Mason University College of Health and Human Services

The mission of the Alexandria-Fairfax (VA) Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc. is to serve the Northern Virginia and surrounding communities by providing innovative programs that positively impact our community, the youth, and chapter membership in a manner consistent upon the principles of which Kappa Alpha Psi was founded. 
<Our vision is to lead with an “Always First” mindset, following those key principles as exemplified by our chapter’s goals and accomplishments, even amidst the global COVID-19 pandemic that shutdown the world.
 
 
 To this end, the Alexandria-Fairfax Alumni Chapter (AFAC) top level goals are to Promote Achievement and Brotherhood; to Inspire Service in the Public Interest through our community service, mentorship, civic involvement, and scholarship programs; to Engage, Include, and Assist Our Undergraduate Chapter in their chapter outreach programs; and to Provide an Efficient Organizational Operating Structure between the various elements of AFAC Operating Units. These units include the AFAC, the Alexandria-Fairfax Kappa Scholarship Endowment Fund (AF-KSEF), and the Mu Mu Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. at George Mason University.
 Thereby creating multiple levels of synergies to increase efficacy.
 
 
 To inspire service in the public interest (Community Service, Mentorship, Civic Involvement, and Scholarship), the AFAC found new and innovative ways to implement programs to include the Stronger2 Health Literacy project. AFAC partnered with the Fairfax County (VA) Health Department to increase the health literacy and COVID-19 awareness in the minority communities within our communities of service. It is our intentions to develop and implement programs to engage the community in various ways that will promote healthy living and encourage individuals to take a more active role in their physical and mental health. In addition, the Stronger2 partnership will assist in increasing knowledge of COVID-19 and increase the vaccinations within the community of service.

Alexandria-Fairfax Alumni Chapter, Kappa Alpha Psi Scholarship Endowment

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.® is dedicated to implementing programs of service that enhance the social, economic, and educational well-being of the local, national, and international communities. The Zeta Chi Omega Chapter has been serving the Arlington and Alexandria communities and beyond since 1956.
 Under the Stronger2 Program, the Ivy Foundation of Northern Virginia and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.®, Zeta Chi Omega Chapter have partnered with the Fairfax County Health Department to launch a health literacy training series designed to educate the Fairfax County community about COVID-19, encourage vaccinations, and empower the community to protect themselves and others from COVID-19. 
 The Health Literacy Training Series will be held via Zoom every Thursday night from 7 pm to 8 pm beginning in February 2022. See Eventbrite for registration details.

Ivy Foundation of Northern Virginia, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. | Zeta Chi Omega Chapter

Founded by immigrant parents in 1998, Edu-Futuro has grown from a dozen determined volunteers to become one of the largest Latino-led grassroots organizations in Northern Virginia. The work of the nonprofit organization focuses on the concept of education as a critical catalyst for positive, permanent change in immigrant and disadvantaged communities. To improve the lives of our families, Edu-Futuro utilizes a Two-Generation service model that allows us to connect with parents and children in the same household simultaneously, always working to assist families break the cycle of poverty. 
 
 Each year, Edu-Futuro serves more than 3,200 youth and adults in Northern Virginia, providing students with a “classroom-to-career” path to college through our Emerging Leaders Program (ELP) while empowering parents to navigate the U.S. school system, improve family communication, and obtain better jobs through our Parent Empowerment Services (PES).
 No other community-based organization in Northern Virginia provides the comprehensive bilingual services offered by Edu-Futuro. The most tangible proof of the effectiveness of our programs for youth is the success of our 83 ELP graduates in 2021, who despite the many challenges of the COVID-19 crisis, were offered $5,557,892 in scholarships and financial aid for their first year of college, and a remarkable $21,468,490 in four-year renewable scholarships and financial aid.
 Edu-Futuro responded to the heavily disproportionate public health and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the immigrant community by mobilizing to become one of the leading providers of direct financial assistance to immigrant families in the Washington region. Since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis in March 2020, Edu-Futuro’s bilingual case managers have stabilized more than 1,200 households, and disbursed nearly $1,000,000 for rental assistance, food, utilities, and other basic necessities. 
 We are proud to be a Stronger2 Project partner, and will be working closely with the Fairfax County Health Department to create and implement a Public Health Youth Ambassadors Program for high school youth in the Hispanic/Latinx, African American, and Black African and student communities. The goal of the project is to engage and train a 300 youth by June 30, 2023.

Edu Futuro

Founded in 2018, the mission of the Emerson Diversity Health Foundation (EDHF)—a 501(c)3 nonprofit— is to promote health equity and educate vulnerable populations about health issues, healthy behaviors, and the importance of participating in clinical trials. It supports the Emerson Community Clinic (ECC), a division of the Emerson Clinical Research Institute (ECRI), to provide free health screenings, education, and low-cost medical care to underserved communities, especially those of Hispanic/Latinx origin, in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. In 2017, the Emerson Community Clinic opened its doors to provide healthcare access to patients in the Washington, DC area regardless of where they live, income level, migratory status, or access to health insurance.

Emerson Diversity Health Foundation

Los Ninos de Maria, Inc.’s general mission is to improve the quality of life of children and their family, one child at a time, and in particular in this project, the Stronger2 Project, our role includes dissemination of information to raise awareness among the Fairfax County community and the surrounding areas about the seriousness of this pandemic and how we can face it together and overcome it.
 
