Courtesy of 1905 New Media
When comedian, actor, and St. Louis native Cedric the Entertainer and his sister Sharita Kyles Wilson saw the care their mother, Rosetta Boyce Kyles, received while being treated at SSM Health St. Mary's Hospital, they were inspired.
“We love the compassion and the commitment they had to my mother,” he says. “So, my sister and I decided to get involved with them and try to bring awareness to the kind of work that’s been done and their commitment to the community.”
That involvement includes a $25,000 lead gift for the SSM Health’s Women’s Health Initiative, a new program centered around boosting health and wellness resources for women in the Midwest region. The program's commitment to the community revolves around women and taking care of their needs. President of SSM Health Foundation - St. Louis Paul Ross says the initiative is much-needed.
“Many women don’t care for themselves,” Ross says. “They’re usually caring about others. They’re caring for their family. They’re caring for everyone else, and they neglect their health. So it’s really important that we advocate that women take a look at that and really focus on their health as well. This initiative is to create awareness, to create funding for important programs that we have for the community.”
Though the initiative is centered around women in a general sense, there is an emphasis to serve those in lower income communities that may not have the means to access the most basic levels of health care. For Cedric, it was important that this community was highlighted within the initiative.
“My goal for the initiative is to really see improvement in the lower income areas and for people to know that they can take chances and not necessarily have to find themselves extremely ill or even die over something small that they can get serviced,” he says.
The program is committed to addressing all aspects of life for the women being serviced by the initiative. Dr. Carolyn Pryor, Medical Director of Maternal Services at SSM, believes it to be necessary that all facets of these women's lives be impacted as a result of the effort.
“We’re not only addressing their health care needs, but we’re addressing all the other factors that have an impact on them accessing health care,” Pryor says. “Do they lack transportation? Do they have a lack of food? Are they having child care issues or employment issues? All of those things have to be taken into account when you’re taking care of an entire person.”
To further support the initiative, Cedric encourages others to become involved. He maintains that even if gifts may seem relatively small to begin with, the women impacted by that support deserve the care and recognition.
“You’ve got 100 bucks, donate it,” he says. “Just think about how you can be a part of your overall community and how you can dedicate that message to the women of our world and know that they are truly the backbone of our community, our society, and our lives.”
The SSM Womens’ Health Initiative revolves around one principle, that women have impacted each persons’ life positively in some way or another.
“Everyone has a woman that’s important in their life,” says Cedric. “A mother, a sister, a cousin, a schoolteacher, an aunt, somebody that you love, that you recognize that you would want to have the best health care possible.”
