NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: December 4, 2004
CONTACT:
Amon Marstiller
(919) 256-3586
North Carolina Healthy Start Foundation to Partner with WNCU Radio on Minority
Infant Mortality Education Campaign
Receive National Grant to Fund Outreach to African American and Latino Communities
December 1, 2004 -- (Raleigh,
NC) The North Carolina Healthy Start Foundation and
Durham's WNCU Radio (90.7 FM) have been awarded a combined
$42,500 national grant to launch Listen-Up -- First
Steps for Helping Babies, a comprehensive, minority
infant mortality education campaign.
The grant is part of Sound
Partners for Community Health, a project of the Benton
Foundation funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation,
aimed at increasing awareness of specific health issues
and encouraging citizen involvement nationwide. Grants
were also awarded to 25 other public radio and 10 public
television stations across the country to fund similar
health education collaborations.
The goal of the Listen-Up
campaign is to educate high-risk audiences on healthy
pregnancy practices
and proper
infant care during a baby's first year of life. Culturally
and linguistically appropriate radio programming
will be produced to reach African Americans and
Latinos
in the WNCU listening area. In North Carolina, infant
mortality rates are twice as high among African Americans
than Caucasians, and Latino infant deaths
are on the rise.
The Foundation will work
with WNCU staff and students from North Carolina Central
University's Health Education, Drama and English departments
to develop programming on topics including nutrition,
folic acid, preterm births, smoking cessation, SIDS
risk reduction and others.
"We are grateful for
the opportunity to collaborate with WNCU's dedicated
and experienced staff and feel strongly that together
we can reach the region's communities most affected
by infant mortality," said Janice Freedman, the Foundation's
executive director.
A wide variety of programming
will be developed and coordinated with other community
outreach efforts. "WNCU plans to produce vignettes,
mini-dramas, public service announcements, listener
call-in shows and live interviews," said Edith Thorpe,
WNCU general manager. "Community outreach will continue
with annual festivals, such as the Bimbe Festival and
Phoenix Fest, where the station already has an established
presence," continued Thorpe.
WNCU is a public radio
leader licensed to North Carolina Central University.
The station was founded in 1995 and serves its listening
audience with jazz music and relevant, community focused
programming -- including programming in Spanish. The
Sound Partners grant provides increased opportunity
for WNCU to extend its community outreach.
Planning and production
will begin immediately and programs are expected to
begin airing in the spring. The groups hope to extend
the reach of the project by providing programming to
the state's other public radio stations. Updates will
be posted at www.wncu.org and www.nchealthystart.org.
