Randolph County Heart Health Collaborative

About Us

Randolph County joined the Georgia Heart Health Initiative in 2025 as part of the second cohort — bringing the initiative into one of Georgia’s most rural and medically underserved communities, a two-municipality county with no full-service hospital.

The Collaborative brings together Randolph County Family Connection (the Community Champion Lead), the West Central Health District, the Randolph County Health Department, Giving Health, local primary care practices including Shellman Medical and Dr. Kinsell’s practice, the Randolph County Chamber of Commerce, Andrew College (including nursing students), local pharmacies, faith communities, barbershops and salons, EMS and law enforcement, and residents with lived experience in the neighborhoods most affected by cardiovascular disease. The work is grounded in a Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) completed in November 2025 and shaped by community voice across Cuthbert and Shellman. (Randolph County CHNA, 2025)

The Collaborative’s flagship intervention is Strong Heart Strong Life: Keep the Beat — a phased “Know Your Numbers” campaign that pairs county-wide social media messaging on Facebook and TikTok with a rotating series of pop-up community screening events with various branding, beginning with “Pressure & Plates” as the Collaborative’s first event. This page documents the data and priorities that shaped the intervention, the operational model across both campaign and event layers, partner roles, and outcomes reported through April 2026. Organizations interested in joining the Collaborative can find next steps in the Join Us section.

Community Champion Lead: Randolph County Family Connection

Home Collaborative: Randolph County Heart Health Collaborative

Randolph County Priorities

The Collaborative’s priorities were established through the November 2025 CHNA and community input across Cuthbert and Shellman, confirmed at the December 2025 Collaborative meeting. Two goals guide the intervention:

  • Increase awareness of individual heart health risk factors — particularly blood pressure — through culturally relevant messaging delivered by trusted local voices on Facebook and TikTok, paired with simple, actionable guidance on lifestyle changes and when to seek care.
  • Improve access to care through trusted, community-based pathways and follow-up supports — by bringing blood pressure, glucose, and cholesterol screenings into trusted settings and pairing every screening with a warm handoff to care and a volunteer follow-up call.

Priority geographies. Both municipalities in Randolph County — Cuthbert and Shellman — are part of the initial intervention. Given Randolph’s small population of roughly 6,270 residents and the isolation of Shellman and outlying areas, pop-up events rotate between the two municipalities. (Randolph County CHNA, 2025)

Priority age cohort. Adults ages 25–45, reflecting the Collaborative’s focus on prevention and early intervention — particularly important given Randolph’s pattern of hypertension-related mortality beginning at younger ages among Black residents. (Randolph County CHNA, 2025)

Why This Matters

Randolph County’s CHNA documented a clear pattern: the burden of cardiovascular disease in Randolph is among the highest in the state. Randolph ranks 155 out of 159 Georgia counties for overall health, with cardiovascular disease driving nearly one-third of all deaths countywide. (Randolph County CHNA, 2025; County Health Rankings, 2025)

The heaviest-burden communities

Randolph County is made up of two municipalities: Cuthbert (population ~4,779, predominantly Black/African American, younger) and Shellman (population ~1,491, older, more mixed). Cuthbert shows higher overall cardiovascular risk, while Shellman’s older age structure and higher disability rate drive more long-term functional limitations. Black and African American residents in Randolph face earlier hypertension-related mortality, with deaths concentrated in the 55–64 age range — a decade earlier than white residents. (Randolph County CHNA, 2025)

The social conditions that shape the burden

  • Poverty of 29.0% in Shellman and 26.1% in Cuthbert — roughly double the state rate of 13.5%. (Randolph County CHNA, 2025; U.S. Census ACS, 2019–2023)
  • Unemployment of 17.3% in Shellman — more than three times the state rate of 5.1%. (Randolph County CHNA, 2025; U.S. Census ACS, 2019–2023)
  • Median household income of $23,564 in Cuthbert — less than a third of the state median of $74,664. (Randolph County CHNA, 2025; U.S. Census ACS, 2019–2023)
  • SNAP utilization of 41.9% of households in Cuthbert and 39.5% in Shellman — more than three times the state rate. (Randolph County CHNA, 2025; U.S. Census ACS, 2019–2023)
  • Nearly 1 in 4 Cuthbert households (24.4%) have no vehicle — more than four times the state rate of 5.9%. (Randolph County CHNA, 2025; U.S. Census ACS, 2019–2023)
  • Both municipalities qualify as a USDA food desert, and Randolph ranks 5th most vulnerable of Georgia’s 159 counties on the CDC Social Vulnerability Index. (Randolph County CHNA, 2025)

