Organ and tissue donation is a sensitive subject, but through sincere and sustained outreach, the Detroit Minority Organ Tissue Transplant Education Program has steadily increased donors in the area.
Organ donation saves lives: Here’s how the process works
Every donor can save up to 8 lives and enhance more than 75 more, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
- The Detroit Minority Organ Tissue Transplant Education Program (MOTTEP) Foundation is celebrating 30 years of health education and advocacy.
- Detroit MOTTEP works to overcome distrust in the health care system within communities of color by engaging with local groups.
- The foundation’s efforts have contributed to nearly doubling minority organ donor registrations over the last three decades.
Dr. Remonia Chapman attended a former Detroit public school — Longfellow Junior High — named after a literary giant who also devoted his life to abolishing the institution of slavery in America.
And Chapman’s current longtime Detroit church — Hartford Memorial Baptist Church — has addressed community needs and humanitarian concerns on a local, national, and global level for more than 100 years.
Therefore, it’s not at all surprising that Chapman currently is affiliated with an organization that not only saves lives, but also helps improve the quality of life for many people across Detroit and southeastern Michigan: The Detroit Minority Organ Tissue Transplant Education Program (MOTTEP) Foundation.
For three decades, through health education, advocacy and vigorous community engagement, the nonprofit Detroit MOTTEP Foundation has played a significant role in a movement that has seen minority donor registrations nearly double over the past 30 years. That accomplishment and more will be celebrated during the Detroit MOTTEP Foundation’s 30th Anniversary Celebration Weekend, Nov. 7-Nov. 9, which kicks off with a fundraising Gala Dinner at the historic Garden Theater in Midtown.
But, even as the community soldiers behind the movement, take a moment to reflect on gains that have been made, Chapman says, and the goal is to always do more because myths about organ and tissue donation are hard to shake, particularly within communities of color — and for good reason.
“There are real reasons for the distrust among people of color and that’s why the foundation was created,” Chapman, who joined the Detroit MOTTEP Foundation in 1997 and serves as the nonprofit’s executive director, said. “Historically, when you think of (the Untreated Syphilis Study at) Tuskegee and Henrietta Lacks (who had a sample of her cancer cells taken without her knowledge in 1951, which led to breakthroughs in medical research), and inequities in the health care system, along with people of color not being heard when they report pain; you can understand why segments of our community are not that trusting of the health care system.
“So, we have gone into those communities, talked with them, valued them, and given their voice volume.”
When Chapman described the scope of Detroit MOTTEP’s outreach on the morning of Oct. 21, what she shared sounded like a detailed community research guide as she rattled off organizations and institutions her nonprofit has worked with: Detroit’s robust faith-based community, the National Pan-Hellenic Council (the governing body for nine historically Black Greek-letter fraternities and sororities committed to service known collectively as the “Divine Nine”), the NAACP, the Detroit Health Department, the Detroit chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Black Nurses Association, the National Association of Black Social Workers, the Michigan Chronicle and affinity groups representing the automotive and health care industries. The group has even worked with Michigan Humane and community gardens.
“I think sometimes Detroiters don’t realize how many rich resources we have in our community,” said Chapman, who also pointed to the late congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick as a community and national leader her organization worked with to raise awareness of health issues that disproportionately affect communities of color, like diabetes and high blood pressure, and steps that can be taken to lessen the outbreak of these afflictions in our communities.
“We take a holistic approach, and we reach out to as many resources as we can to share information about organ and kidney donation,” she said. “But we also talk about how we can stay healthy in general, which includes knowing your numbers (health metrics like blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar and body mass index) and having those needed conversations with your family and doctor.”
Not only are community members able to communicate with people that look like them during Detroit MOTTEP’s vast outreach, but the movement that the nonprofit has advanced also was conceived by leaders that have a connection to Detroit and southeastern Michigan on some important levels. For example, it was Dr. Alfred Bolden, after witnessing the challenges that African American families faced in making donation decisions when he was a nurse supporting the cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit at Detroit’s Henry Ford Hospital more than 30 years ago, who eventually went to Washington to learn more about the National Minority Organ Tissue Transplant Education Program started by the pioneering transplant surgeon Dr. Clive Callender to increase minority donation rates nationally.
After establishing a relationship with Dr. Callender and others who shared his passion for the cause, Bolden, while working at Gift of Life Michigan, started the Detroit MOTTEP Foundation to continue Dr. Callender’s work in Detroit and across southeastern Michigan.
Then there is Dr. Silas Prescod Norman III, a 1986 graduate of Detroit’s Renaissance High School, who serves as the board chairman of Detroit MOTTEP.
Whenever people come across Norman’s name and make a connection to his father — the late Dr. Silas Norman Jr. — that is indeed a good thing. Because the late Dr. Norman was a real Renaissance man in his own right, known for his profound baritone voice, which lifted Detroit’s Brazeal Dennard Chorale; his Civil Rights activism that extended into the Deep South, and his inclusive approach to medicine that touched people who were in the most need of care as evidenced by his service to the state of Michigan’s prison system, the Detroit Health Care for the Homeless project and the Detroit-based Community Health Awareness Group, Inc., just to name a few of the causes supported by the late Dr. Norman.
Like his father, Dr. Silas Prescod Norman says he is driven by a need to “take care of his community,” which he says can bring together many diverse audiences.
“My father was a leader in the community because he did the work. And in doing this work in support of the Detroit MOTTEP Foundation, I get excited about thinking of the different ways we can define community,” said Norman, a transplant nephrologist, who pointed to the Detroit MOTTEP Foundation’s “Meet the Moment” initiative, which seeks to reach young men at risk for chronic kidney disease as an example of how the foundation works to reach Detroiters “where they are” to elevate the overall health of the community.
“We’re reaching out to African Americans, Spanish-speaking populations, Arab-speaking populations and rural communities, and we’re promoting culturally competent care,” he said.
“I think we all recognize the importance of taking care of our family. And I think the same applies to our community. At the end of the day, we’re all in this together.”
A 30-year commitment to saving lives
What: The Detroit Minority Organ Tissue Transplant Education Program (MOTTEP) Foundation, a nonprofit organization that has played a significant role in a movement that has seen minority donor registrations nearly double over the past 30 years.
Upcoming events: Detroit MOTTEP Foundation’s 30th Anniversary Celebration Weekend (Nov. 7-Nov. 9). Nov. 7: Fundraising Gala Dinner at the historic Garden Theater in Midtown. Nov. 8: Community Day at the Wayne State University Student Center. Nov. 9: Afternoon of the Arts at Hartford Memorial Baptist Church.
Learn more: The Detroit MOTTEP Foundation reports that there are currently more than 100,000 people waiting for lifesaving organs and additional patients in need of tissue, blood and bone marrow transplants. For additional information on the Detroit MOTTEP Foundation and how it serves the community, go to dmfdetroit.org.
Scott Talley is a native Detroiter, a proud product of Detroit Public Schools and a lifelong lover of Detroit culture in its diverse forms. In his second tour with the Free Press, which he grew up reading as a child, he is excited and humbled to cover the city’s neighborhoods and the many interesting people who define its various communities. Contact him at stalley@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @STalleyfreep. Read more of Scott’s stories at www.freep.com/mosaic/detroit-is/. Please help us grow great community-focused journalism by becoming a subscriber.
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