Health & Wellness Briefs

The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta has announced a new partnership funded by The Elton John AIDS Foundation to educate Atlanta’s youth about HIV and AIDS through two local nonprofits, Moving in the Spirit and VOX Teen Communications. These organizations will use the funding to develop innovative teen programming that utilizes dance, dialogue, print and social media to reach young people at risk for HIV. According to data from the Center for Disease Control, the metro Atlanta region is experiencing an uptick of new HIV infections among young people ages 13-24 at rates higher than averages noted in other areas across the nation. To learn more about The Community Foundation’s efforts around HIV and AIDS, visit cfgreateratlanta.org.

Action Cycling Atlanta will host the 13th annual AIDS Vacccine (AV) 200 on May 16-17. The two-day, 200-mile bicycle event travels from Emory University to Eatonton, Ga. in the Oconee National Forest and back to Emory. Participants include individual riders and relay teams, with support from a volunteer crew. Riders, teams and donors can register and contribute by visiting ActionCycling.org. This year’s fundraising goal is $275,000. Action Cycling has raised more than $1.7 million for the Emory Vaccine Center, Jerusalem House and Positive Impact.

Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) has been awarded $1.2 million in grant funding and in-kind support by United Health Foundation and Optum to help support its Patient Centered Medical Home and Neighborhood Project. The project provides an innovative primary-care delivery model and a series of community engagement programs to improve health in and around Atlanta’s East Point area, a largely African-American community with high rates of poverty and complex chronic diseases. The grants will help MSM create a patient-centered medical home at its department of family medicine clinical site, the Comprehensive Family Healthcare Center at Buggy Works in East Point.

The Atlanta Women’s Foundation’s first-annual Yogathon will be held June 6 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Centennial Olympic Park in Downtown. The event will bring together yoga enthusiasts from across the region for a day of yoga, health, community and fun. Headliner, Seane Corn, and nine of Atlanta’s top yoga teachers will lead a day of yoga with 500-1,000 attendees. It will conclude with a keynote presentation from Corn, followed by music and entertainment. The event is open to all, but previous experience with yoga is recommended. Funds raised from the event will support programs, policy, and awareness campaigns for women and girls living in poverty in the five metro counties of Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett. For more information, visit atlantawomen.org.