A predominantly Black community with earlier cardiovascular mortality

Randolph County is 67.7% Black or African American — more than twice the state rate. Hypertension-related deaths cluster heavily among Black residents and begin at significantly younger ages: 17.4% of hypertension deaths in the county occur in Black residents ages 55–64, compared with virtually none in white residents of the same age range. This earlier onset is the single strongest reason the Collaborative chose a target age of 25–45 for the Keep the Beat campaign. (Randolph County CHNA, 2025; Georgia OASIS, 2020–2024)

The clinical picture

  • Essential (primary) hypertension and hypertensive renal and heart disease is the leading cause of death in Randolph County — a different leading cause than the state as a whole. (Randolph County CHNA, 2025; Georgia OASIS, 2020–2024)
  • The high blood pressure death rate is 66.9 per 100,000 — nearly six times the state rate of 11.6 — signaling widespread uncontrolled hypertension. (Randolph County CHNA, 2025; Georgia OASIS, 2020–2024)
  • Randolph is designated both a Health Professional Shortage Area and a Medically Underserved Area, with a primary care provider-to-resident ratio of 3,140:1 and no full-service hospital in the county. (Randolph County CHNA, 2025; County Health Rankings, 2025)

Strong Heart Strong Life: Keep the Beat

Strong Heart Strong Life: Keep the Beat is a phased “Know Your Numbers” intervention combining a Facebook and TikTok public education campaign with rotating pop-up community screening events branded “Pressure & Plates.” The intervention was designed for a rural, two-municipality county with no full-service hospital and a 3,140:1 primary care ratio, where the limiting factors on BP awareness and control are access, trust, and time rather than awareness alone.

The Collaborative deliberately chose a quarterly, phased approach over a one-time health fair model: sustained week-to-week messaging through trusted local voices, pop-up screenings embedded in existing community settings, and a structured post-event volunteer follow-up protocol using a scripted call-back workflow.

The Campaign and the Community

Keep the Beat operates in two tightly connected layers:

The Campaign — Social Media and Community Messaging

The campaign launched February 24, 2026 on the Randolph County Family Connection Facebook page, with a dedicated TikTok account (@strongheartstronglife) added the following week. The target posting cadence is three times per week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday), mixing graphics, text, and short-format video developed by the Collaborative and Dr. Murphy with input from Andrew College nursing students, who also appear as trusted local faces in campaign content. Content features other trusted messengers including EMS staff, the Sheriff’s Office, clinicians, educators, barbers and stylists, business owners, and local celebrities. These community voices are amplified through local newspapers, radio (WJIZ Albany), flyers, and partner pages.

The Community — Pop-Up Screening Events

The “pop-up series begin in 2026, pairing free BP, glucose, cholesterol, and BMI screening with healthy food distribution and structured warm handoffs to care. Pop-ups rotate between Cuthbert and Shellman, with the first event scheduled for Sunday, May 18, 2026, at Unique Images Barbershop in Cuthbert, followed by a local business in June, schools in Cuthbert and Shellman in late July and early August, and the Crossroads Festival in October 2026. Stationary BP cuffs are deployed at standing community sites — the Cuthbert library, Shellman Pharmacy, and Adams Family Pharmacy — with tracking logs and educational cards to support BP self-monitoring between events.

What This Means for Participants

If you follow the Keep the Beat Facebook page or TikTok account, you will see heart-healthy information three times a week from neighbors you already know and trust — barbers, firefighters, deputies, clinicians, pharmacists, and business owners — with simple guidance on how to check your numbers, what they mean, and what to do if they’re high.

If you come to a pop-up event, you can in a single visit: pre-register online with a QR code, get free screenings for blood pressure, glucose, cholesterol, and BMI, receive a Health Passport that records your numbers and next steps, take home healthy food and educational materials, and get a direct connection to Giving Health for virtual primary care (if you’re uninsured), to Dr. Kinsell or Shellman Medical, or to Care Connect. In the days following the event, a Collaborative volunteer will call you for a brief check-in and help you figure out a next step if cost, transportation, or insurance got in the way.

