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Initiatives

The Office of Minority Health uses a variety of innovative and non-traditional approaches to address the health needs of South Carolina minority populations. To learn more about current initiatives within the Office, please continue reading.

Count Your Steps Initiative (pdf)
A health promotion initiative intended to increase the number of minorities that begin a walking routine and to increase awareness of the benefits of walking. The Count Your Steps Initiative also includes a 2007 calendar. Read the director’s remarks and learn about health observances for 2007.

Prostate Cancer Initiatives
Prostate cancer awareness, education and screening initiatives targeting African American men in South Carolina.

• SC African American Prostate Cancer Network (pdf)
• Real Men Checkin’ It Out (pdf)

Protect Your Body . . . Your Temple
A faith-based media campaign designed to deliver health promotion and education messages in African American churches. OMH develops and distributes church bulletin inserts to promote healthy lifestyles. Click here to view inserts and order copies.

Minority Health Issues Conference
This is a forum for health and human service professionals to learn skills and knowledge necessary to render culturally appropriate services in communities of color. Topics include cultural competence, working with the Hispanic population, materials development and focus groups.

IMARA Woman Magazine and Empowerment Tour
Introduced in February 2001, IMARA Woman Magazine has become one of the most effective mediums to reach over 50,000 African-American women in South Carolina. The magazine’s mission is to empower women of color by being a source of inspiration on issues of health, professional development, education, business, and family. The publisher of the magazine is an African-American woman and with African-American women serving as contributing authors, the articles in the magazine are tailored to the life and culture of African-American women. IMARA Woman is published bi-monthly and features a health section in each edition. The magazine is distributed throughout the state of South Carolina, and is available in select locations in Georgia and North Carolina. Distribution outlets include churches, colleges and universities and businesses. OMH has been successful in building capacity of women of color through its sponsorship of the IMARA Woman Magazine’s annual Empowerment Tour. The Tour provides minority women with tools to integrate health tips into their daily lives. The women participate in interactive workshops on stress management, nutritional cooking, physical activity, and get screenings to increase awareness of their risk for developing health disparate conditions. As a result of this collaboration, DHEC received the 2005 Public Sector Award for its leadership, support and partnership efforts in health promotion/health education contributions to the magazine. DHEC has received the award for four years in a row.

Take a Loved One for a Checkup Day
A key component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) developed an educational campaign, Closing the Health Gap, to promote health as an important issue among racial and ethnic minority populations. The Office of Minority Health (OMH) served as the central contact for South Carolina for this national initiative; and coordinated agency/region and other partnership efforts in observance of the day. OMH also coordinated media coverage through culturally appropriate channels to reach the target audience to increase the awareness of health disparity issues.

Voices of the Community - Zero Health Disparities
An extension of the Minority Health Issues Conference, which focused on actively engaging the participation of minority communities in addressing health and environmental issues through holding community forums across the state. A report entitled, Voices of the Community - Zero Health Disparities: Community Forums on Minority Health, documented the findings which are used to promote and guide efforts at the community and state levels for policy, program planning and service delivery.

The Minority HIV/AIDS Demonstration Project
From 2000 – 2006, the Minority HIV/AIDS Demonstration Project provided leadership and statewide coordination to identify, develop and leverage local, state and federal resources available to minority community-based orbanizations (MCBO) with HIV/AIDS clients or prevention programs.  During this time, OMH identified more than 150 MCBOs.  OMH continues to address HIV/AIDS issues as one of its six priority health disparity areas.