At the end of Felicia Savage's yoga classes, her students form a circle and hold hands. They recite a pledge to honor their unity in wellbeing and finish with a group hug.

Anthony Henry has to stoop awkwardly to join the hug. He is a towering man who, on his mat, can't fold his body into ideal yoga positions. But he can mow his large lot in Penn Hills without having to sit down every few minutes.

"I used to carry a chair around, but now I mow the whole thing straight through," he said. "I've lost 60 pounds. I feel like I've been blessed by this program."

Mr. Henry, his wife Lennie, both 59, and her mother, Lennie McCrommon, who is 88, are among 6,000 people who have enrolled in the Healthy Black Family Project since the Center for Minority Health at the University of Pittsburgh established it three years ago. It is based at the Kingsley Association in Larimer.

The Project has 2,000 active participants, has collected 700 detailed family health histories and has garnered participation from 12 city neighborhoods, Penn Hills and Wilkinsburg.

Using institutions and organizations such as churches to spread the word, it initially targeted East End neighborhoods, said Stephen Thomas, director of the Center for Minority Health. Today, 50 percent of participants live in other neighborhoods.

"We are absolutely astounded" by the numbers, he said. "They showed up in droves, mostly by word of mouth."

The Center for Minority Health has taken several actions to reduce the rate of diabetes and hypertension among blacks, whom studies have indicated suffer those diseases at three times the rates of whites, said Anthony Robins, director of the project. An added wrinkle is that many blacks are leery of the medical establishment, he said.

In an earlier initiative, known as the barbershop outreach, medical professionals entered the domain of barbers and hair dressers, iconic and comfortable places in black neighborhoods. At first, some visiting doctors and nurses felt like fish out of water, having never been to a black neighborhood before, just as many blacks resist medical centers, Mr. Thomas said, where most people in white coats are white.

"Initially it was [an exercise in] trust building," said Mario Browne, head of the barbershop outreach program. "Part of the whole initiative was to build cultural confidence between health professionals and the people. They have to learn each others' languages."

The doctors and nurses built alliances with barbers, who agreed to post health information and learned how to watch for symptoms. The outreach began paying off -- hundreds of people have been screened and tested before or after a haircut. The program grew from three barbershops to 10.

"When we did genetic family health histories, the burden of disease is throughout a family," notably cardio-vascular disease and type 1 diabetes, said Mr. Thomas. Type 2 diabetes, "which they used to call 'adult onset'" is afflicting more and more obese children, he said. "We have a generation of young people who will not live as long as their parents" because of diabetes. "This is the first time we're facing that prospect."

He said the onus was on the university to act.

"It begged the question: If we're such a great medical institution, why do we have so many sick neighbors, some less than a mile away? Instead of complaining about people not showing up for appointments, we said, 'Let's take the appointments to them.'

"For far too long, issues of race have divided us. Closing the health disparity gap is something that can bring us together. We desperately need to do that," Mr. Thomas said.

When the Pitt center initiated the Healthy Black Family Project, it built classrooms and studios for classes in body toning, African dance, yoga, meditation and other stress-management techniques. The project also offers smoking cessation, nutrition and health workshops. Every new enrollee is checked out with a health assessment before particpating.

Aside from its specific target, the Healthy Black Family Project is open to anyone and has some white participants. Its $2.5 million budget is supported by individual donors, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the DSF Charitable Foundation, The Pittsburgh Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. Based on ZIP codes of participants, the project's programming has expanded to the Hill House, Hosanna House in Wilkinsburg, the Macedonia Baptist Church in the Hill District, Manchester Youth Development and the Northside Christian Health Center.

The project is also negotiating with large insurance providers for funding, Mr. Thomas said. "We're saying 'Listen, we have your customers. Your benefits should go toward helping support health promotion and disease prevention.' "

Comparative statistics showing how the program has fared over the past three years are not available, as the data are now under review, he said.

Mr. Henry's list of afflictions includes diabetes and high blood pressure, and he is recovering from prostate cancer. The Henry family participates in two yoga and two body toning classes a week.

"We've lost weight, we're feeling better, we have more energy," he said. "When I retired from Verizon and my wife from UPMC, we decided it was time to take care of ourselves. It's good to have a partnership within the family so that if you think about not going one day, they pull you along."

An underrated effect is a better social life and new friendships, participants say.

"Sometimes, even when you don't feel like exercising, they push you a little bit and you feel good afterward and feel like coming back," said Ivan Murry, 27, of Penn Hills. "I'm losing a lot of weight."

The dance studio has a mirror and a bank of windows that offer views of East Liberty, Larimer and Oakland in the distance. Verna Vaughan leads a dozen women through African dance steps several times a week. As their arms sweep up through the air, several women smile radiantly at their reflections. One elderly woman walks slowly to retrieve a handkerchief from her purse.

"I haven't done this very long, can't you tell?" she said. "I had a knee replacement in oh-five." She daintily wiped her forehead and chuckled. "Whew."

Delores Johnson, who is retired after working for 47 years in the office of public affairs at Pitt, attends with her sister. "Yes I have" health problems, she said. "I won't name it, and I won't claim it. But since I've been taking classes, they've improved. As long as I stay active."

"Miss Delores has good moves," said Ms. Vaughan, who said she notices her students becoming more confident and happier. "A lot of people stop dancing after a certain age, thinking it's for young people.

"I'm trying to get them to look at themselves in the mirror, look at what they're doing with their bodies, how they look and what comes out of them.

"Women have come down dress sizes, men have gone off their medications, and everyone has improved their social life."

Unlike health clubs, where people usually go alone, Kingsley draws entire families, from an elderly grandmother in a wheelchair to a toddler needing child care, said Mr. Thomas. Many of them are people who he said "had felt left out" at health clubs, "very large people, class two and three obese."

Ms. Savage, who has studied yoga for 17 years, said it's those people she seeks, "people who traditionally would not come to a yoga class. They don't have much flexibility, or they think they're too old. I want them to leave feeling empowered."

During the final moments of class, when her students are lying on their mats with their arms at their sides, their bellies rising slowly, lowering slowly, she scans the floor, keeping vigil over a few minutes of peaceful breathing.