Heart of a Giant | 2022 End of the Year Letter

Dear Friends:

With the 2022 year ending, I hope you are ready to enjoy the holiday season, spend time with friends and family, and take some downtime to relax. 

As we reflect on the year, I want to talk about how we delivered against our mission to eliminate preventable harm attributable to heart diseases and to improve the management of chronic health conditions in communities in Greater Boston.

For 2022, we are incredibly grateful for the colleagues leading the work of HGF. We greatly appreciate their commitment and dedication to our communities this past year, and we are excited about what 2023 has in store for us. The HGF team not only established HGF as a fully-fledged non-profit organization but has already begun to significantly change lives in our communities (see details below).

We launched our signature Healthy Hearts Communities (2HC) Program, through which we empower participants to better manage and prevent high blood pressure (hypertension). In this program, we also provide participants with Remote Patient Monitoring and Chronic Care Management to maximize the care plans prescribed by their medical providers. For more information, please visit https://heartofagiant.org/communityprogram.

Our Accomplishments in 2022: In addition to launching the 2HC Program over the past year, we have accomplished the following.

1. In Early 2022, HGF conducted a webinar series on important heart health information to educate community members. 51 people participated live in the webinars with many questions to the presenters. After that, we shared the recordings and disseminated the key points through various channels, including websites and social media (see our social media numbers).

2. On our Social Media Channels:

• • Facebook: we reached 40,295 with 136 posts.
  • Instagram: we reached 8,868 with 136 posts and gained 257 new followers.
  • Twitter: we have archived 5,300 impressions with 136 posts. 
  • Youtube: our videos were viewed 4510 times, and we gained 81 subscribers.
  • LinkedIn: we have 20 followers, 136 Page views, and 60 Unique visitors.

3. Our Living with Heart Disease Podcast was downloaded 783 individual times, with 44.4% via Apple Podcasts. Regarding locations, our listeners are worldwide: USA 57.73%, UK and Northern Ireland 14.43%, India 3.7%, and more countries, including Australia, Hungary, South Africa, Canada, France, Singapore, and Indonesia. 

4. HGF distributed 60 Arm BP machines to use at home. The units were donated to us by CVS Health. In addition, we also gave 75 Covid-19 home test kits to families in Boston/Mattapan and the surroundings. 

5. We delivered Blood Pressure Screenings at several events between September and the end of December. HGF provided 82 screenings in the communities. Most of the sample did not fall in the normal blood pressure range (79%), following the American Heart Association recommendations for normal blood pressure.

• • 18 individuals had Normal Blood Pressure readings, 
  • 19 individuals had an Elevated reading, 
  • 21 individuals had a High Stage 1 reading, and 
  • 25 individuals reported a High Stage 2 reading.

6. We have 15 participants ready to start in the 2HC Program at the beginning of 2023. We are actively recruiting more participants to enroll in the program. 

Some of Our Major Goals for 2023 include the following:

1. Successfully implementing two cohorts of the 2HC Program to benefit approximately 24 individuals directly and their relatives (48) indirectly.
2. Delivering a minimum of 14 Heart Health Workshops and 24 Educational Webinars, directly reaching more than 570 individuals. In addition, Audio and Video materials from the workshops and the webinars will be disseminated online and via social media. 
3. Having at least 24 Annonymous Blood Pressure Screening Sessions for a minimum of 480 individuals in communities in Boston and surrounding areas.

We already began planning and preparing for the new year. But we would need all the support we can get to achieve the most impact. Your contribution will ensure that we continue to build on the momentum and the good work Team HGF and our partners have started.

It is easy for you to make your financial contribution or contact to explore a partnership in the following ways: 

• You can visit our website at: https://heartofagiant.org/, 
• click on the following link https://heartofagiant.org/getinvolved/, 
• Scan the QR Code at the bottom of this letter, or 
• Mail your contribution to our offices at The Heart of A Giant Foundation, Inc., 15 Union Avenue, Milton, Massachusetts 02186. 

We feel blessed for the opportunity to pursue our goal of fostering better health outcomes for chronic heart disease patients and their support systems through better health education, care plans, and greater community involvement.

Please join us by donating to help us impact more lives in 2023.

On behalf of Team HGF and myself, Happy Holidays, and See You Soon!

In health,

Somaneh Bouba
Founder/CEO (Chief Encouragement Officer)
https://heartofagiant.org