Alabama Breast and Cervical Cancer Coalition (ABCCC)

The Alabama Breast and Cervical Cancer Coalition (ABCCC) works to address the barriers that prevent low-income African American from receiving breast and cervical cancer screening services. Breast cancer is diagnosed less often in African American women than white women, but more African American women die of this disease each year. More African American women than white women die of cervical cancer each year.

This ABCCC conducted the first project in Alabama to systematically assess cancer awareness and screening behaviors among low-income African American women in both rural and urban areas. The first phase of the project was to create strong partnerships between community organizations, health care providers and public organizations working to empower and mobilize residents against these cancers.

The ABCCC followed an action plan to build these partnerships by creating a core group of lay volunteers, church representatives, and health professionals in each participating county and then awarded small grants to nonprofit groups that promote and provide breast and cervical cancer screening. These member organizations then conducted outreach activities to assess the screening status of community members and promoted future screenings by distributing educational material.

To mobilize African American communities, public and community-based organizations and optimize resources to eliminate the disparity in breast and cervical cancer morbidity and mortality between African American and Caucasian women.

The ABCCC launched their intervention to increase breast and cervical cancer screening among African American in 2001. Self-reported baseline data showed that only 48% of women participating in this intervention had received a mammogram. In 2003, 62% reported having a mammogram. At baseline, 55% of participating women said they had previously received a Pap test; this percentage increased to 66% by 2003.