Cancer prevention advances our mission
Be Well Communities
Cancer prevention is a cornerstone of MD Anderson’s mission to eliminate cancer. MD Anderson is supporting community-led efforts to empower people to make healthy lifestyle choices and reduce their risk for cancer.
Be Well Communities™ is a place-based strategy for cancer prevention and control, working with communities to promote wellness and stop cancer before it starts. Be Well Communities unites individuals, schools, workplaces, government agencies, health care providers and policy-makers to plan and carry out sustainable, community-led solutions that will make positive, long-lasting changes in people’s lives.
Be Well Communities is an initiative of the Cancer Prevention and Control Platform, within the Moon Shots Program®. The Be Well Communities Team serves as the backbone organization to support three major goals:
- Engage the community in an ongoing dialogue about the importance of healthy behaviors
- Advance community-based strategies to promote health and wellness
- Increase engagement in healthy behaviors to reduce cancer risk in five key areas:
Be Well Communities brings decades of cancer prevention and control expertise from our leading experts to communities. MD Anderson is responsible for:
- Envisioning the initiative
- Empowering the community
- Executing the initiative through funded collaborating organizations
- Evaluating the success of the initiative
- Creating an exit and sustainability plan to transition the initiative to the community
Be Well™ Baytown
In 2014, ExxonMobil announced a multi-million dollar gift to the Moon Shots Program®, to encourage policies, education, behaviors and services that promote health and prevent cancer in a designated Houston-area community. Based on existing strengths and opportunities, Baytown, TX was selected as the inaugural community.
MD Anderson has united with the community of Baytown to launch Be Well Baytown. It is the most comprehensive community-driven health initiative of its kind in Texas with a focus on cancer prevention and control. This initiative can serve as a model for other communities across Texas and the nation.
Taking it to the streets
Our Team
Ruth Rechis, Ph.D., Director, Be Well Communities
Amelia Brown, M.S., CCRP, Program Manager, Be Well Communities
Katherine Oestman, MPH, MCHES®, Program Manager, Be Well Communities
Martha Vieco-Garcia, M.S., Program Coordinator, Be Well Communities
For more information email us at bewellcommunities@mdanderson.org