Facing high heart disease rates, Petersburg embraces a community-led collaborative focused on chronic disease prevention.
Virginia leaders sign beam for new Central State Hospital building
On May 1, 2025, Virginia officials and political leaders signed the final beam in Central State Hospital’s ‘topping-off’ ceremony
- Petersburg declared itself a “Healthy Hearts City,” committing itself to combating high local rates of heart disease and stroke.
- The city partnered with the Petersburg Learning Collaborative’s Healthy Hearts Initiative, a community-led initiative to address social and economic factors contributing to poor heart health.
- The initiative aims to expand blood pressure self-monitoring, encourage healthy behaviors, and improve access to nutritious food and health education.
Petersburg officially declared itself a “Healthy Hearts City” during the city council meeting May 6 in a new proclamation aimed at tackling the root causes of heart disease in one of Virginia’s most impacted communities.
Heart disease and stroke are the leading causes of death in Petersburg, accounting for about 22% of all deaths in 2022 and 2023, according to data from the Virginia Department of Health.
Mayor Samuel Parham issued the proclamation in partnership with the Petersburg Learning Collaborative’s Healthy Hearts Initiative, a community-led coalition of residents from census tracts in Petersburg that the Centers for Disease Control identified as areas with the highest rates of hypertension in Virginia.
The initiative is part of the Virginia Department of Health’s larger Healthy Hearts Initiative, which launched in localities with the highest hypertension prevalence across the state. Petersburg, with several high-risk census tracts, was prioritized for early action.
The proclamation formally commits the city to supporting the coalition’s work moving forward.
“Community members representing people at highest risk for heart disease and stroke are key advocates for addressing barriers to optimal heart health and therefore deserve shared decision-making power,” the proclamation states.
Victoria Sanders, the cardiovascular coordinator for the Virginia Department of Health and advisor to the learning collaborative, told city council attendees May 6 that the coalition has around 15 members but is vetting an additional 125.
In addition to the city, Sanders said that the collaborative has partnered with several faith-based organizations, business and civic organizations throughout the city.
Addressing root causes in the community
By becoming a Healthy Hearts City, Petersburg joins a growing number of localities nationwide pledging to address cardiovascular health not just through clinical care, but by confronting social and economic determinants of health head-on.
“Heart health cannot be addressed without also addressing its root causes in the community,” the proclamation states, citing barriers such as limited access to nutritious food, unsafe housing, inadequate transportation, and the need for social connection and education.
Petersburg is a food desert with limited access to fresh, healthy food, leading to a higher consumption of processed foods and saturated fats. This contributes to higher rates of everything from obesity to hypertension, diabetes, heart problems and cancer. High unemployment and poverty rates, as well as limited access to safe housing, reliable transportation and affordable healthcare, also impedes residents’ ability to diagnose and manage chronic conditions effectively.
“Access [to healthcare] can mean affording a copay. It can mean having a job that has insurance in the first place,” Dr. Derek A. Chapman, Interim Director of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University, told The Progress-Index in August. “It can mean having someone to watch your children when you go to the doctor. It can mean having transportation to get to the doctor’s office.
“We want to stop thinking of health as only something we get at the doctor’s office, but something that starts instead in our families, in our schools and workplaces and playgrounds and parks and the air we breathe and water we drink.”
What can Petersburg residents do now?
To help mitigate the local effects of these systemic health disparities, the collaborative’s key goals include expanding blood pressure self-monitoring among Black residents over 45, increasing the number of individuals engaging in heart-healthy behaviors, and improving access to nutritious food and health education.
Want to get your own blood pressure checked? You can get it checked for free every Tuesday at the Petersburg Public Library, or use your library card to “check out” a blood pressure monitor and bring it back at your own convenience.
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