Cities for Better Health - Houston
Our Center for Faith and Public Health fosters collaboration between religious communities and safety-net healthcare organizations to develop evidence-based, faith-filled health initiatives. Our vision is for all religious institutions to be pillars of whole-person health in their communities. The Cities for Better Health-Houston (CBH-Houston) anchor program partners in a global network of Cities for Better Health, which works to accelerate impactful action in cities to “unlock a future where fewer people are living with chronic diseases such as obesity, heart disease, and diabetes.”
CBH-Houston is unique among global cities as these programs are engaged throughout the Greater Houston Area in at-risk and low-income areas, connected through an interfaith network of health ministries and community health workers. These initiatives, funded by Novo Nordisk, focus on the following key elements of global health: Primary Care and Prevention, Food Education and Access, Mental Health Support, and Physical Activity.
Dr. Maricela Caceres currently serves as the Program Manager for Cities for Better Health at the Institute. Her dedicated focus revolves around enhancing healthcare accessibility for all, chiefly through health education, preventive measures, and the identification and mitigation of obstacles to health and well-being. If you wish to contact Dr. Caceres regarding participation in Cities for Better Health, please use this form.
Four Pillars for Better Health
Many Houstonians are associated with a faith community. The Institute has fostered connections with houses of faith for decades, and CBH-Houston uses the reach and influence of faith-based organizations to drive health promotion and prevention initiatives through our four Pillars:
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The Faith and Diabetes Initiative seeks to empower diverse faith communities in Greater Houston to better understand and address diabetes awareness, prevention, and management, with particular attention to religious belief, practice, and community life. We believe that faith and health are inextricably linked and that faith communities have a crucial role in making Houston a healthier place to live, work, worship, and play.
The evidence-based curriculum, which was created by a multi-sector, stakeholder-driven workgroup, features six themes:
Diabetes self-management and treatment
Diabetes prevention and awareness
Religious Belief, Practice, and Health
Leadership and Communication
Evaluation techniques and principles
Peer Support Strategies
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Peer Support programs enable individuals living with chronic conditions like diabetes to connect with one another, facilitating the exchange of valuable knowledge and personal experiences. This program provides an opportunity for individuals to share insights and practical tips that may only sometimes be readily available to healthcare professionals.
According to Peers for Progress, there are four functions of peer support:
Assistance in Daily Management: Peer supporters use their own experiences with diet, physical activity, and medicine adherence to help people manage diabetes in their daily lives. They can also help identify key resources, such as where to buy healthy foods or pleasant and convenient locations for exercise.
Social and Emotional Support: Through empathetic listening and encouragement, peer supporters are integral to helping patients cope with social or emotional barriers and stay motivated to reach their goals.
Linkages to Clinical Care and Community Resources: Peer supporters can help bridge the gap between patients and health professionals and encourage individuals to seek out clinical and community resources when appropriate.
Ongoing support extended over time: Peer supporters successfully engage patients by providing proactive, flexible, and continual long-term follow-up.
If you would like to join Peer Support in person, please contact Serena Valentine
COREInitiative@peoplenomix.org -
Launched in 2019, Bite of HOPE was created to improve the future of Houston communities struggling with obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular vascular disease. By demonstrating the power that food has over health and teaching communities how to make simple, cost-effective, and tasty meals, people can manage disease or conditions and live healthier and happier lives.
Bite of HOPE's mission is to build healthier communities by integrating medical and culinary resources, specifically in neighborhoods lacking adequate access to healthy food.
Led by the HOPE Clinic, the program works to transform the foodscape in Alief and Aldine through the following initiatives:
The Food Rx Program
This is a food program where enrolled participants receive a food prescription when referred by their Primary Care Provider (PCP) from the Hope Clinic. The program, initiated in July 2022 in collaboration with the Houston Food Bank, aims to improve health outcomes and reduce food insecurity among patients with uncontrolled diabetes by increasing access to nutritious foods twice a week and alleviating financial stress from monthly grocery costs.Food Rx participants are eligible to participate in the Diabetes Peer Support group, conveniently scheduled twice a month, right before the food distribution begins, and located in the same building where the food distribution happens.
Additional services that participants receive include regular HbA1C checkups, healthy cooking demonstrations by Bite of Hope Chefs on-site and during the market days.
The Culinary Medicine Program
Food can help healthcare providers enhance the quality of patient counseling and tackle obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. By connecting food and health and transforming the conversation between healthcare professionals and their patients about nutrition and health, Bite of HOPE believes that chronic disease and obesity can be significantly reduced in Houston. The culinary medicine curriculum for healthcare providers is designed specifically for low-income and food-insecure patients.Community Outreach
The Bite of HOPE Leadership Program for high school students aims to expand their knowledge of food and nutrition and community-driven solutions to reduce health issues. The program, led by the Bite of HOPE chef over four weeks, inspires a passion for healthy eating.The Bite of HOPE Virtual After School Program helps students and families embrace healthy cooking to prevent chronic illnesses by developing lifelong healthy eating habits.
Culinary Institute
The Bite of HOPE Culinary Institute is a fast-paced culinary program aiming to empower restaurant cooks, aspiring restaurant owners, and the general public with valuable culinary techniques, food service management, and the concept behind food's power in health. By building the core skills used in the kitchen—from culinary techniques and market sourcing to kitchen equipment—participants are ready to seamlessly start a culinary career or food entrepreneurship journey and succeed while helping increase healthy food access in communities. -
This cohort is a two-year capacity-strengthening program designed for faith communities in the Greater Houston area. It aims to empower faith communities to build effective health programs. The primary goal is to measurably build internal capacity to address health within each faith community. We help communities implement effective health prevention strategies, foster overall well-being, and prevent or delay chronic diseases, while emphasizing community-powered sustainability.
Participating communities receive comprehensive training, dedicated one-on-one technical assistance, consulting services, clinical linkages, support for program implementation, experiential learning opportunities, field trips, and resource dissemination.
Our Commitment
Our dedication to addressing chronic disease encompasses the following:
Addressing food insecurity through educational outreach and facilitation of access to nutritious foods.
Promoting primary health connection and preventive measures, including early detection.
Facilitating access to physical activity infrastructure, opportunities, and resources.
Introducing mind-body techniques to encourage self-care and foster community building.
Developing sustainable funding models for chronic disease prevention
Discover more tips for healthy living here:
Our Origin
In 2021, after five years of leading the Faith & Diabetes Initiative, the Institute was selected as the organizational lead for the Cities Changing Diabetes—Houston ecosystem. A transformative three-year, $2.4M grant from Novo Nordisk, Inc., awarded in 2022, recognized the Institute as a leader in the fight against chronic diseases, primarily through its FaithHealth strategies.
In Spring 2023, the Initiative was rebranded globally as Citied for Better Health (CBH) to reflect a new emphasis on overall health and well-being. While our programmatic pillars remain the same, this rebranding caused us to reconsider our local approach and reformulate our strategies. As we advance, we plan to emphasize food access, physical activity, and mental health by enhancing health literacy, increasing access to and knowledge around healthy food, and building evidence-based health programs in faith communities.
