A state commission is using yoga as inspiration for enhancing health in the kickoff to National Minority Health Month.

In honor of the April observance, the Toledo Mott branch, 1010 Dorr St., library played host to the Yoga and Exercise Extravaganza on Thursday.

Certified fitness and yoga instructor Toni Quinn was on hand conducting a beginner's yoga session and shared the benefits of yoga for overall health.

Yoga is credited for being therapeutic and for assisting with the support and management of many chronic diseases.

“Yoga is something that will bring you centered and bring you calm and also improve your blood flow, and circulation,” she said.

“For our community in particular, since this is Minority Health Month, it is important because yoga is preventative medicine,” she said.

“There's a lot of awareness that needs to be brought to the forefront in regards to minority health for just prevention and treatment,” Ms. Quinn also said. “And just dealing with all the illnesses that we encounter, especially heart disease and high blood pressure.”

Funded by the Ohio Commission on Minority Health, the event also offered snacks, raffles, gift cards, local health resources, free blood pressure, and diabetes screenings.

Cheyenne Nawrot, minority health coordinator at the Toledo Lucas County Health Department, spoke about the significance of the event.

“There's so many resources and services in Toledo and Toledo Lucas County specifically,” she said.

The goal “is to get that out to our people so that they can come and feel comfortable in their community,” she said.

“And they can come to these events, get health screenings, they can get information about Medicaid and different things as it pertains to their health, Ms. Nawrot said.

That applies to all ages, she said.

Ms. Nawrot spoke of other challenges, as well. “There are many different reasons why people don't have access” to services such as transportation in addition to questions about trust in the system, she said.

“So I think that it's important to go meet people where they're at and go into the community and just show them what it has to offer and maybe you can make a difference that way,” Ms. Nawrot said.

Lucas County resident and expectant mom Vivan Bridges participated in the yoga class.

“I want to actually get more hands-on with yoga,” she said. At seven months along, she feels the stretching helped her hip.

While she came for the yoga class, Ms. Bridges also took advantage of the free screenings to get her blood pressure checked.

“I’m just curious and I want to check everything,” she said, expressing her desire to optimize her child’s prenatal care and development.

Several health vendors were on hand to provide resources.

Felipa Valdez works with Lucas County Health Department Healthy Start program. “Healthy Start helps moms who have children up to 18 months get connected to resources here in the community,” she said.

The program also seeks to assist pregnant moms to get connected to resources.

“We help some moms alleviate some of the stress which might prevent them from losing a child at birth,” Ms. Valdez said.

“We try to eliminate the morbidity because the rise in the deaths of African American women is three times greater. So we just try to eliminate that barrier for them,” she said.

A community marketing representative from CareSource, Terri Ellis, was available to share benefits and resources offered through the Medicaid program. Mrs. Ellis said that minorities and all of Lucas County needs to be educated on available resources.

“We have to make sure we are educating people on Medicaid, about the resources that we have,” she said. “For example, we give rides to the doctor appointments, to Job and Family Services, WIC appointments. They get 30 one-way trips or five roundtrips a month.”

In addition to that, they get five curbside pickups at the local grocery stores per month, she said.

“We want people to be healthy,” Mrs. Ellis said. “We also try to take the social determinants out of the way.”

Mrs. Ellis said CareSource offers a life coach.

“What that life coach does is it meets that member where they are,” she said.

“Because let's face it,” said. “If you don't have a job, you're not worried about going to the doctor, so we can help them remove that barrier.”

The theme for National Minority Health Month 2023 is Better Health Through Better Understanding. It focuses on improving health outcomes for racial and ethnic minority communities by providing culturally and linguistically competent healthcare services, information, and resources.

More events are scheduled throughout April. A link is available at https://bit.ly/3ZPxm6L

First Published April 6, 2023, 11:33 p.m.