Joyce Davis – Giving the Bronx Community an Opportunity to be Heard

Bronx Health REACH continues it’s series of individuals that have made a significant contribution to not only the Institute for Family Health's Bronx Health REACH, but have been strong activists for needed change in the Black and Latino communities in the Bronx. A notable member of this group of change agents is Joyce Davis. After a successful thirty year career in marketing and sales for AT&T, Joyce found her passion working with the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, and Mount Hope Housing Company. Joyce recently completed her Masters of Divinity from New York Theological Seminary.

Growing up in Harlem as a pastor’s daughter, Joyce Davis was just nine years old when her father passed away while giving a sermon. Her mother would emerge as a strong and lasting influence for resilience. "My mother had been the first lady at my father's church, but when he suddenly passed away she now had four children to raise on her own. She had not been working, and there was no daycare in those days, so she transformed the house my father had purchased into a boarding house, and did all the work needed to be done including loading the coal to heat the house," says Joyce.

Her mother was a living example that by having faith and confidence in yourself, you can move forward to overcome any obstacle. “We decided to move to the Bronx and I went with my mother to see a house. After seeing the house she wanted, my mother and gave the owner $50 as a down payment. As we walked away I asked my mother how she was going to pay make the payments for the house. My mother replied, ‘the Lord will provide,’ and she never missed a payment!”

Even though Joyce had spent a successful sales and marketing career at AT&T, she faced challenges of gender discrimination, and felt it may be time to leave the corporate environment. After thirty years of service Joyce accepted a retirement package, but she was uncertain what would be the next journey in her career. Her sister had written a play, “Mama I Want to Sing” (LINK) and was going to embark on a European tour, and asked Joyce if she would be interested in being the tour manager. Joyce accepted and was able to see Europe and Japan with the touring group.

Joyce joined the Northwest Bronx Community and ClergyCoalition (later becoming the first African-American president), a grassroots social justice organization that organized residents to fight for long-term solutions to problems in their communities. “You could see the Bronx was changing as drug dealers took over corners of the neighborhood, and my neighbors were asking for my help in dealing with these drug dealers. The Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition had organizers in each of those Bronx neighborhoods that had been fighting against the drugs and redlining. We rallied with the people, since we had a lot of clergy, priests and rabbis that would do marches, chanting, ‘No drugs here!”

From working with the Northwest Bronx Community Coalition Joyce found her new path. “I began to understand what building community was about when working with the Northwest Bronx Community Coalition, and it became my passion. I credit them with focusing me away from what had been my corporate environment, and into a place where I now could make a difference, where my voice mattered, people valued my opinion, and I was heard.”

Joyce joined the board of the Mount Hope Housing Company (eventually becoming Executive Director) and began collaborating with other organizations such as the Institute for Family Health to transform spaces for community use. The Institute for Family Health asked if the Mount Hope Housing Company would like to have a family practice in the neighborhood, and since Joyce did not know the Institute for Family Health that well at the time she had stipulations, the most important being: if you want to come into our community, we have to be a part of it. “We wanted to be an equal part of designing the building, hiring the staff, setting the hours the facility would be open, etc., and the Institute for Family Health was awesome in that regard where they asked and received input from the community. When we opened that health care center, the community trusted the Institute, and the Institute trusted us,” says Joyce.

Eventually she left the Mount Hope Housing Company and began to work with other organizations doing similar things building community revitalization. At the time the Institute for Family Health was putting together a grant that would address health disparities in the Bronx, and asked Joyce if she would be interested in working on that project. Joyce accepted and also suggested bringing in Rev. Robert Lewis Foley Sr. from Cosmopolitan Church and Rev. Dr. J. Albert Bush Sr. from Walker Memorial Baptist Church to partner with the Institute for Family Health on this issue. She added, “It was great to see the clergy focusing on health disparities since it was difficult for people to speak about this issue since they did not want to ruffle any feathers. When something from the pulpit is said, everyone listens, so let’s use the pulpit. That is the mission of the church,” she said.

Joyce believes the work to end health disparities has improved, but much needs to be done. “Many years ago there used to be a sign indicating a colored door and white door, now even though there is no physical sign on the door, people still get that selective treatment. The hope is that someday people can walk into a medical center or hospital and be treated like a human being, and get the care they need to get healthy. At the end of the day, people in the community want to be heard. They want a safe community with decent housing, jobs, education and health care.”

Plans for Bronx Delta Playground Project Takes Shape

Current condition of the Bronx Delta Playground.

This post is written by Emily Oppenheimer, Program Coordinator for the Partnership for a Healthier Bronx.

Currently, the Bronx Delta School playground is a bare and empty blacktop, in poor condition, without any play structures. The school is located in the Throgg’s Neck Community of the Bronx. The current outdoor space does not entice the 800 plus elementary and middle school students to engage in active play or movement.

