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Area Black Nurses Association promotes healthy habits in community
YOUNGSTOWN
Nearly 35 years after its inception, the Youngstown-Warren Ohio Black Nurses Association continues to build on a legacy with roots in the civil rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s.
From scholarship offers to community health screenings to prescription assistance, the nonprofit organization actively works to improve the health of community members and expand opportunities in the nursing profession for people of color.
“We work to educate specifically the black community – specifically, because it’s where we live and where we work. We’re very active in our congregations. We work to educate and promote healthy habits, and clean living,” said president Carol Smith.
The group’s initiatives include: scholarship awards to several nursing students each year to encourage minorities to enter the profession; community health screenings; collaborative projects with other healthcare organizations; a senior citizen prescription assistance program; monthly blood pressure checks; health and career fairs; continuing-education seminars; and programs such as “300 Sisters in Red,” which promotes heart health.
“We’ve got a wealth of experience here. ... We’ve got business owners, nurse practitioners, educators,” said Smith. “It’s just a diehard group of nurses who work to provide medical screenings and education for the community at large.”
The YWOBNA is a chapter of the National Black Nurses Association, which represents 150,000 nurses nationally and has nearly 100 local chapters, according to its website.
Noting black Americans’ exclusion from healthcare opportunities available to white Americans, NBNA aimed “to investigate, define and determine what the health care needs of Black Americans are and to implement change to make available to Black Americans and other minorities health care commensurate to that of larger society,” according to a statement of its philosophy.
It organized in 1971 under the leadership of Dr. Lauranne Sams, former dean and professor of nursing at Tuskegee University’s nursing school.
“The Civil Rights Movement was the primary impetus that moved black people from all professions and all walks of life to action. Black nurses were no exception,” reads a history on NBNA’s website.
“The founding members of the National Black Nurses Association recognized that in order to make a difference in the quality of life in our communities, black nurses across the nation had to take the lead. Through the founders’ collective vision, persistence and commitment, all black nurses now had an organization whose primary reason for being was to improve the health status of black people in the United States of America,” it reads.
It’s in that spirit that YWOBNA works today. Smith said one of the group’s essential functions is to bridge the gap between community members and healthcare providers, in cases where there may be a disconnect.
In addition to its roughly 20 active members, the group noted the contributions of previous members.
“YWOBNA would like to thanks its founders and past members for being trail-blazers and for their support,” YWOBNA said in a statement.
For more information about the association and its upcoming programs, visit www.tywobna.org.