Reducing Health Disparities among VIPs and Other Minority Groups

It is often said that if you want to be healthy, choose your parents wisely. We know that persons with disabilities, or as we prefer, persons who are differently abled, come in all forms and sizes, with many different conditions. We also know that at some point in our lives, we will be differently abled as well. Since we can't choose our parents, we must rely on the choices that are available to us. This project is a collaboration between different population groups, between different 126s, between the medical community and the lay community, between differently abled persons and their caretakers present and future, with whom we choose to engage to make a difference in our health. This project is not about finding a way to navigate through a labyrinth, but a way of joining together several labyrinths and creating a path as a team, to improve the health and well-being of all members of the team. The need for reducing health disparities is well documented, and for purposes of this project we are limiting our scope to those persons who are differently abled, beginning with VIPs Visually Impaired Persons. Our approach is multi-pronged, by finding and connecting networks of people who have common interests, whether or not they are aware of the other networks. Lions Clubs 94, for example, does an excellent job of raising funds for eye research, but by and large the clubs are disconnected from the population group they intend to help. Through various initiatives we have, and will continue, to bring groups together to reduce and eliminate social, physical and logistical barriers. VIPs have met and interacted with sighted volunteers, with cultural organizations, with government officials and lawmakers, and with medical professionals. This project will expand these interactions to include transportation companies MBTA, Uber, media companies Audio Journal, WCCA-TV, non-profit organizations Lions Club 94 and others