Health and Nutritional Development Empowered through Education (HAND-EE) is a program designed to resource the needs of low income, socially and economically challenged individuals in the surrounding community. HAND-EE seeks to provide a full spectrum of dietary, physical, spiritual, emotional, intellectual and mental health education/resources to these individuals, to improve their quality of life and in turn shape the socio-economic status of the community. Starting locally servicing the Fort Bragg community, HAND-EE is poised to pursue a national initiative and establish a network of support throughout the United States of America.
The framework of HAND-EE addresses the complete individual by enhancing life quality through education and resource support. Studies nationally have correlated health outcomes and disparities with social determinants more frequently than to medical care availability. Understanding this dynamic, HAND-EE can bridge the gap in these disparities and lessen impoverished communities’ dependence upon government subsistence programs.
The perception that in order to be fit diet and exercise are the key components of focus are long outdated. While those components are paramount, HAND-EE encompasses the comprehensive fitness that ties in all aspects of health and generates more resilient and capable citizens.
HAND-EE provides this service at no cost to participants. This removes the pressure associated with the stigma that getting healthy is expensive. HAND-EE’s education and resources empowers participants to take charge of their health and make better choices in their lives and their communities.
HAND-EE couples nutrition and physical fitness to support the body. Education of the importance of balanced nutrition, information on building healthy plates and understanding how food works in the body is just a small part of the nutritional focus that HAND-EE is able to provide. Physical fitness and readiness is redefined with physical training and daily habits that healthy people engage in. HAND-EE teaches those habits and provides the experts required to help shape the appearance of the body. In turn this education changes the mindset of participants and creates a more resilient population with a decline of injuries and food related diseases. HAND-EE even discusses the physical aspect of recuperation in physical training to include sleep and muscle recovery.
HAND-EE covers the mind and spirit through social, emotional, occupational, intellectual, and spiritual wellness classes. These classes focus on the importance of a balanced mind and spirit. Experts are brought in to redirect focus of allowing life stressors to break you down. Instead, participants are taught how to utilize life stressors to build room for mental maturity. By exercising organizational skills, practicing healthy communication, understanding, and building on spiritual growth and implementing healthy thinking habits, participants are equipped with the tools needed to defeat the social/emotional/economic constraints associated with low-income areas.
HAND-EE will employ a diverse team of certified experts to provide a quality healthy and nutritional education program for socio-economic challenged individuals. This will create employment opportunities.
HAND-EE’s board members have a charitable Christian view and vision, they have established contacts with local organizations in the state of North Carolina. Once the pilot is solidified in the local community, with our vision, we will quickly expand throughout the United States. We are ready to begin fundraising and implementing our work. As the organization develops, we hope to assist communities to implement sustainable development and rewrite the narrative of a healthy life.
