The Parkinson's Foundation's Fall Moving Day® Walks Fund Local Parkinson's Programs

"Moving Day® walks across the country are building a national Parkinson's community," said John L. Lehr, chief executive officer of the Parkinson's Foundation. "The Parkinson's Foundation is proud to offer community grants to expand and develop new wellness programs for people living with Parkinson's to live well today."

Through monies raised by Moving Day®, a grassroots and fundraising awareness walk, the foundation invests in local Parkinson's programs for health, wellness and education programs. Moving Day also supports national efforts by investing in the Center of Excellence network that delivers expert care to more than 100,000 Parkinson's patients worldwide; by funding cutting-edge research like the Parkinson's Outcomes Project, aimed at better treatment and care; by providing free patient resources for patients and their families, such as a toll-free Helpline (1-800-4PD-INFO) and the life-saving Aware in Care hospital kit.

"African Americans with Parkinson's disease in the greater Chicago area are underrepresented in the movement disorder clinics in Chicagoland and across the country. In order to address the needs of this specific community, we are thrilled to partner with the Parkinson's Foundation to create an African American Parkinson's Disease Center that will determine unmet needs, provide clinical resources and establish a research repository for these patients," said Deborah Hall, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Rush University Medical Center, a Parkinson's Foundation Center of Excellence.

The 2017 community grant offerings focus on:

• Addressing unmet needs in the Parkinson's community: services for underserved populations, support for clinical trial recruitment for under-represented populations and other unmet needs such as financial barriers to care;
•  Expanding a successful program into a new geography;
• Developing a new program for people with Parkinson's.

Community grants from funds raised in the fall walk season fund local services in each of the following cities:

Atlanta, GA

• Livramento Delgado Boxing Foundation, Inc.: PD Gladiators Boxing Training for PD
• PD Gladiators, Inc.: Community-based Parkinson's exercise program
• Emory University's Morris K. Udall Center of Excellence for Parkinson's Disease Research: Community Conversations

Boston, MA

• Jewish Family & Children's Service: In the Loop: Increasing community engagement
• Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center: Expanding Rock Steady Boxing
• Community Servings, Inc.: Nutrition program 

Chicago, IL

• The University of Chicago: African American People with Parkinson's Study
• Rush University Medical Center: Care, Research and the Unmet needs for African Americans with Parkinson's

Dallas, TX

• Dallas Area Parkinsonism Society: Community based group exercise
• The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center: Boxing for Parkinson's
• Parkinson's Support Group of Tarrant County: Ageless Grace Program

Los Angeles, CA

• University of Southern California: 5K Training Team
• Long Beach Memorial Medical Center: Parkinson's Rehabilitation Wellness Program
• Re+Active Physical Therapy & Wellness: Exercise class

Miami, FL

• Michael-Ann Russell Jewish Community Center: Rock Steady Boxing
• David Posnack Jewish Community Center: Wellness and Exercise Programs
• Memorial Foundation, Inc.: Memorial Healthcare System Dancing, Kickboxing & more for Parkinson's
• HIPERFIT: FUNctional Movement
• The Neuroscience Centers of Florida Foundation, Inc.: Monday Madness exercise class
• Green Monkey Yoga: Yoga for Parkinson's
• Broward Health: Broward Health Wellness Center Tai Chi Classes for Parkinson's

North Carolina

• The Poise Project: Alexander Technique for Care Partners of people living with PD
• Pamlico Coastal Activities Council: Parkinson's Exercise Prescription Rally
• American Dance Festival, Inc.: The Parkinson's Movement Initiative
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Addressing the Unmet Need for more Parkinson's Researchers
• Morehead City, NC, Parkinson's Disease Support Group: Rock Steady Boxing program
• Atlantic Music Therapy, LLC: Music Therapy for People with PD (MT4PD)

Moving Day®, A Walk for Parkinson's, has raised $14 million dollars since it began in 2011 and is taking place in 23 cities across the United States. Moving Day is made possible, in part, through the generous support of our National Partners: Abbvie, Lundbeck, Right at Home and Sunovion.

For more information on 2017 Moving Day® walks, visit www.npfmovingday.org.

About the Parkinson's Foundation
The Parkinson's Foundation is working toward a world without Parkinson's disease. Formed by the merger of National Parkinson Foundation (NPF) and the Parkinson's Disease Foundation (PDF), the mission of the Parkinson's Foundation is to invest in promising scientific research that will end Parkinson's disease and improve the lives of people with Parkinson's, and their families, through improved treatments, support and the best care. For more information, visit www.parkinson.org or www.pdf.org, or call (800) 4PD-INFO (473-4636) or (800) 457-6676.                                     

About Parkinson's Disease (PD)
Affecting an estimated one million Americans and ten million worldwide, PD is the second most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer's and is the 14th leading cause of death in the United States. It is associated with a progressive loss of motor control (e.g., shaking or tremor at rest and lack of facial expression) as well as non-motor symptoms (e.g., depression and anxiety). There is no cure for PD and 60,000 new cases are diagnosed each year in the United States alone.

Media Contact:
Leilani Pearl
[email protected] 
305-537-9907

SOURCE Parkinson's Foundation

Related Links

http://www.parkinson.org