'Sisters in motion memphis:' A faith-based community effort to lose weight and improve the health of african american women

摘要

In September of 2006, a group of African American women who attended the Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in Memphis, Tennessee (http://www.theblvd.org/) had a desire to accomplish an ambitious physical activity and endurance goal. Their goal was to run the St. Jude Memphis Marathon (full or half), an uncommon goal in a city recently ranked as the most obese city in the United States by the Gallup Well Being Index.1 This idea of running a race together was the beginning of a long journey that would turn a group of six church members into a force of over 150 church members known as "Sisters in Motion Memphis" (http://sistersinmotionmemphis.org/) founded and led by the lead author of this article, Linda Sessoms.