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	Mayor, BPHC Launch New Initiative on Cancer Awareness
10/2/2007 - Released by Mayor's Office
For more information contact press office
Mayor, BPHC Celebrate Grant and Launch New Initiative on Cancer Awareness Mayor Thomas M. Menino announced today that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has designated Boston as a Center of Excellence in the Elimination of Disparities, bringing millions in federal funds to the city for work focused on cardiovascular disease and breast and cervical cancer as they affect black residents. “The center will allow the City of Boston to further develop the disparities elimination model, and to expand our work with partners in public health in New England,” Mayor Menino said. “As one of only 18 such centers in the country, we will be in the unique position to lead the charge in this region.’’ Mayor Menino, himself a cancer survivor and proponent of early detection and treatment, made the announcement flanked by several local black women who are breast cancer survivors and are featured in a new poster advertisement campaign. He unveiled the campaign, called “Pink & Black,” on the steps of the museum at the National Center of Afro-American Artists in Roxbury. The campaign was developed by the Boston Public Health Commission’s (BPHC) REACH (Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health) Coalition to dispel the notion that breast cancer only affects white women and to educate minority women about the impact of the disease on them. Video: Pink and Black, Reach 2010 Campaign “Black women have the highest death rate from breast cancer than any other group,” said Dr. Nancy Norman, medical director at BPHC. “This mortality disparity is especially chilling given the fact that black women in Boston received mammography screening at higher rates than whites.” CDC is providing REACH with an $850,000 grant in the first year of a five-year award that is expected to exceed $4 million. The Center of Excellence will bring to scale the work pioneered by the Public Health Commission and the city of Boston. The money will be used to provide training, education, and technical assistance and support to other New England communities working to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities. It will also support the development of training curricula to educate community health workers about the disparities that exist around breast and cervical cancer and cardiovascular disease. In addition, Boston will work with communities across the region to help them establish their own blueprints for eliminating racial and ethnic disparities.

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