What Happens at a Keep the Beat Event

Every event follows the same core flow, adapted to the site. Here is what to expect:

  • Before the event, you pre-register online through a QR code on a flyer or Facebook post, answering a few quick questions about your lifestyle and goals.
  • On-site, a Family Connection or other community volunteer greets you and hands you a Health Passport that travels with you through each station.
  • You receive free blood pressure, glucose, cholesterol, and BMI screenings, with a clinician or trained volunteer explaining what each number means.
  • You receive heart-healthy food and simple take-home guidance on diet, activity, and medication adherence.
  • If any of your numbers are elevated, a volunteer walks you through your options: Giving Health for virtual primary care, Dr. Kinsell or Shellman Medical locally, Care Connect, or the Health Department with an appointment scheduled before participants leave when possible.
  • In the week after every event, a Family Connection volunteer calls you to ask about your blood pressure re-check, whether you’ve followed up with a doctor, and what’s getting in the way.

After every event, the Collaborative reviews the data — participation, referrals made, referrals linked, and follow-up outcomes — at its next monthly meeting and adjusts the next event accordingly. This ongoing cycle of Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) improvement is tailored to the scale and pace of a rural county.

Our Partners

Strong Heart Strong Life: Keep the Beat is a cross-sector effort. The partners below each play a defined role:

Community lead and public health

  • Randolph County Family Connection — Community Champion Lead. Chairs the Collaborative, hosts the campaign on its Facebook page, and leads event planning, volunteer coordination, and post-event follow-up.
  • West Central Health District — Public health and clinical lab partner. Provides HHA training for non-clinical volunteer partners, supports the Collaborative with public health guidance and clinical protocols, and provides lab services under a standing memorandum of agreement at pop-up events.

Clinical care and referral partners

  • Giving Health — Virtual primary care partner. Provides telehealth primary care, mental health, and SDOH support for uninsured and underinsured residents, with on-site registration a core part of the pop-up workflow.
  • Shellman Medical, Dr. Kinsell (Clay County), and Care Connect — Local and regional clinical partners. Serve as referral destinations for residents identified at pop-up events and provide ongoing primary care and care coordination.
  • Shellman Pharmacy, Adams Family Pharmacy, and the Cuthbert Public Library — Standing blood pressure check sites hosting stationary cuffs, tracking logs, and educational materials.
  • Phoebe Mobile Wellness Clinic — Mobile screening partner providing general health checkups and monitoring at rotating sites.

Education and civic partners

  • Andrew College — Education and workforce partner. Nursing students collaborate on campaign content (including TikTok video) and assist with screening at pop-up events.
  • Randolph County School District and Head Start — Host pop-up screening events tied to teacher planning days and help promote the campaign to families.
  • Randolph County Chamber of Commerce — Business engagement partner connecting the Collaborative to local employers, storefronts, and Main Street businesses in both municipalities.
  • City of Cuthbert, City of Shellman, Sheriff’s Office, local police, and EMS — Civic and public safety partners sharing campaign content, supporting event logistics, and appearing as trusted local voices in Keep the Beat media.
  • Cuthbert Public Library — Community partner hosting a blood pressure cuff and educational materials, serving as a trusted, accessible self-monitoring site between events.

Community voice and outreach

  • Local barbershops and salons (including Unique Images Barbershop) — Host pop-up events and serve as trusted, non-clinical settings for heart health conversations.
  • Faith communities — Weaver Temple Church of God, First Baptist Church (Cuthbert), Payne Chapel AME Church, and other congregations share campaign messaging and host events.
  • Residents with lived experience — Two Randolph residents have been engaged to strengthen campaign credibility and community reach.

Keys to Success — What the Collaborative Has Learned

Even in its first months of operation, the Randolph Collaborative has surfaced clear lessons from building a heart health intervention for a small, rural, medically underserved community. Five themes have emerged:

1. Messengers matter more than messages in a small community

In a county of roughly 6,270 residents, people don’t react to a campaign — they react to who is in it. Initial Facebook posts featuring local firemen and barbers drew over 1,000 views with a 30% reach among non-followers, and a subsequent post has since exceeded 10,000 views — confirming that trusted local voices are what move the needle.

2. Build the campaign and the community events together, not in sequence

A campaign without events is a poster; an event without a campaign is a health fair. The Collaborative designed Keep the Beat so that every social media post builds toward a pop-up, and every pop-up generates new content — videos, photos, and testimonials — that feeds the next round of posts.

3. Turn awareness into action stages

A resident who sees a Keep the Beat post and feels motivated needs somewhere to go before they’re ready for a pop-up event. Standing blood pressure cuffs at the Cuthbert Public Library, Shellman Pharmacy, and Adams Family Pharmacy serve that purpose — a low-barrier first step that converts awareness into action and builds the urgency that brings residents to a full event.

