A recent study highlights how a community organization called Black Girls Run! is supporting Black women around the country in getting and staying physically active.<\/p>\n
Black women suffer some of the worst health disparities in the U.S. Four out of five Black women in the U.S. are overweight or obese, putting them at higher risk for diseases like diabetes and heart disease. Approximately 59% to 73% of Black women do not meet the recommended targets for physical activity.<\/p>\n
Loneke Blackman Carr, assistant professor of nutritional sciences in the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources<\/a>, and Jolaade Kalinowski, assistant professor in the UConn Department of Human Development and Family Sciences studied how a national organization called Black Girls Run! supports Black women\u2019s physical health through their Facebook page. These findings were published in JMIR Formative Research<\/a>.<\/p>\n Black Girls Run! is an organization with chapters across the U.S. that aims to support Black women in engaging in physical activity by creating an inclusive community. Black Girls Run! shows how an organization can successfully create a space for Black women to find and participate in an active community.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is really novel,\u201d Blackman Carr says. \u201cBecause we do find across a lot of the literature that Black women who want to engage in physical activity don\u2019t see a lot of openness and welcoming in those spaces.\u201d<\/p>\n Blackman Carr says many conventional spaces for physical activity are not welcoming to Black women whose bodies may not resemble normative notions of a \u201cfit\u201d body type.<\/p>\n “We are moving and motivating women to change the narrative of what running and health looks like for Black women,” says Jay Ell Alexander, CEO and owner of Black Girls Run! “Black Girls Run! is honored to be a part of this crucial research for our community. It highlights the need for our organization in our community and how our movement really can move the needle for Black women becoming healthier.”<\/p>\n The researchers wanted this study to shine a light on the positive activities the community is already engaging in.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of research from a deficit perspective \u2013 what\u2019s going wrong and what we aren\u2019t doing right,\u201d Kalinowski says. \u201cAnd we wanted to highlight something that is amazing and a strengths-based way to talk about what\u2019s already going on.\u201d<\/p>\n The researchers focused on the organization\u2019s Facebook page for this study, though the organization does also have an in-person component where women meet and exercise together.<\/p>\n \u201cThe digital realm has a lot of application for potential solutions as we look ahead to crafting research that hopefully will have a meaningful impact for Black women,\u201d Blackman Carr says. \u201c[In] reimaging what ideal health might look like, we really felt it was necessary to understand that [phenomena] through the digital space where there\u2019s a lot of connection and other potential benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n The researchers analyzed the kinds of posts on the Black Girls Run! Facebook page and how members engaged with those posts. They found that most posts celebrated member achievements, motivated members to get active, and promoted events like organized walks, runs, or hikes. These kinds of posts garnered 75% of all engagement.<\/p>\n These findings emphasize that rather than assuming they need to develop interventions to \u201cfix\u201d issues within communities, researchers can learn from what communities are already doing and create partnerships with existing organizations.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that\u2019s one big implication from this,\u201d Kalinowski says. \u201cRather than going around and trying to create things from scratch, why don\u2019t we look to the people who we\u2019re thinking about, seeing what they\u2019re already doing and how we can support that.\u201d<\/p>\n This work highlights the need for further research and conversations about Black people engaging in physical activity within a social context built on centuries of systemic racism. Blackman Carr points to the example of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man who was murdered by a group of white men while he was jogging.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to continue to make space to address and to talk about systemic issues,\u201d Blackman Carr says. \u201cOne of the findings that was really important in this paper was thinking about the impact of doing physical activity in a society where there\u2019re still some racialized contexts, and there are modern historical stories and challenges that are really emblazoned in our collective memory.\u201d<\/p>\n By combining physical health interventions with social justice, researchers can create more effective interventions for communities by attending to their needs and building on the practices organizations like Black Girls Run! have developed.<\/p>\n \u201cThis manuscript really highlights that this work is already happening, it\u2019s happening from the ground up,\u201d Blackman Carr. \u201cSo how can we as researchers be a part of making that real and disseminating that kind of work and effort.\u201d<\/p>\n Following this study, the researchers are interested in continuing a community-partnership-based program to help reach more Black women looking to lose weight and improve other health outcomes.<\/p>\n \u201cI think listening in, tuning in, leaning into what the community members want and taking this as a model for building organic community will inform how we move forward,\u201d Kalinowski says.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This work relates to CAHNR\u2019s Strategic Vision area focused on\u00a0<\/em>Enhancing Health and\u00a0Promoting Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n