It is our pleasure to welcome you to the new website for the Geographic Health Equity Alliance (GHEA), a CADCA Initiative.
In 2018, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Office on Smoking and Health (OSH) and Division of Cancer Prevention and Control (DCPC) re-awarded CADCA with funds to build one of eight public-health oriented, population specific national networks that are working to prevent tobacco use and related cancers.
GHEA’s goal is to reduce geographic health disparities, which are the differences in health behaviors and health outcomes related to where people live. Studies show that places where we live, work, and play have an enormous impact on our health; and certain regions of this country experience disproportionately heavier burdens associated with tobacco use. GHEA supports the implementation of effective tobacco and cancer control practices in regions that need them the most.
Over the next few years, we will be working closely with state tobacco and cancer control programs and coalitions to address health disparities, which continue to persist, despite tremendous progress in past several decades. We are building on CADCA’s expertise in strengthening the capacity of community coalitions to create and maintain safe, healthy and drug-free communities.
The expertise of our network spans across multiple professions and domains, and we are developing trainings and content related to tobacco, cancer, health disparities, community health coalitions, geographic data tools, and public interest communication. We are especially excited to partner with Counter Tools to help our public health partners improve their geographic data surveillance efforts, and with the Center for Public Interest Communications to improve the way we communicate about our tobacco and cancer prevention efforts.
We encourage you to sign up for our newsletter and keep an eye on the GHEA Website, GHEA Twitter, and GHEA Facebook, where we will be regularly posting new content highlighting best practices and emerging literature on how we can reduce health disparities and improve the health of communities across our nation.
