Healthy Savannah’s Faith and Health Coalition will host a free community event to celebrate health, wellness and springtime fun on Sunday, May 4 at Lake Mayer Community Park. Everyone is encouraged to attend and invited to RSVP at https://www.punchbowl.com/parties/d5994cf7c0bf8bf93bdd.
Called “Faith Walk”, the event will be held from 4 to 6:30 p.m. at the Lake Mayer pavilions, located at 1850 E. Montgomery Cross Rd. Activities will include a variety of healthy resources and giveaways for adults and games for kids such as corn hole, jump ropes and Hula-Hoops.
“Healthy Savannah will be giving away free local produce from Forsyth Farmers’ Market on a first come first serve basis,” said Ruby Castro, Nutrition Program manager. “Representatives from Tide to Town, GirlTrek and the Faith and Health Coalition are also expected to be on hand with exciting information about those programs and to help show off the benefits of walking and bike riding.”
Attendees will also be able to participate in a healthy walk around the Lake Mayer trail which provides a connection point to the Truman Linear Park Trail.
“At the heart of this event is our desire to show that we care for our community and recognize the need to reconnect with each other,” said Pastor Yolanda Roberson, executive pastor at Kingdom Life Christian Fellowship and chair of the Faith and Health Coalition. “Through this Faith Walk we are encouraging and empowering the entire community to join with those from our faith-based organizations to enjoy fellowship and healthy activities together.”
Healthy Savannah’s Faith and Health Coalition is a sub-committee of Healthy Savannah, formed in 2014 to support faith-based organizations in implementing policies and programs that promote health. The Coalition strives to help elevate the health and wellness of the community through funding from an initial $3.4 million, five-year CDC Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) grant awarded in 2018 and a second five-year, $5.1 million REACH grant awarded in 2023, both administered by Healthy Savannah and the YMCA of Coastal Georgia. Representatives of local churches and other faith-based organizations are invited to become involved in the Faith and Health Coalition which meets from 6-7 P.M. on the first Monday of the month at Kingdom Life.
“As we walk around Lake Mayer, we’ll be pointing out aspects of the Truman Linear Park Trail and sharing updates about the entire Tide to Town urban trail system project,” said Armand Turner, Healthy Savannah’s executive director, who also serves as a board member with the Friends of Tide to Town. “We’ll also encourage the Faith Walkers to join us for our weekly Healthy Walks each Tuesday morning that allow people to meet new friends, experience our local trails and parks and see areas of our city and county from a different perspective.”
Friends of Tide to Town is a nonprofit organization formed in 2017 to advocate for the development and promotion of Savannah’s Urban Trail System through community engagement activities.
Construction of the final three-mile stretch of the Truman Trail from DeRenne Avenue to 52nd Street is in progress. Once completed, it will fully connect the Lake Mayer Park Trail Loop to the Daffin Park Trail Loop, creating nine miles of continuous off- and on-road bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure through the heart of Savannah. The entire Tide to Town project is expected to connect 75% of Savannah’s neighborhoods to safe walking and biking infrastructure. It will include a network of 30+ miles of bikeable and walkable trails connecting more than 60 neighborhoods and 30 schools in Savannah and Chatham County, from downtown to the marshes and waterways.
Healthy Savannah’s online Healthy Walks map, https://healthysavannah.org/our-programs/physical-activity/healthy-walks-story-map/, shows trail routes all across Savannah and Chatham County. Trail users are encouraged to share walk experiences by tagging photos and videos with #activepeoplehealthysavannah, #activepeople and #HealthyWalk.
ABOUT THE YMCA OF COASTAL GEORGIA/HEALTHY SAVANNAH GRANT FOR RACIAL AND ETHNIC APPROACHES TO COMMUNITY HEALTH
In September 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded a second grant called Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) to Healthy Savannah and the YMCA of Coastal Georgia. $5.1 million in funding is being deployed over a five-year period to be utilized in an “upstream” approach to foster sustainable health equity among racial and ethnic minority populations in low-wealth neighborhoods in areas of nutrition, physical activity and the reduction of chronic diseases. The renewed funding enables work to continue which began under the initial, five-year, $3.4 million REACH grant awarded in 2018, and a supplemental grant awarded in 2021 to increase awareness and acceptance of COVID-19 and flu adult immunizations. Working with more than 200 community partners and organizations, the Savannah/Chatham County project team’s specific goals in implementing the new five-year grant include fostering physical activity by creating greater access to safe places to walk, run, bike and play; elevating the health and wellness of the community through policy, systems, and environmental change; and providing education and awareness regarding adult immunizations, especially as they relate to health disparities in chronic conditions of hypertension, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and obesity. The administrators will also continue to foster stronger connections between people and the healthcare providers who serve them by supporting awareness and use of the HERO Help Me database. In July 2022, Healthy Savannah received the CDC’s 2022 REACH Lark Galloway-Gilliam Award for Advancing Health Equity Challenge. The award recognizes extraordinary individuals and entities whose work has contributed to advancing health equity.
healthysavannah.org | ymcaofcoastalga.org
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