 
 We already have 8 certified people ready to start teaching Stronger2 Health Literacy classes in Fairfax County and another 12 people are waiting on the Spanish classes, to get trained and certified to be able to provide classes to residents of this same county.
 
 
 In addition, we have plans for the end of January and the beginning of February, to visit several trailers neighborhoods to distribute flyers about the COVID vaccination clinics and to schedule dates to get all interested families vaccinated. 
 
 We hope that by the summer of 2022 more than 50% of this population will be fully aware of the importance of vaccination against COVID-19 and decides to get vaccinated to protect themselves, their family and protect the community where they reside.

Fundación Los Niños De Maria Inc

Second Story provides safe havens and opportunities to grow and thrive for youth experiencing homelessness and youth and families in crisis. The Community Based Services Program provides safe havens and opportunities to grow and thrive for children, youth, and families. We work throughout the DMV area, and our programs are broad in scope, yet each of them shares a core goal: to offer safety and opportunities at critical moments to youth in crisis. We started operating our first program in 1972 for runaway youth and youth experiencing homelessness and have grown to meet the needs of children in our community ever since. We have served tens of thousands of young people since our inception. Among the COVID-19 pandemic, our program has grown to adjust changes to serve our community during public health crises better.
 
 
 Our collaboration with the Stronger2 Project is to distribute medical resources to our communities. Our mission is to enhance equitable community response to COVID-19. Our program is open to all children, youth, and families for participating in Health Literacy classes, access to health fairs, and an invitation to vaccine clinics hosted by our Community-Based Service team. Second Story aims to reduce the language barrier and inform accurate information in our community. Second Story is dedicated to ensuring access to the COVID-19 vaccine, COVID-19 testing’s location, and promoting additional resources from the Health Department to serve our community. Our objective is to create an impact to help serve families on navigating the ongoing pandemic to assist with personal endeavors and provide a sense of security.

Second Story

<h3>Description</h3>
The Institute for Public Health Innovation (IPHI) is a unique non-profit resource that builds partnerships across sectors and cultivates innovative solutions to improve health and well-being for all people and communities throughout the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia. Our work strengthens health service systems and public policy; enhances the environments and conditions in which people live, age, work, learn, and play; and builds organizational and community capacity to sustain progress.
 
 Formed in 2010, IPHI is one of 40-member public health institutes within the National Network of Public Health Institutes (NNPHI). Across the country, public health institutes are growing in number and have become an integral part of the nation’s public health infrastructure. Public health institutes work in conjunction with a myriad of public and private partners to protect and improve the public’s health, adding capacity for a range of functions from training to program development to research and evaluation. We are the official public health institute serving the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia, and have quickly grown into an important partner at the state and local levels across the region.

 <h3>Project Role</h3>
 Institute for Public Health Innovation (IPHI) will train and certify project implementation partners on a standardized health literacy curriculum model/ approach. Develop and implement Health Literacy curriculum. IPHI will ensure that partners implement the training with fidelity, adapt curriculum, ensure training evaluation/audit, improvement, and reporting. These partners will also design and implement additional trainings for the cohort of partners as needed. IPHI will provide technical assistance to all partners geared towards improving health literacy training implementation and implement QI strategies.
 
 The sessions will cover core elements of competency-based health literacy and topics relating to racial equity, cultural responsiveness, and trauma-informed care. Stronger2 training will occur over several weeks and involves extensive study in health literacy, trauma informed care, and program evaluation. Following training, the group will build and implement health literacy programs, with support from IHPI in the form of on-site Technical Assistance. Some of the key health topics that will be addressed in the health programming include COVID-19 vaccination, illness prevention, and health care decision making. Program participants will implement, share, and evaluate the results of their health programming. Program participants will also have the opportunity to discuss shared strategies and program best practices via a monthly Community of Practice, which IPHI will facilitate and lead.

Institute for Public Health Innovation

Psi Alpha Alpha Chapter, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. better known as “the Fairfax County Ques” has been serving the Fairfax County, Virginia community for more than 40 years.
 Its mission has remained consistent since its inception which is to serve and improve the lives of the citizens of Fairfax County by building on our fraternal foundation of Manhood, Scholarship, Perseverance and Uplift. 
 
 
 Psi Alpha Alpha Chapter is committed to providing a consistent focus on community service. The organization is recognized by civic and organizational leaders as a significant and valued brotherhood that responds to the needs of the community through social action programs, and serving as role models uplifting the community and supporting scholastic achievement.
 
 
 Our Partnership with Fairfax County Health Department under the Office of Health and Human Services grant project,” Stronger Partnership, Stronger Community (Stronger2)” which uses health literacy to increase resiliency in the community to close the gap in healthcare and other disparities amongst minorities is a natural pairing. COVID-19 has put a spotlight on these disparities, especially in the Black and Latino communities.
 The cost in terms of human lives and economic deprivation has been devastating. As a Fairfax County community-based organization, Psi Alpha Alpha Chapter is doing everything in its power to combat the pandemic, and the social economic status of not only the minority citizens in Fairfax County (southern corridor), but its citizens at large.

Psi Alpha Alpha Chapter, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.

ICNA Relief USA seeks to alleviate human suffering by providing caring and compassionate service to victims of adversities and survivors of disasters. ICNA Relief USA strives to build healthy communities, strengthen families and create opportunities for those in despair while maintaining their dignity.

Volunteers from across the country help us accomplish our mission every day. We are a Muslim organization and feel it is our religious responsibility to support those in need in our country regardless of their race, religion or other identifying features.