Las Cruces, N.M. – The American Cancer Society will provide another year of funding in 2015 to support increased access to colorectal cancer education and screening resources in underserved communities nationwide. Thanks to support from the Walgreens Way To Well Commitment® program, Ben Archer Health Center will receive a $50,000 grant award to provide cancer education, and access to screening for individuals in Dona Ana, Luna, Otero and Sierra Counties, New Mexico.
Walgreens Way To Well Commitment program engages Walgreens customers in supporting the American Cancer Society Community Health Advocates implementing Nationwide Grants for Empowerment and Equity (CHANGE) Grant Program. Funding for CHANGE grants comes from Walgreens customers nationwide, who choose to donate to the American Cancer Society as they pay for their purchases at checkout. CHANGE grants help promote health equity and ensure that communities with a higher burden of cancer have equal access to education and screening resources.
“I am pleased that the American Cancer Society and Walgreens have funded our project for another year. The funding will help Ben Archer Health Center staff reach out to our patients to provide much-needed information on the importance of screening for colorectal cancer,” stated Mary Alice Garay, Executive Director of Ben Archer Health Center. “Our organization has set colorectal cancer prevention as a priority and our partnership with the American Cancer Society and Walgreens helps us achieve our goals.”
Ben Archer Health Center will utilize this grant to continue to encourage patients age 50-75 to complete a screening for colorectal cancer by providing low cost or free screening tests to improve cancer screening rates. Ben Archer Health Center staff will provide information to help patients understand their risk for colorectal cancer and send reminders for colorectal cancer screening. Health educators and community health workers will assist patients by providing navigation. Patients with a positive result from a fecal occult blood screening test (FOBT) will be referred for a colonoscopy or to a specialist. Ben Archer Health Center was able to double their colorectal cancer screening rates with their patient population in the first grant year and looks forward to an opportunity to reach even more patients with this life saving message and screening program in this second year of grant funding.
According to the American Cancer Society, disparities predominantly arise from inequities in work, wealth, income, education, housing, and overall standard of living, as well as social barriers to high-quality cancer prevention, early detection and treatment services. Additionally, persons with lower socioeconomic status are more likely to experience increased cancer risks due to tobacco use, physical inactivity and poor diet due to environmental or community barriers that provide fewer opportunities for physical activity and less access to fruits and vegetables.
The Society collaborates with community health partners to reach individuals in communities with higher burdens of cancer and limited access to cancer screening. Through the CHANGE Grant Program, the Society provides resources to increase cancer screening rates in those communities. Since 2011, CHANGE has awarded nearly 350 grants to partners reaching underserved communities across the country; providing more than 1.3 million outreach and education interactions and over 460,000 cancer screenings.
The Walgreens Way to Well Commitment program, which focuses on improving everyday health through the prevention and early detection of leading diseases, has been a supporter of the CHANGE grant program since 2012. The company’s overall support of the Society spans two decades and has helped to raise a total of $36 million to date in local communities throughout the country in partnership with their customers. In addition to funding CHANGE grants, Walgreens served as a corporate enrollment site for the Society’s Cancer Prevention Study 3 (CPS-3), the historic research study that will help cancer researchers discover more ways to prevent, detect and treat cancer and save more lives.