Essence Fest Heart Health Initiative

Interview with the Black Heart Foundation co-founder Frederick Robinson on partnership with Essence Fest

We’re also hoping to make an impact all weekend long at Essence Fest is the Black Heart Association. WDSU anchor Darryl Forges spoke with the co-founder about their mission. All right, so while thousands are in town for essence, one organization is here to promote good heart health, especially in the black community. Joining me now to talk all about this is Frederick Robinson, the co-founder of Black Heart Health. Thank you so much for coming here and joining us today. Really appreciate it. No, sir, thank you for the invite. Uh, um, so kind of tell. Tell me, like, you know, you’re gonna have *** booth at Essence Fest, we’re gonna push, you know, black heart health. How important is it to, to really get the word out to folks as they’re, uh, enjoying the festival this weekend? Absolutely, it is, it is extremely important, uh, especially in communities of color, as you know, there’s so many, uh, preconceived notions, so many, uh, hang ups about going to the doctor. So it’s an opportunity for us to get in front of people and just raise the awareness about their health, raise their awareness about, um, taking care of themselves and also provide some free screenings. So it’s kind of like *** doctor’s appointment. Inside of Essence, can I talk about that? You have free screenings. What other things and resources do we have available for folks at the festival? So we also provide educational materials to kinda connect the dots, not just give them the screening, so that when they get their results back through their portal, they have some reference points to go back and say, OK, this is what this connects to, this is how my lifestyle connects to that. So really bridging the gap between the screenings and the information because. Apply knowledge is power, not just knowledge. Absolutely. And also, are you hopeful that when folks get those screenings and they learn about, you know, their health and everything here that they’ll take what they learned and what they envisioned, uh, to their loved ones back at home and we know the stats when it comes to black men especially because look, we don’t like going to the. Doctor, alright, that’s one thing. We don’t like going to the doctor, but we have to go to the doctor. So, talk about how important it is for them to, to spread the message of what you’re doing to their loved ones when they go back home. Absolutely. Uh, just real quick, the reason we started this organization was because my wife suffered three heart attacks back in 2014. And I tell people we suffered 3 heart attacks because it not only impacted her but myself, our kids, everyone connected to us. So that got me thinking about the importance of, hey, this is not just about you, but there are people depending on you and people that you depend on, so not just uh getting the screenings and holding on to the information, but how do we create this community of of heart health by sharing the information and getting people um. Excited about health, to be honest with you, because at the end of the day all we have is our health and it’s wealth. Absolutely, and amazing stats out there. It says, you know, African American men past the age of 50. Once you make it past 50, you’re just lucky to be alive because of all the statistics and everything. So if folks want to, if they may not be able to see you at Essence Fest, but they wanna know more about Black Heart Health and y’all’s organization, um, kind of where can they go and what the website, OK, the website is. Black Heart Association.org, um, we have all social media platforms, um, Black Heart Association, if they, you know, catch us in the community because we’re out not just at big festivals but we’re out serving the community 3 or 4 times *** week, uh, we’ve screened over about 30,000 people over the last couple of years and we’re just trying to, to increase that number, increase our reach. We’re actually gonna be expanding into. Uh, Louisiana here soon because we wanna have *** permanent presence in, in all of these communities that we impact. So, uh, that’s coming down the pipeline. So keep, you know, keep your ears to the street about that. But Blackheart Association.org, we have another website, guard your Heart.org. That’s our national tour, national efforts to try to screen as many people as we can. Well, when y’all make it to Louisiana officially, you let me know. I’ll be back on. Hey, Ms. Robinson, thank you so much. Best of luck to y’all this weekend. Appreciate you appreciate it. Thank you.

Interview with the Black Heart Foundation co-founder Frederick Robinson on partnership with Essence Fest