Tag: Minority

Project Remodels Homes For Health

A $1 million grant provided by UniCare helped establish a program aimed at improving the livability and conditions of five homes throughout West Virginia.

The Livable Housing Project’s goal is to remodel and fix substandard housing that often affects minority households.

The project was established through a collaboration between Unicare Health Plan of West Virginia and the Marshall University Minority Health Institute in October 2021. 

A $1 million community grant provided by UniCare helped establish the program aimed at improving the livability and conditions of this home and four others chosen throughout the state of West Virginia.

Organizers partnered with a development group called LIFE Seeds to identify a home in disrepair in Cabell County for the first project.

“And so they went out, they did walk through the community, and they went through the local churches, local community centers, and people can apply for this project that they developed,” said LaDawna Walker Dean, minority health coordinator for the West Virginia Minority Health Initiative. “They made every decision and effort that they did with pursuing the community housing, and so their main focus was to pick a house that we can afford to not totally remodel, but to fix up.”

The project helps families with issues like mold and other concerns that arise when housing hasn’t been updated.

Dr. Anthony Woart is professor and chair of the Department of Public Health at Marshall University and founder and director of the Marshall University Minority Health Institute.

“Addressing social determinants of health is essential to addressing health disparities and health equity among minority and vulnerable populations,” Woart said. “I am therefore honored to have been a part of the Marshall University Minority Health Institute’s efforts in providing opportunities for livable housing among the minority and vulnerable populations of West Virginia as part of the institute’s mission and vision.”

After the unveiling of the first repaired and remodeled home, the project will focus on Kanawha, Mingo, McDowell and Logan counties.

“Our work has just started by helping minority families throughout West Virginia be able to have access to safe, affordable, good-quality housing that can positively impact a person’s health, well-being and overall community equity,” Walker said.

For more information visit the Marshall University Minority Health Institute.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Charleston Area Medical Center and Marshall Health.

Small Business Opportunities Expand For West Virginia Women And Minorities

The grand opening of the West Virginia Women’s Business Center office in Charleston now gives the nonprofit support agency four statewide hubs serving all 55 counties.

Services to expand small business opportunities for West Virginia women and minorities were strengthened statewide on Wednesday.

The grand opening of the West Virginia Women’s Business Center office in Charleston now gives the nonprofit support agency four statewide hubs serving all 55 counties. The downtown Charleston center joins hubs in Morgantown and Fairmont, with an office in Huntington set to open within the next 30 days.

Executive Director Nora Myers said the centers provide the tools, support and business fundamentals to get a small business off the ground, or take it to the next level.

“We support women and minority owned small businesses in West Virginia,” Myers said. “Whether they’re trying to start up, to expand or maybe they’re combating some challenges like COVID-19.”

Myers said that many of the historical avenues to power, money and resources remain closed to women and minorities.

“While it is better, still in certain segments they’re shut out from those opportunities,” Myers said. “And we’re here to say we will partner with you and get you along that journey.”

Since their launching in 2020, these small business opportunity centers have welcomed more than 2,200 individuals to training workshops. Myers said they currently have about 200 active clients working one on one with business advisors, and they are launching a new mentoring program.

Myers says center services are open to all women, minorities and men. Contact the West Virginia Women’s Business Center for more information.

Coalition Convenes Black-Led Policy Advocacy Event

Black West Virginians say their contributions and needs are not widely known or appreciated by the media or in legislative policy making. In 2022 they are doing more than just speaking out.

In the capitol rotunda, the recent Black-led advocacy event was part policy push and part old time revival.

Rev. Matthew Watts is pastor at Charleston’s Grace Bible Church. He said he wants to see a West Virginia legislative package that would earmark some of the millions of federal COVID-19 relief dollars to go to social and economic recovery for minorities and the poor.

“The pandemic has imposed unprecedented challenges on every institution in American society,” Watts said. “Particularly in the areas of health, housing education, employment and economics.”

To that end, the event featured Rev. Kobi Little, the president of Community Partnerships for Public Health International. He has organized the Mountain State Safe and Healthy Communities Coalition to encourage vaccination in hesitant communities.

“We’re encouraging people to get vaccinated because we know that the vaccines prevent people from being severely ill from COVID, from being hospitalized, and from passing away,” Little said.

The Black-led policy coalition presented the legislature with a series of bills that are already part of state law that they said needed funding, execution, or both. For example, Watts said 2017’s House Bill 2724 that focused on Improving public health and addressing poverty through community development was never funded or executed according to law.

Other examples included Senate Bill 573 from 2004, a minority economic development bill that was never funded or executed and Senate Bill 611, from 2012, a pilot project to improve outcomes for at-risk youth that has ended and needs re-activation.

Sen Owens Brown, D-Ohio, is the first African-American male to serve in the West Virginia Senate. Brown said the issue is not the obvious one.

“But the real struggle, it’s not about black versus white. It’s about rich versus poor,” Brown said. “Frederick Douglass said it’s about the class struggle. What you’re doing today here with the bills and things is about class struggle.”

Minority Affairs Office to Host Event in Weirton, W.Va. to Hear From Citizens

The Herbert Henderson Office of Minority Affairs (HHOMA) is hosting an event in Weirton Thursday evening, focused on helping minority residents across West Virginia.

HHOMA invites the public to speak about issues that affect their community, like economic concerns, housing, education and health. Those concerns will then be relayed to Governor Jim Justice. 

The listening tour is also expected to stop in Huntington and Jefferson County later this year.

Dr. William White, the executive director of the Herbert Henderson Office of Minority Affairs, says by traveling across the state, it will give other West Virginians the opportunity to voice any concerns, such as the state’s work force.

“Not only am I looking to get women and minorities in the work place, but I’m also looking to get all folks in the workplace,” Dr. White said. 

The timing of the event follows violent protests by white supremacists in Charlottesville, VA, but White says the listening tour has been months in the making.    

“We want to be proactive, we don’t want the same kinds of things to happen in West Virginia that happened in Charlottesville,” he said.

The Herbert Henderson Office of Minority Affairs is a state agency named after a civil rights leader who lived in Huntington and helped advance fairness and equality in West Virginia.

Thursday’s event in Weirton will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Mary H. Weir Public Library in Weirton.

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