Our mission is to support the maintenance of good health and eliminate chronic health disparities in communities of color.
Community education about health risks is crucial and The Links, Incorporated have developed programs to address the issues through National and local program initiatives:
- Linkages to Life/Donor Sabbath (organ and tissue donations); National Childhood Obesity;
- HeartLinks (Red Dress Day);
- Susan G. Komen for the Cure (breast cancer); and
- HIV/AIDS (Balm of Gilead, World AIDS Day, Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day/Women & Girls National HIV/AIDS Awareness Health Fair)
The Links’ work with the National and Area Award-Winning, African American AIDS Awareness Action Alliance, (A6), has resulted in hundreds of people participating in HIV/AIDS Awareness Workshops, being tested for HIV/AIDS, and faith houses assisting in advancing our work with community health workers.
The Signature Program, Linkages to Life, has two goals:
- To increase awareness, dispel myths and raise the cultural competency of messaging to the Black community around organ and tissue donation
- To increase donors as the need for healthy organs and tissues available for transplantation outpaces the number of healthy organs and tissues available.
The Linkages to Life program began in 2002 in the Central Florida Cluster. With the support of Roche Foundation, Link members met to raise awareness of the need for minority organ and tissue donors in preparation for the National Transplant Games, held June 25–28 in Orlando, Florida.
The Donor Sabbath weekend is observed annually on Friday through Sunday two weekends before Thanksgiving. This three-day observance includes the days of worship for major religions practiced in the United States. Over the years, our chapter has celebrated Donor Sabbath at Bethel and Maranatha Churches. The ten-minute Donor Sabbath program features organ donation awareness, an organ recipient’s personal story, distribution of educational brochures and donor cards.