4. Bring the screening to the setting, not the setting to the screening

Residents in Randolph trust their barber, their pharmacist, and the librarian. The Collaborative chose to stand up stationary blood pressure cuffs at the Cuthbert library, Shellman Pharmacy, and Adams Family Pharmacy — with simple logs, take-home cards, and HHA training for non-clinical partners — rather than ask residents to come to a clinic.

5. Warm handoffs and follow-up calls are not optional in a rural county

With no full-service hospital and a 3,140:1 primary care ratio, a referral left to chance is a referral that does not happen. Every Pressure & Plates event is paired with on-site enrollment in Giving Health virtual primary care or direct scheduling with local providers, and a post-event volunteer call using a short script and a structured follow-up form.

6. Anchor the work in an organization the community already trusts

Randolph County Family Connection already held trust across Cuthbert, Shellman, schools, the Chamber, and faith communities before the Collaborative launched. Anchoring the campaign on the Family Connection Facebook page rather than building a new one, and asking Family Connection to lead volunteer outreach, has let the Collaborative move faster than it could have otherwise.

Our Impact

Strong Heart Strong Life: Keep the Beat launched its social media campaign the week of February 23, 2026, with pop-up community screening events beginning in May 2026. The data below reflects the first months of campaign activity.

Campaign reach (February – April 2026)

  • Campaign launched February 24, 2026 with three initial Facebook posts featuring local firemen and barbers.
  • Initial Facebook posts reached 1,003 views with a 30% reach among non-followers — and one subsequent post exceeded 10,000 views — confirming the campaign is reaching well beyond the Family Connection’s existing audience.
  • Strong organic engagement among adults ages 25–44, aligned with the 25–45 priority age cohort.
  • TikTok account (@strongheartstronglife) launched with 6 videos in the first weeks, on a target cadence of three posts per week.
  • Darnell Harvey, a retired NBA player from Randolph County, agreed to serve as a campaign spokesperson — adding a high-reach trusted voice to the Keep the Beat content pipeline.

Pop-up pipeline and standing screening sites

  • First Pressure & Plates pop-up scheduled for Sunday, May 18, 2026 at Unique Images Barbershop in Cuthbert, targeting men ages 25–45.
  • Additional events planned at a Cuthbert business in June, at schools in Cuthbert and Shellman in late July and early August, and at the Crossroads Festival in October 2026.
  • Standing blood pressure check sites activating at the Cuthbert library, Shellman Pharmacy, and Adams Family Pharmacy.

Future measures will track the number of residents screened for blood pressure, the number showing blood pressure improvement, the number referred to and linked to clinical care, closed-loop SDOH referrals, and campaign engagement by age cohort and platform. The Collaborative reports data monthly to Mosaic Group and Georgia DPH and reviews it at every monthly Collaborative meeting to guide the next round of posts and events.

Upcoming Events

  • Strong Heart Strong Life: Keep the Beat Campaign
    Ongoing on Facebook and TikTok — follow to stay connected to heart health tips and upcoming events @strongheartstronglife

Join Us

Heart health is a community effort. The Randolph County Heart Health Collaborative meets monthly and welcomes organizations and residents who want to make a difference in Randolph County.

Ways to get involved:

  • Attend a monthly Collaborative meeting
  • Follow and share Strong Heart Strong Life: Keep the Beat on Facebook and TikTok (@strongheartstronglife)
  • Volunteer at a Pressure & Plates pop-up event or a community screening
  • Host a Keep the Beat pop-up at your church, school, barbershop, salon, workplace, or community space
  • Become a Healthy Heart Ambassador
  • Refer neighbors, employees, or congregation members to Giving Health, Dr. Kinsell, Shellman Medical, or Care Connect
  • Partner with the Collaborative to integrate heart health into your existing programs

Interested in joining as a partner organization? Submit a Partner Interest Form and the team will follow up within a week.

References

Data Sources

  • Mosaic Group. Randolph County Community Health Needs Assessment. Prepared for the Georgia Department of Public Health Cardiovascular Health Program, November 2025.
  • Georgia Department of Public Health, Office of Health Indicators for Planning (OHIP). Online Analytical Statistical Information System (OASIS). Data years 2020–2024. https://oasis.state.ga.us/
  • University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. County Health Rankings & Roadmaps 2025. https://www.countyhealthrankings.org
  • S. Census Bureau. American Community Survey (ACS), 5-Year Estimates, 2019–2023.
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. PLACES: Local Data for Better Health. Data years 2022–2024. https://www.cdc.gov/places

About Us

Randolph County joined the Georgia Heart Health Initiative in 2025 as part of the second cohort — bringing the initiative into one of Georgia’s most rural and medically underserved communities, a two-municipality county with no full-service hospital.

The Collaborative brings together Randolph County Family Connection (the Community Champion Lead), the West Central Health District, the Randolph County Health Department, Giving Health, local primary care practices including Shellman Medical and Dr. Kinsell’s practice, the Randolph County Chamber of Commerce, Andrew College (including nursing students), local pharmacies, faith communities, barbershops and salons, EMS and law enforcement, and residents with lived experience in the neighborhoods most affected by cardiovascular disease. The work is grounded in a Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) completed in November 2025 and shaped by community voice across Cuthbert and Shellman. (Randolph County CHNA, 2025)

The Collaborative’s flagship intervention is Strong Heart Strong Life: Keep the Beat — a phased “Know Your Numbers” campaign that pairs county-wide social media messaging on Facebook and TikTok with a rotating series of pop-up community screening events with various branding, beginning with “Pressure & Plates” as the Collaborative’s first event. This page documents the data and priorities that shaped the intervention, the operational model across both campaign and event layers, partner roles, and outcomes reported through April 2026. Organizations interested in joining the Collaborative can find next steps in the Join Us section.

Community Champion Lead: Randolph County Family Connection

Home Collaborative: Randolph County Heart Health Collaborative

Randolph County Priorities

The Collaborative’s priorities were established through the November 2025 CHNA and community input across Cuthbert and Shellman, confirmed at the December 2025 Collaborative meeting. Two goals guide the intervention:

  • Increase awareness of individual heart health risk factors — particularly blood pressure — through culturally relevant messaging delivered by trusted local voices on Facebook and TikTok, paired with simple, actionable guidance on lifestyle changes and when to seek care.
  • Improve access to care through trusted, community-based pathways and follow-up supports — by bringing blood pressure, glucose, and cholesterol screenings into trusted settings and pairing every screening with a warm handoff to care and a volunteer follow-up call.

Priority geographies. Both municipalities in Randolph County — Cuthbert and Shellman — are part of the initial intervention. Given Randolph’s small population of roughly 6,270 residents and the isolation of Shellman and outlying areas, pop-up events rotate between the two municipalities. (Randolph County CHNA, 2025)

Priority age cohort. Adults ages 25–45, reflecting the Collaborative’s focus on prevention and early intervention — particularly important given Randolph’s pattern of hypertension-related mortality beginning at younger ages among Black residents. (Randolph County CHNA, 2025)

Why This Matters

Randolph County’s CHNA documented a clear pattern: the burden of cardiovascular disease in Randolph is among the highest in the state. Randolph ranks 155 out of 159 Georgia counties for overall health, with cardiovascular disease driving nearly one-third of all deaths countywide. (Randolph County CHNA, 2025; County Health Rankings, 2025)

The heaviest-burden communities

Randolph County is made up of two municipalities: Cuthbert (population ~4,779, predominantly Black/African American, younger) and Shellman (population ~1,491, older, more mixed). Cuthbert shows higher overall cardiovascular risk, while Shellman’s older age structure and higher disability rate drive more long-term functional limitations. Black and African American residents in Randolph face earlier hypertension-related mortality, with deaths concentrated in the 55–64 age range — a decade earlier than white residents. (Randolph County CHNA, 2025)

The social conditions that shape the burden

  • Poverty of 29.0% in Shellman and 26.1% in Cuthbert — roughly double the state rate of 13.5%. (Randolph County CHNA, 2025; U.S. Census ACS, 2019–2023)
  • Unemployment of 17.3% in Shellman — more than three times the state rate of 5.1%. (Randolph County CHNA, 2025; U.S. Census ACS, 2019–2023)
  • Median household income of $23,564 in Cuthbert — less than a third of the state median of $74,664. (Randolph County CHNA, 2025; U.S. Census ACS, 2019–2023)
  • SNAP utilization of 41.9% of households in Cuthbert and 39.5% in Shellman — more than three times the state rate. (Randolph County CHNA, 2025; U.S. Census ACS, 2019–2023)
  • Nearly 1 in 4 Cuthbert households (24.4%) have no vehicle — more than four times the state rate of 5.9%. (Randolph County CHNA, 2025; U.S. Census ACS, 2019–2023)
  • Both municipalities qualify as a USDA food desert, and Randolph ranks 5th most vulnerable of Georgia’s 159 counties on the CDC Social Vulnerability Index. (Randolph County CHNA, 2025)

