HEALTH IS A RIGHT, NOT A PRIVILEGE

Type 2 diabetes is ravaging entire communities.  More than 34 million Americans have diabetes (about 1 in 10), and approximately 90-95% of them have type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes most often develops in people over age 45, but more and more children, teens, and young adults are also developing it. Of course, the underserved population being more vulnerable and at risk of developing type 2 diabetes. 

Our combat tactic is to focus on destabilizing the enemy by pushing physical activity and sensible nutrition.  Powerful tools to tackle the problem, but too often underutilized. 

We also want to move away from the rhetoric that cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are inherently part of a certain marginalized group in our population!  We believe that the attention placed on making these diseases a "defect" of the genetic baggage of some ethnic groups encourages a fatalistic culture.  In 2018, African Americans were 30 percent more likely to die from heart disease than non-Hispanic whites. Although African American adults are 40 percent more likely to have high blood pressure, they are less likely than non-Hispanic whites to have their blood pressure under control. African American women are 60 percent more likely to have high blood pressure, as compared to non-Hispanic white women.

Our DNA is not the defect.  Our way of life is.  Change what you input in your temple and watch the results become other than what the statistics are predicting.  Let's make physical activity, rest and sensible nutrition part of our lives, just like the air we breathe. 

The challenges faced daily by communities that have been under attack for centuries are insidiously woven into a stigma that hinders the mere thought of taking the first step towards assuring a state of mental wellness. We want to offer a safe space to combat this notion that our resilience must be accompanied by suffering and ignorance of our mental state.  Mental wellness is a right, a foundation, to the building that is called our whole self.  We want to normalize the conversation around mental wellness by confronting the barriers around the illnesses.  It is a process interconnected with many systems of wellness that should be addressed head-on and unapologetically!