Black Barbershop Health Outreach Program

The Diabetic Amputation Prevention (DAP) Foundation today announced that it will launch the Black Barbershop Health Outreach Program on November 15th. The program will offer free diabetes and high-blood pressure screenings to African American men at over 50 black-owned barbershops throughout the New York metropolitan area. The Black Barbershop Health Outreach Program, sponsored through a grant from the Abbott Fund, is a unique and innovative grassroots approach to health education and testing. "Our goal is to screen over 2000 African American men in the New York metropolitan area and provide preventive education about the disease and its complications," said Dr. Bill Releford, founder of DAP Foundation's Black Barbershop Outreach program. The foundation's overall mission is to increase public awareness of diabetes and its complications through early detection, information dissemination and word-of-mouth.