Nationwide — Black America suffers from high disparities in the affliction and treatment of hypertension, diabetes, asthma and stroke. The higher rates have been attributed to a lack of medical education and access to care. As a tribute to Mrs. Shirley Chisholm for over 30 years of service as National Spokesperson emeritus for Educate Black America, Park Walk America has been launched as an information portal that provides key health, fitness, nutritional and background information from leading publications, web sites and industry leaders such as Healthline, Everyday Health and WebMD.

This important and valuable portal will be continually fed with the latest available news, events impacting health, fitness, wellness and environmental stewardship. Park Walk America is being built as a national network of forward-thinking American cities seeking solutions to the many health disparities facing America.

Baltimore, Maryland has been chosen as the pilot city in a national network of Park Walk cities. Due to unsteadiness in the economy, Park Walk Baltimore (pdf) will launch in Spring, 2024. The success of Park Walk Baltimore will be driven by the vested interests of the public, private and nonprofit sectors. The outreach strategy will be the successful American Express marketing model of reaching people where they live, work, play and pray.

The objective is to have companies and organizations partner with ABC Ventures, Inc (developers of the initiative) to insure every business and community promote the Park Walk America approach to their employees, their customers, their neighbors and their friends. The public sector will benefit by providing action items that can improve the quality of life for its residents and better utilize their facilities and resources. Businesses can better serve their employees and communities by enhancing their social responsibility and develop a new channel of distribution. Businesses will also gain higher morale and attendance while lowering absenteeism and health care costs. The nonprofit community can have marketing tools available to support the missions they serve, particularly community health and development.

The Park Walk America Network memberships are similar to the American Express Card merchant memberships. Each business and organizational membership includes turnkey management, a business plan, links to the Park Walk America web site for local or national promotion. Each Park Walk America city will have a unique online shopping platform that will generate cause marketing funding from local and national advertisers. For consistency, the revenue generated from online sales will be allocated to the host city. Local and National Memberships are available for testing. Each Park Walk America site membership will have a funding arrangement to support their local parks. The membership will also include links to the Park Walk America shopping platform at www.parkwalkamerica.com.

The “Build It and They Will Come” approach is strategic and timely considering the higher awareness people now have following the continuing worldwide concern regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Companies choosing to participate by April 2, 2024 can receive special pricing for a dual Educate Black America and Park Walk America Network membership PDF. For details, contact ABC Ventures Inc at info@parkwalkamerica.com with Network Membership on the subject line.

Educate Black America (EBA) and Park Walk America (PWA) are cause marketing platforms. In addition to Facebook pages, both have online shopping sites that generate funds for important and valued causes. EBA (EducateBlackAmerica.com) generates funds for jobs, scholarships and entrepreneurial opportunities while PWA (ParkWalkAmerica.com) provides much needed funds for parks and recreational areas.