Championing Heart Health: AR+D Joins the Live to the Beat Movement

AR+D has joined forces with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Live to the Beat campaign — a national initiative to promote cardiovascular health among Hispanic and Latino communities.

The partnership reflects our long-standing commitment to health equity and culturally responsive health communication. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States and disproportionately affects Hispanic and Latino communities, making culturally tailored outreach not just valuable but essential.

What we're doing

Through our partnership, AR+D is providing bilingual content development, community engagement strategy, and distribution support across California. Our team is working with community-based organizations, faith communities, and healthcare providers to extend the campaign's reach to populations that traditional health communication often misses.

Why culturally responsive campaigns matter

The research is clear: health information that reflects the cultural context, language, and lived experience of a community is significantly more effective than translated versions of materials designed for other audiences.

For cardiovascular health specifically, cultural factors shape everything from dietary patterns and physical activity norms to healthcare-seeking behavior and trust in medical institutions. Effective campaigns must account for these dimensions — not as an afterthought, but as foundational design principles.

What we've learned

The most effective health communications we've developed share a common trait: they emerge from genuine listening. Before we develop any campaign materials, we spend time with the communities we're trying to reach — understanding their concerns, their trusted information sources, and the cultural contexts in which health decisions are made.

This work reinforces what we believe at AR+D: the path to health equity runs through rigorous research, authentic partnership, and a deep respect for community knowledge.