Background:In June 2008 the National Urban League (NUL) in collaboration with the Morehouse School of Medicine, Community Voices for the Underserved, selected the Lorain County Urban League (LCUL) from 102 National Urban League affiliates to pilot a new Diabetes Prevention Initiative, called Save Our Sons (SOS), targeted to African American Men, who were, and still are, the fastest dying group in this category, living to 66.1 years compared to the national average of 73.6 years for all men. With a curriculum designed by Morehouse’s Dr. Henrie Treadwell, Director of the National Center for Primary Care, and a delivery vehicle designed by the LCUL, 42 of 44 men in the pilot group completed the Pfizer funded pilot project displaying dramatic movement towards better health. The project provided pre/post health screens, diabetes prevention workshops, regular exercise venues, a personal trainer, dietician, healthy eating strategies and a highly supportive atmosphere. The selection of the LCUL was based on our ability, as a small affiliate to garner the support of a major medical hospital, area fitness centers, mental health providers, nonprofits, the Metroparks system, a college and others to participate in key informant interviews and make commitments to support the men involved in the project for a minimum period of two years.The Goals of the Save Our Sons Health Initative:

1. To develop, implement, and evaluate a health education model aimed at reducing diabetes and obesity among African-American men
2. Increase awareness and knowledge of prevention strategies for program participants relative to diabetes and obesity as well as the social determinants which impact these diseases
3. Assess participants’ needs and social service gaps in efforts to connect program participants with provide primary care providers to establish a medical home.
4. Improved selected health outcomes (i.e. vital measurements including body mass index (BMI), blood cholesterol levels, and blood glucose levels) among program participants.

Accomplishments:

1. The Project has served over 530 men in four and a half years of operation in Lorain County;
2. Due to the success of the LCUL Save Our Sons, the project has now been replicated in Dallas, Texas, South Carolina and in 2012 it will be replicated in Atlanta, Georgia;
3. The project has been presented at 5 major national health conferences and in September 2010 was published in the Journal of the National Medical Association (JNMA); SOS was featured in a national video on successful health initiatives in July 2011 featured at the Whitney M. Young Institute.