Hip Hop Public Health
BUILDING HEALTH LITERACY THROUGH THE TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF MUSIC, ART AND SCIENCE
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
For many of us, music has been a lifeline to positive transformation. Our ultimate goal is to achieve health equity in communities of color using an innovative array of culturally-tailored multi-media resources and programs designed to improve health literacy and inspire behavior change in young people and their families.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Virtual Learning Studio
Our multimedia Learning Studio featuring a vast library containing over 200 free multimedia resources. These assets are meant to inspire, empower, and educate young people to develop essential health literacy knowledge and skills. We believe that with the right tools, these future leaders can serve as intergenerational advocates for themselves, their families, and their communities.
Thanks to our innovative Multisensory Multilevel Health Education Model, we've been able to create original hip hop tracks and videos in collaboration with iconic artists that promote overall wellbeing and help combat toxic stress. These projects tackle topics from movement and nutrition to mindfulness, positive health practices, and more. Additionally, we offer lesson plans and wraparound materials developed by educators and content experts. These are all standards-based and flexibly designed for use in K-12 classrooms and out-of-school settings (https://www.hhph.org/work/learning-studio).
Health MC Educator Program
Hip Hop Public Health MCs are leaders and advocates who are dedicated to establishing health literacy for the next generation. Educators – in classrooms, after-school programs, faith-based organizations, summer camps and other settings – are a powerful conduit for sharing health literacy resources with children and families, yet there is a dire need for innovative and engaging health education materials. Most curricula do not reflect young people, especially those in underserved communities; many are expensive and/or difficult to utilize. The Health MC program fills a critical gap: we provide fun and effective curricular resources, we make them available for free, and we make them easy to use by including standards-based lesson plans, family materials, training and implementation guidance. Interested in participating as an Educator Health MC? Reach us at [email protected] to get involved.
H.Y.P.E. (Helping Young People Energize)
H.Y.P.E. (Helping Young People Energize) is an instructional video series of 60 standards-based, fun, hip hop dance breaks to energize, invigorate and motivate young people to add more physical activity into their day. Set to original, contemporary music tracks and led by dynamic choreographers, the developmentally appropriate choreography features progressive movement themes along with a variety of intensity levels. The video series is designed to support health related fitness along with fundamental movement skills. Choose from 2, 6, 10 and 15 minute breaks that can be done any where, any time as transitional activities between long periods of sitting, as individual small energizing workouts, or pieced together for longer workouts or an incredibly energetic 60-minute dance party to get HYPE at Home! H.Y.P.E. is aligned to the national standards for physical education and is available for free at hhph.org.
Moving The Needle Speaker Series
Lingering stigma, especially in under-represented communities keeps many people from seeking the help that they need. While public awareness of the risks around unchecked or ignored health issues—especially mental health—is at a global high, we're also faced with significant inequities when it comes to accessible and culturally competent care. These barriers that prevent individuals or their loved ones from seeking treatment can isolate them even more—worsening their condition, and even becoming life-threatening.
Hip Hop Public Health’s original speaker series, Moving The Needle: One Conversation at a Time, features candid conversations among musicians, community leaders, and health professionals. They explore public health issues, share lived experiences, and provide insights on how they cope through their mental health and wellness journeys. Learn more at https://www.hhph.org/work/moving-the-needle
Hip Hop H.E.A.L.S. (Healthy Eating and Living in Schools)
Hip Hop H.E.A.L.S. (Healthy Eating and Living in Schools), championed by Columbia University neurologist and Hip Hop Public Health Founder, Dr. Olajide Williams, and delivered by a team of Health EMCEES, incorporates hip hop music and animation into an engaging multimedia presentation designed to encourage children to make healthier food choices and maintain regular physical activity. Hip Hop H.E.A.L.S. is an evidenced-driven program that uses some of today’s hottest music to get kids moving while teaching them about healthy behaviors. Since the program's inception in 2009, over 150,000 children in more than 115 schools and 50 summer camps in communities that are underserved across New York City have participated in the program.
Where we work
Videos
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Hip Hop Public Health (HHPH) is an internationally recognized 501c3 that harnesses the transformative power of music, culture, and science to improve health literacy and promote health equity in communities of color. We have a 15-year track record of creating culturally relevant science-based content using our evidence-based framework for health promotion and behavior change, the Multisensory Multilevel Health Education Model (MMHEM), and our framework for Child-Mediated Health Communication that focuses on children as messengers for disease prevention and health promotion interventions with parents and caregivers. All of our 200+ educational resources are available to stream and download for free, removing access barriers for teaching, learning and health literacy.
Founded by Dr. Olajide Williams of Columbia University, a world-renowned leader in community based behavioral intervention research, the HHPH transdisciplinary team is a unique collective blending socially conscious creatives along with health and education professionals, nutritionists, public health researchers, physicians, behavioral scientists, and a rotating youth advisory board led by Lori Rose Benson. HHPH’s founding artist, the legendary Doug E. Fresh, has cultivated an iconic artist advisory board including Darryl DMC McDaniels from Run DMC, Chuck D, Jordin Sparks and Ashanti in addition to multi-platinum music composers and producers.
HHPH is dedicated to serving children, young people and families in communities of color with clear health equity disparities. We seek to do this via school-based and virtual programming, in collaboration with student and educator ambassadors and in collaboration with like-minded public health, education and social justice organizations.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
KEY STRATEGIC PRIORITIES 2022-24
● Refine and re-launch a scalable, replicable national college student ambassador program accompanied by a sophisticated, interactive content delivery and training platform with a focus on health promotion and disease prevention content for young people and their families.
● Deepen engagement with emerging youth artists as artist ambassadors and content creators focusing on addressing mental health issues, combating toxic stress, and responding to emerging public health issues and disease prevention facing youth and young adults.
● Launch a new national health literacy initiative curating spaces for vulnerable dialogue between the hip hop community and medical professionals of color to build trust-based relationships. Through a cadence of intentional, ‘off the record’ and ‘on the record’ experiences, we will engage, educate and empower artists (from the guardians of hip hop to a younger generation) to lead in efforts to illuminate and address health disparities.
● Enhance and expand strategic organizational partnerships within public health, medicine, k-12 education, higher education, cultural, faith-based, entertainment, and corporate sectors
● Expand the board of directors, fortify the board member recruitment pipeline and create an inaugural junior board
Build internal capacity for research, evaluation and scientific rigor.
● Expansion of virtual and in-person conversations, town halls and events engaging a range of target audiences including: Young people, Parents/caregivers, Educators, Youth artists/artists, Partners, Policy makers
● Introduce a new suite of mental health resources to address:
- adverse childhood/community experiences (ACES)
- racism & the connection to stress & health
- combating toxic stress
- the ongoing covid-19 pandemic
● Create additional wrap-around curriculum & instructional materials to enhance and complement existing hip hop public health promotion & disease prevention resources
● Establish 4 distinct national advisory boards: medical, artist, student
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Hip Hop Public Health
Board of directorsas of 05/31/2023
Dr. Olajide Williams
Columbia University Medical Center
Eric Pliner
YSC
Gillian Barclay
Colgate-Palmolive
Andrew Post
Hazel Health
James Whitehead
International Society for Sports Psychiatry
Lori Rose Benson
Hip Hop Public Health
James Noble
Columbia University Medical Center
Saju Joseph
Valley Health System
Imani Greene
Greene Consulting
Valerie Purdie-Greenaway
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
The organization's co-leader identifies as: