With the community taking the lead, reimagine clear and enduring changes within systems and communities to improve African - American women's access to and use of breast cancer screening, diagnosis, and treatment.
The data is alarming
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The variation in the five-year survival rate for Black women is 20 percent lower than for white women
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Black women with late-stage breast cancer have a 58 percent survival rate compared to 81 percent for white women
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Black women have the highest breast cancer mortality rates of all racial and ethnic groups
A four phased project
Phase 1 Brainstorm gaps in the to breast cancer continuum of care for Black women: Completed
Phase 2 Survey African-American community members & Healthcare providers: Completed
Phase 3 Radical collaboration and community co-design model implementations: Completed
Phase Four
TRANSFORM the messages and education about breast cancer screening into a community movement that endures over time.
EMPLOY the community co-design model so the movement is community inspired, led, and sustained
Prototypes:
Live, Laugh, and Learn Community Gathering
Live Laugh Learn 2023 will be a fun, music-filled education and screening event. The Breast Cancer Gaps Project and the Minnesota-Spokesman Recorder sponsor it. We expect to have over 200 women of African Heritage attend.
Men Matter, Too
Using the Community Co-Design process, this prototype will test ways Black men can promote mammography screening to the women they love. Through metrics from our messaging prototype and anecdotal conversations, we learned there’s a potential for men to change the mortality rate by urging Black women to get a mammogram.