What Are the American Heart Association Functions & Responsibilities?

According to the American Heart Association website, their motto is "Building healthier lives, free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke." The organization functions as a public awareness and education tool. Each year, the association creates goals aimed at decreasing illnesses and deaths related to heart disease and stroke. The Association is responsible for many educational and fund-raising programs aimed at various groups and causes. Through an army of volunteers, they work tirelessly to achieve these goals.

Function

The American Heart Association functions as a nonprofit, voluntary organization supported mostly by donors. Their headquarters are in Dallas, Texas. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the AHA depends on 3.7 million volunteers to carry out its goals and has raised over $1 billion since 1949 (as of 2009). The American Heart Association creates annual goals, taking on the responsibility to reduce heart disease and stroke. Their goal in 2009 is to reduce smoking, lower high blood pressure and cholesterol, and reduce inactivity by 25 percent by the year 2010.

Responsibilities

According to the American Heart Association website, they divide the organization's responsibilities into seven areas while eight main offices operate nationwide. The seven areas of responsibility that exist within the American Heart Association include the office of chief executive, the advocacy division, corporate operations, field operations, healthcare markets division, science operations and customer technology strategies.

Go Red

The American Heart Association functions as an awareness raising organization and as such, operates four main awareness-raising groups targeted at specific audiences. The Go Red for Women cause takes the responsibility of focusing attention on women and heart disease. They spread the message that heart disease strikes women, not just men, and raise awareness of heart healthy choices women need to make to remain healthy.

Start!

The Start! program takes responsibility for providing an online community advocating walking for improved health. They provide instruction, support, social contact and a wealth of online tools to help improve health through walking. The site even provides an online mapping tool to assist you in tracking your walking route, calories burned and distance walked.

Healthier Generations

The Alliance for a Healthier Generation cause raises awareness and education about childhood obesity. According to the American Heart Disease website Alliance for a Healthier Generation, the generation of children born around the year 2000 could be the first generation to live shorter lives than their parents. Former President Bill Clinton, along with California governor and former actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, head up this cause for the American Heart Association in 2009.

End Strokes

The Power to End Stroke division takes responsibility for the education and prevention of stroke-related illness. Though the cause seeks to end stroke across all cultural backgrounds, there is an increased focus on African-American culture because the risk for stroke-related illness and death remains so high. The Power to End Stroke cause functions as a fund and awareness-raising group as well as an educational assistant in spreading the word about strokes.