A predominantly Black community with earlier cardiovascular mortality

Randolph County is 67.7% Black or African American — more than twice the state rate. Hypertension-related deaths cluster heavily among Black residents and begin at significantly younger ages: 17.4% of hypertension deaths in the county occur in Black residents ages 55–64, compared with virtually none in white residents of the same age range. This earlier onset is the single strongest reason the Collaborative chose a target age of 25–45 for the Keep the Beat campaign. (Randolph County CHNA, 2025; Georgia OASIS, 2020–2024)

The clinical picture

  • Essential (primary) hypertension and hypertensive renal and heart disease is the leading cause of death in Randolph County — a different leading cause than the state as a whole. (Randolph County CHNA, 2025; Georgia OASIS, 2020–2024)
  • The high blood pressure death rate is 66.9 per 100,000 — nearly six times the state rate of 11.6 — signaling widespread uncontrolled hypertension. (Randolph County CHNA, 2025; Georgia OASIS, 2020–2024)
  • Randolph is designated both a Health Professional Shortage Area and a Medically Underserved Area, with a primary care provider-to-resident ratio of 3,140:1 and no full-service hospital in the county. (Randolph County CHNA, 2025; County Health Rankings, 2025)

Strong Heart Strong Life: Keep the Beat

Strong Heart Strong Life: Keep the Beat is a phased “Know Your Numbers” intervention combining a Facebook and TikTok public education campaign with rotating pop-up community screening events branded “Pressure & Plates.” The intervention was designed for a rural, two-municipality county with no full-service hospital and a 3,140:1 primary care ratio, where the limiting factors on BP awareness and control are access, trust, and time rather than awareness alone.

The Collaborative deliberately chose a quarterly, phased approach over a one-time health fair model: sustained week-to-week messaging through trusted local voices, pop-up screenings embedded in existing community settings, and a structured post-event volunteer follow-up protocol using a scripted call-back workflow.

The Campaign and the Community

Keep the Beat operates in two tightly connected layers:

The Campaign — Social Media and Community Messaging

The campaign launched February 24, 2026 on the Randolph County Family Connection Facebook page, with a dedicated TikTok account (@strongheartstronglife) added the following week. The target posting cadence is three times per week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday), mixing graphics, text, and short-format video developed by the Collaborative and Dr. Murphy with input from Andrew College nursing students, who also appear as trusted local faces in campaign content. Content features other trusted messengers including EMS staff, the Sheriff’s Office, clinicians, educators, barbers and stylists, business owners, and local celebrities. These community voices are amplified through local newspapers, radio (WJIZ Albany), flyers, and partner pages.

The Community — Pop-Up Screening Events

The “pop-up series begin in 2026, pairing free BP, glucose, cholesterol, and BMI screening with healthy food distribution and structured warm handoffs to care. Pop-ups rotate between Cuthbert and Shellman, with the first event scheduled for Sunday, May 18, 2026, at Unique Images Barbershop in Cuthbert, followed by a local business in June, schools in Cuthbert and Shellman in late July and early August, and the Crossroads Festival in October 2026. Stationary BP cuffs are deployed at standing community sites — the Cuthbert library, Shellman Pharmacy, and Adams Family Pharmacy — with tracking logs and educational cards to support BP self-monitoring between events.

What This Means for Participants

If you follow the Keep the Beat Facebook page or TikTok account, you will see heart-healthy information three times a week from neighbors you already know and trust — barbers, firefighters, deputies, clinicians, pharmacists, and business owners — with simple guidance on how to check your numbers, what they mean, and what to do if they’re high.

If you come to a pop-up event, you can in a single visit: pre-register online with a QR code, get free screenings for blood pressure, glucose, cholesterol, and BMI, receive a Health Passport that records your numbers and next steps, take home healthy food and educational materials, and get a direct connection to Giving Health for virtual primary care (if you’re uninsured), to Dr. Kinsell or Shellman Medical, or to Care Connect. In the days following the event, a Collaborative volunteer will call you for a brief check-in and help you figure out a next step if cost, transportation, or insurance got in the way.

