"Community Outreach plays an integral role in realizing the Alumni Alliance’s social mission and protecting its non-profit status."

The health disparities that exist between African Americans and other demographic groups are alarming and have long-term consequences for quality of life and life opportunity. Heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer -- the four leading causes of death in the African American community -- are largely driven by lifestyle. To increase awareness and education about prevention of these conditions the Washington, DC Metro Historically Black Colleges and Universities Alumni Alliance, Inc. (DCHBCUAA) established an annual HBCU 5K Run/Walk and HBCU Alumni Community Day to bring the awareness of these disparities, deliver education and offer health screenings. This health initiative aspires to educate the community on living well, with regular exercise and proper nutrition, and draws attention to the barriers that many people in our communities face in making healthy choices. Proceeds support students who are interested in attending an HBCU in Health/Science fields of study.

The Alumni Alliance has partnered with the Capital Area Food Bank to help fight hunger in the community where we live and serve. One in seven District households is struggling against hunger, and while the nation's federal nutrition programs have a wide reach in Washington, D.C., too many adults and children continue to slip through the nutrition safety net. “Food insecurity and lack of availability of nutritionally adequate and safe food persists for too many households. Along with hunger, lack of access to healthy food contributes to obesity and poor health outcomes. Our goal through this partnership is to bridge the gap by providing additional food and financial resources, incorporating a food drive in our annual HBCU 5K Run/Walk and HBCU Alumni Community Day, and educating communities with food hardship. We continue to seek corporate sponsors and partners with comparable missions.

Leading the way to improve the quality of education in the urban community, the HBCU Alumni community has partnered with a District of Columbia public school to fill school year resource gaps in supplies and education. Tapping the wide range of knowledge and resource base of our membership, we seek to connect students to skills building opportunities in college preparatory subject matter such as SAT preparation, computer engineering and coding, STEM and specific subject tutoring. To meet day-to-day demands, school supply and backpack collection will help fill a necessary need for underserved students.

There are many elements to our work. In addition to time, passion and commitment, there are many tangible resources that we need to bring our plans and events to fruition. We cannot deliver on our mission or achieve our goals without the support of our corporate sponsors. Partnership is at the core of our work and we continue to seek new partners to make our work possible.