Religion, fellowship and health: Saturday’s Gospel 5K seems to put basis for neighborhood well being

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For Uchenna Jones, a Madison nurse, health is critical. This is particularly evident than in colored communities that are disproportionately faced with health problems, both mentally and physically.

Uchenna Jones

Jones saw a place where change was not only possible but urgent. As a black woman, she knew how health problems directly affected her community and others. And so the Madison Gospel 5K Foundation was born, and with it a health-focused event planning for People of Color and allies that would last for years.

The organization will host their third annual Madison Gospel 5K Run / Walk tomorrow, Saturday, July 17, 2021. From 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at Penn Park on 2101 Fisher Street, people and families can run and run various distances at a variety of events. This year’s theme, reminiscent of the goals of the organization as a whole, is “Stand brave. Go proud. Run fast.”

This event is one of many initiatives the organization has hosted and planned during its three-year tenure, and nowhere near the last. Their weekly walks, held in various local Madison locations on Saturdays and regularly posted on Facebook, haven’t missed a single weekend since their inception – and that is true throughout the pandemic and classic Wisconsin storm.

Last year, when the annual race was held for the second time, COVID-19 kept rising and was even more prominent than it is now. So the hosts had to figure out how to achieve this without making their participants sick. They followed CDC guidelines, got masked, placed them all outside, and had “heats” so people weren’t crowded or even in the same place all the time.

Jones said no person was exposed or infected to COVID-19 from the event, so she calls it a success that can be replicated. While they follow CDC guidelines for tomorrow’s event that don’t require masks for vaccinated individuals, they nonetheless recommend them for those who aren’t and keep the distance between racers. The outdoor location for the event also helps.

There are currently 264 people registered for the event. But Jones said many bring families, some people just show up, and overall they can expect up to a few hundred more as the day progresses.

The Foundation’s overall goals are to create healthier families through faith, community, and fitness, and they target groups of color who, according to Jones, have been largely excluded from education and programming on these topics.

“Even if we [health-related] Resources, we make a lot of assumptions that people will have access to these resources, ”Jones said. “As if people can actually read, you know? When I give someone a brochure, it is not necessarily the case that they understand the contents of the brochure. ”

This can be due to educational barriers, language barriers or other causes – and these causes often have a disproportionate effect on people of color. The solution, Jones said, is to meet people where they are.

“To be able to help, I have to be where the people are. I have to go with them, I have to walk around the neighborhood, ”Jones said.

And their organization puts their money where their mouth is: they literally go where the people are. Although they sometimes make detours, their weekend walks are mostly on the south side, which has a large black population.

“When you get together, we can talk. We start to understand what is going on and then we start to come up with ideas for solving problems, ”she said.

Your weekend walks are free too, which is key. Buying organic vegetables or paying for a gym membership is infinitely difficult if you don’t have the resources, and focusing on these more popular initiatives can make disenfranchised people feel that good health is out of reach. Focusing on mental health is also difficult, as many people of color disproportionately lack access to medical care or finance to pay for help out of their own pocket.

But what if you see a friendly group of people walking around for free right by your house on the weekends? Jones said that you are much more likely to join in, and that is already a “big step” towards improving your mental and physical health – walking is exercise; going outside was nice linked to a better mental state, and interacting with other hikers can provide much-needed socialization for those with tight or constant work schedules.

Dedication to community bettering is critical to Jones. She took her first nutrition class in college and realized how much she hadn’t been taught before. Now that she is aware of this and is a nurse on top of that, she makes sure that she is giving back and helping the community that raised her.

With the proceeds from Saturday’s race, the organization is seeking scholarships for students who want to work in the health sector and in communities. They also want to implement health, wellness and nutrition courses and learning with different partners as the foundation grows.

And the growth of their events and the race over time proves that they get results from their work.

“When you bring in the work, you get the results. And we’ve done the work, we’re getting on with the work, and we’re getting results, ”said Jones. “Today whole families register for a race and leave their comfort zone? We haven’t exhausted it yet, but we’re achieving our goal and are just looking forward to what the future has in store for us. ”