Good news, changes are happening at the schoolyard! In February 2016, students began to design play yard renovations, led by Trust for Public Land (TPL). As part of that process, students took a fieldtrip to CS 300 to learn firsthand about a similar Bronx playground project with TPL.
Despite cold temperatures and impending snow, the students ran, jumped, climbed, threw balls, tumbled and explored with glee around the newly renovated CS 300 play yard. Through the TPL process, students select a playground theme; CS300 students chose the sky, “so that when you run, you can feel like you’re flying.” Mr. Dubois, a science teacher whose class is participating in the design process explained, “This really is an amazing project, these students will leave their legacy.”

While visiting CS300, students were immediately engaged with the colors, shapes, structures, plants and art. The energetic transformation to active play was palpable when compared to the passive standing I typically observe at Bronx Delta School’s current playground.  The playground visit gave the students ideas to influence their own playground designs for the Bronx Delta School.

Trust for Public Land engages the entire community in the process. This week I joined Joan Keener of TPL at the PTA Meeting. Joan shared the two student-created playground designs, developed by the four co-located schools and the Phipps Beacon Program. It was fun to hear parent thoughts and perspectives. Overall, there was a lot of excitement, especially given that most families live in the community, and the playground hours will be extended with these renovations.

The updated space will include a track, basketball courts, a kickball space, garden and a jungle gym. These larger scale renovations, led by TPL are funded by the Bronx Borough President through Resolution A Funding and Councilmember Vacca’s Office. Resolution A funding through the Borough President’s Office or City Council can be requested by schools and community groups to initiate large-scale improvement projects, like playgrounds. The TPL designs will be ready in late April, and construction is projected to start summer 2017.

Parents reviewing the two playground designs.

In the meantime, the school received funding from Bronx Health REACH for an Active Design Project to paint the playground and plant vertical gardens. On Saturday, April 16, we’ll be painting stencils on the playground.

World Water Day

Photo: WorldWays Social Marketing, taken at St. James Recreation Center, Bronx, NY 

This post comes from our public health intern, Sandra Nakandakari Higa.

Today, Tuesday, March 22nd, is World Water Day, and to mark it, we are sharing a sneak peak of the upcoming campaign to promote water as the healthiest, free beverage in New York City. The campaign is a city-wide collaboration of the Partnership for a Healthier NYC, of which Bronx Health REACH is the Bronx borough lead.

We have often heard that we should aim to drink eight cups of water per day, however, the Institute of Medicine actually recommends about 13 cups per day for men and 9 cups for women. Drinking the right amount of water each day can help keep digestion going, maintain a healthy weight, improve mood, prevent headaches, and may even protect against some types of cancer. Moreover, drinking water may keep you from consuming sugary drinks like sodas and juices.

For those of us living in New York City, there are even more benefits. New York City is one of only five U.S. cities with a source of water so clean that it needs very little filtration. According to Emily Lloyd, New York City Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner, “The New York City water supply system provides New Yorkers with not only one of the highest quality tap water, but it also happens to be about 1000 times less expensive than bottled water.”

The water promotion campaign is scheduled to launch in May 2016. It will include advertising on bus shelters and distribution of informational material by street teams at various locations and events in the Bronx including Boogie on the Boulevard, which begins in May and goes on throughout the summer.

Walker Memorial Baptist and Thessalonia Baptist Church Raise Over $1000 for the American Heart Association

Members of both Walker Memorial Baptist and Thessalonia Baptist Church participated in the fashion show.

On Saturday, March 12, Walker Memorial Baptist Church and Thessalonia Baptist Church, both long time members of the Bronx Health REACH Faith-based Outreach Initiative, in partnership with the American Heart Association held a Heart and Health Awareness brunch to spotlight the issue of women and heart disease. This year's event had more than one hundred people in attendance to hear two speakers and view a fashion show, raising over $1,000 for the American Heart Association.

Bronx Health REACH's Charmaine Ruddock gave a presentation about #Not 62-The Campaign for A Healthy Bronx, and what needs to be done to improve the ranking of the Bronx. Paula Rice, volunteer with the American Heart Association shared her 'heart stopping' experience with cardio vascular disease. Ms. Rice had suffered a heart attack three years ago at the age of sixty. After Ms. Rice spoke another woman shared her experience of recovering from a stroke she had suffered a few years ago.

Gada Dickerson from Thessalonia Baptist Church spoke about how even though heart disease affects both men and women, a woman having a heart attack symptoms may not be so obvious and may differ from those of men. Gada also spoke about the importance of exercising every day, even doing something as simple as walking. The American Heart Association recommends 10,000 steps per day which one can track of by wearing a pedometer.

A special feature of the day was the on site health screenings and distribution of health literature by Lincoln Hospital. Joyce Davis, Head of the Deacon Board of Walker Memorial Baptist Church served as the master of ceremonies. The fashion show featured members of both Walker Memorial Baptist Church and Thessalonia Baptist Church.

Pictured from left to right are Bronx Health REACH's Charmaine Ruddock; Paula Rice, volunteer with the American Heart Association; and Joyce Davis, Head of the Deacon Board of Walker Memorial Baptist Church.