What Happens at a Keep the Beat Event

Every event follows the same core flow, adapted to the site. Here is what to expect:

  • Before the event, you pre-register online through a QR code on a flyer or Facebook post, answering a few quick questions about your lifestyle and goals.
  • On-site, a Family Connection or other community volunteer greets you and hands you a Health Passport that travels with you through each station.
  • You receive free blood pressure, glucose, cholesterol, and BMI screenings, with a clinician or trained volunteer explaining what each number means.
  • You receive heart-healthy food and simple take-home guidance on diet, activity, and medication adherence.
  • If any of your numbers are elevated, a volunteer walks you through your options: Giving Health for virtual primary care, Dr. Kinsell or Shellman Medical locally, Care Connect, or the Health Department with an appointment scheduled before participants leave when possible.
  • In the week after every event, a Family Connection volunteer calls you to ask about your blood pressure re-check, whether you’ve followed up with a doctor, and what’s getting in the way.

After every event, the Collaborative reviews the data — participation, referrals made, referrals linked, and follow-up outcomes — at its next monthly meeting and adjusts the next event accordingly. This ongoing cycle of Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) improvement is tailored to the scale and pace of a rural county.

Our Partners

Strong Heart Strong Life: Keep the Beat is a cross-sector effort. The partners below each play a defined role:

Community lead and public health

  • Randolph County Family Connection — Community Champion Lead. Chairs the Collaborative, hosts the campaign on its Facebook page, and leads event planning, volunteer coordination, and post-event follow-up.
  • West Central Health District — Public health and clinical lab partner. Provides HHA training for non-clinical volunteer partners, supports the Collaborative with public health guidance and clinical protocols, and provides lab services under a standing memorandum of agreement at pop-up events.

Clinical care and referral partners

  • Giving Health — Virtual primary care partner. Provides telehealth primary care, mental health, and SDOH support for uninsured and underinsured residents, with on-site registration a core part of the pop-up workflow.
  • Shellman Medical, Dr. Kinsell (Clay County), and Care Connect — Local and regional clinical partners. Serve as referral destinations for residents identified at pop-up events and provide ongoing primary care and care coordination.
  • Shellman Pharmacy, Adams Family Pharmacy, and the Cuthbert Public Library — Standing blood pressure check sites hosting stationary cuffs, tracking logs, and educational materials.
  • Phoebe Mobile Wellness Clinic — Mobile screening partner providing general health checkups and monitoring at rotating sites.

Education and civic partners

  • Andrew College — Education and workforce partner. Nursing students collaborate on campaign content (including TikTok video) and assist with screening at pop-up events.
  • Randolph County School District and Head Start — Host pop-up screening events tied to teacher planning days and help promote the campaign to families.
  • Randolph County Chamber of Commerce — Business engagement partner connecting the Collaborative to local employers, storefronts, and Main Street businesses in both municipalities.
  • City of Cuthbert, City of Shellman, Sheriff’s Office, local police, and EMS — Civic and public safety partners sharing campaign content, supporting event logistics, and appearing as trusted local voices in Keep the Beat media.
  • Cuthbert Public Library — Community partner hosting a blood pressure cuff and educational materials, serving as a trusted, accessible self-monitoring site between events.

Community voice and outreach

  • Local barbershops and salons (including Unique Images Barbershop) — Host pop-up events and serve as trusted, non-clinical settings for heart health conversations.
  • Faith communities — Weaver Temple Church of God, First Baptist Church (Cuthbert), Payne Chapel AME Church, and other congregations share campaign messaging and host events.
  • Residents with lived experience — Two Randolph residents have been engaged to strengthen campaign credibility and community reach.

 

Keys to Success — What the Collaborative Has Learned

Even in its first months of operation, the Randolph Collaborative has surfaced clear lessons from building a heart health intervention for a small, rural, medically underserved community. Five themes have emerged:

1. Messengers matter more than messages in a small community

In a county of roughly 6,270 residents, people don’t react to a campaign — they react to who is in it. Initial Facebook posts featuring local firemen and barbers drew over 1,000 views with a 30% reach among non-followers, and a subsequent post has since exceeded 10,000 views — confirming that trusted local voices are what move the needle.

2. Build the campaign and the community events together, not in sequence

A campaign without events is a poster; an event without a campaign is a health fair. The Collaborative designed Keep the Beat so that every social media post builds toward a pop-up, and every pop-up generates new content — videos, photos, and testimonials — that feeds the next round of posts.

3. Turn awareness into action stages

A resident who sees a Keep the Beat post and feels motivated needs somewhere to go before they’re ready for a pop-up event. Standing blood pressure cuffs at the Cuthbert Public Library, Shellman Pharmacy, and Adams Family Pharmacy serve that purpose — a low-barrier first step that converts awareness into action and builds the urgency that brings residents to a full event.

