(Boston, MA) Boston Neighborhood Network Television (BNN-TV) is pleased to announce that that it has been awarded grant funding to develop and produce a grassroots public information campaign to highlight the gaps in health care between the races. The grant comes from the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) and is part of Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s one million dollar grant funding commitment toward the elimination of racial and ethnic inequalities in health care. The grants, which were awarded to 29 other organizations, are supported by public and private funding.
Curtis Henderson, BNN-TV General Manager, said, “We are glad that BNN will play a key role in the movement to help eliminate health disparities in Boston. We want to use our resources to shed light on how race, ethnicity and the environment affect health care.”
BNN-TV’s mandate is to (1) heighten visibility on health disparities and social justice issues and (2) create a grassroots information campaign aimed at Black, Latino and Asian Bostonians. The campaign will include the following elements:
The core messages of the campaign are that (1) race, ethnicity and environment affect health; (2) underserved health consumers have a right demand equality in health care; and (3) community advocates and providers are taking concrete steps to eliminate health disparities in the city of Boston.
A Collaborative Effort
The campaign will also focus on the efforts of 30 organizations to eliminate racial and ethnic inequities in health in Boston. The areas of emphasis are: data collection and quality improvement, patient education, health systems, workforce diversity, health insurance, public awareness, public training, community institutions, neighborhood investment and research needs.
The campaign will be produced in collaboration with Kelley Chunn & Associates, a Boston-based consultancy that provides creative services in multicultural and cause-related marketing and public relations. Karl Nurse Communications will provide video production services for the project.
In addition to the Boston Public Health Commission, funding for the grants was provided by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, The Boston Foundation, Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital.
To learn more about the health disparities project in Boston, log onto www.bphc.org/disparities. For more information about BNN-TV services, training and programming on Channels 9 and 23, visit www.bnntv.org
BNN-TV Mission Statement:
BNN-TV’s mission is to use media technologies to address unmet communications needs of individuals and institutions in Boston. Programming reflects the diversity of all of Boston’s neighborhoods.