Clark Atlanta University this month launched a new Women’s Health and Wellness Initiative, the CAU Sustainable Health Education Resources and Outreach (SHERO) project. SHERO is a three-year pilot project developed by The Wright Group (TWG) and its nonprofit arm, Giving Chance, to address the health and wellness of women at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
CAU President Carlton E. Brown, Ph.D. said, “Women’s health and wellness encompasses all aspects of health, including mental, physical, social, intellectual and spiritual. Our new initiative will advance CAU’s capacity to be the HBCU leader in addressing women’s health on campus and in the community at large.” SHERO is a multilevel approach--community, group, and individual--to encourage wellness, healthy life choices, and behavior change. The initiative has been funded by the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health (OWH).
The overall goal of the CAU-SHERO project is to build CAU”s institutional capacity to publicly address women’s health and wellness needs, thereby positioning the University to apply for funding (estimated at $500,000) from the Office on Women’s Health in 2013. The project will endeavor to do this by incorporating:
1) gender-specific, women-friendly, women-relevant, holistic, multi-disciplinary, culturally competent, age/developmentally and linguistically appropriate strategies to health education and empowering activities;
2) preventive clinical and mental health services that are most needed at the collegiate level (e.g., HIV and STD screening, mental health counseling, etc.);
3) seamless, enhanced student health center services and resources for young women;
4) advance promotion of women’s health efforts on the campus;
5) a newly established, comprehensive women’s health program/initiative in divisions and departments where they currently do not exist;
6) existing and newly created women’s health initiatives to operate and become designated as a valued resource for the students, faculty/staff, and community; and
7) efforts to cultivate campus cultures which are free from violence, as well as conducive and responsive to reporting all incidents of violence
The CAU-SHERO project is coordinated by co-campus liaisons, Dr. Marilyn Hazzard Lineberger, director of the University’s Counseling Center and Nurse Janet Singleton of the University’s Student Health Services.