4. Bring the screening to the setting, not the setting to the screening

Residents in Randolph trust their barber, their pharmacist, and the librarian. The Collaborative chose to stand up stationary blood pressure cuffs at the Cuthbert library, Shellman Pharmacy, and Adams Family Pharmacy — with simple logs, take-home cards, and HHA training for non-clinical partners — rather than ask residents to come to a clinic.

5. Warm handoffs and follow-up calls are not optional in a rural county

With no full-service hospital and a 3,140:1 primary care ratio, a referral left to chance is a referral that does not happen. Every Pressure & Plates event is paired with on-site enrollment in Giving Health virtual primary care or direct scheduling with local providers, and a post-event volunteer call using a short script and a structured follow-up form.

6. Anchor the work in an organization the community already trusts

Randolph County Family Connection already held trust across Cuthbert, Shellman, schools, the Chamber, and faith communities before the Collaborative launched. Anchoring the campaign on the Family Connection Facebook page rather than building a new one, and asking Family Connection to lead volunteer outreach, has let the Collaborative move faster than it could have otherwise.

Our Impact

Strong Heart Strong Life: Keep the Beat launched its social media campaign the week of February 23, 2026, with pop-up community screening events beginning in May 2026. The data below reflects the first months of campaign activity.

Campaign reach (February – April 2026)

  • Campaign launched February 24, 2026 with three initial Facebook posts featuring local firemen and barbers.
  • Initial Facebook posts reached 1,003 views with a 30% reach among non-followers — and one subsequent post exceeded 10,000 views — confirming the campaign is reaching well beyond the Family Connection’s existing audience.
  • Strong organic engagement among adults ages 25–44, aligned with the 25–45 priority age cohort.
  • TikTok account (@strongheartstronglife) launched with 6 videos in the first weeks, on a target cadence of three posts per week.
  • Darnell Harvey, a retired NBA player from Randolph County, agreed to serve as a campaign spokesperson — adding a high-reach trusted voice to the Keep the Beat content pipeline.

Pop-up pipeline and standing screening sites

  • First Pressure & Plates pop-up scheduled for Sunday, May 18, 2026 at Unique Images Barbershop in Cuthbert, targeting men ages 25–45.
  • Additional events planned at a Cuthbert business in June, at schools in Cuthbert and Shellman in late July and early August, and at the Crossroads Festival in October 2026.
  • Standing blood pressure check sites activating at the Cuthbert library, Shellman Pharmacy, and Adams Family Pharmacy.

Future measures will track the number of residents screened for blood pressure, the number showing blood pressure improvement, the number referred to and linked to clinical care, closed-loop SDOH referrals, and campaign engagement by age cohort and platform. The Collaborative reports data monthly to Mosaic Group and Georgia DPH and reviews it at every monthly Collaborative meeting to guide the next round of posts and events.

Upcoming Events

  • Strong Heart Strong Life: Keep the Beat Campaign
    Ongoing on Facebook and TikTok — follow to stay connected to heart health tips and upcoming events @strongheartstronglife

Join Us

Heart health is a community effort. The Randolph County Heart Health Collaborative meets monthly and welcomes organizations and residents who want to make a difference in Randolph County.

Ways to get involved:

  • Attend a monthly Collaborative meeting
  • Follow and share Strong Heart Strong Life: Keep the Beat on Facebook and TikTok (@strongheartstronglife)
  • Volunteer at a Pressure & Plates pop-up event or a community screening
  • Host a Keep the Beat pop-up at your church, school, barbershop, salon, workplace, or community space
  • Become a Healthy Heart Ambassador
  • Refer neighbors, employees, or congregation members to Giving Health, Dr. Kinsell, Shellman Medical, or Care Connect
  • Partner with the Collaborative to integrate heart health into your existing programs

Interested in joining as a partner organization? Submit a Partner Interest Form and the team will follow up within a week.

References

Data Sources

  • Mosaic Group. Randolph County Community Health Needs Assessment. Prepared for the Georgia Department of Public Health Cardiovascular Health Program, November 2025.
  • Georgia Department of Public Health, Office of Health Indicators for Planning (OHIP). Online Analytical Statistical Information System (OASIS). Data years 2020–2024. https://oasis.state.ga.us/
  • University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. County Health Rankings & Roadmaps 2025. https://www.countyhealthrankings.org
  • S. Census Bureau. American Community Survey (ACS), 5-Year Estimates, 2019–2023.
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. PLACES: Local Data for Better Health. Data years 2022–2024. https://www.cdc.gov/places