Development of a Participatory Capacity- Building Program for Congregational Health Leaders in African American Churches in the US South

Abstract

African Americans are disproportionately affected by diabetes and colorectal cancer. Although studies have shown the effectiveness of spiritually based health interventions delivered by community health workers to African Americans, few have described the development of the capacity-building component. This article describes this process. The development of the Healthy Congregations Healthy Communities Program (HCHC) was guided through a community-based participatory research lens and included: 1) establishment of a community coalition; 2) identification by coalition members of churches as the best venues for health promotion strategies among African Americans; 3) recruitment of churches; 4) development of a training manual; 5) recruitment and training of congregational health leaders (CHLs); and 6) "Passing of the torch" from the coalition to the CHLs who implemented the intervention in their congregations. We trained 35 CHLs to promote awareness about diabetes and colorectal cancer using a culturally relevant, spiritually based curriculum. Pre- and post-test paired t-tests showed significant increases in CHLs' knowledge of wellness (P<.001), colorectal cancer (P<.002), nutrition (P<.004), and lifestyle changes (P<.005). The community-academic partnership was successful in developing a culturally relevant, spiritually based capacity-building program for African American CHLs to implement health promotion strategies in their congregations and communities.

Participation in Cervical Screening by Self-collection, Pap, or a Choice of Either in Brazil

“…The capacity building equipped them with behavior change strategies as evidenced by the significant pre-and post-training changes in perceived skills to promote behavior change and motivate women to be screened (21). This supports our work and others' that CHWs can be actively involved in behavior change if provided with appropriate training and supervision (29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34).…”

A Narrative Review of Ethnic Minority Studies for Faith-Based Health Promotion Interventions with Special Reference to the Contemporary Christian Nurse

“…Faith community nurses are found within Christian faith communities (also known as "parish nurses"), Jewish faith communities, and Islamic faith communities (Bard, 2006;Chatters, Levin, & Ellison, 1998). This is most likely due to accessibility of resources, a sense of community, and the perceived authority of religious leaders within the faith community all within a culturally sensitive environment (Campbell et al, 2007;Gotwals, 2018;Morales-Alemán et al, 2018).…”

“…Church related health programs have focused on general health and wellbeing (Baruth & Wilcox, 2013;Hardison-Moody et al, 2011;Harmon et al, 2014;Schwingel & Gálvez, 2015;Wilcox et al, 2018), obesity management (Cooper et al, 2015;Gonzalez et al, 2012;He et al, 2013), DM type 2 management and education (Gutierrez et al, 2014;Morales-Alemán et al, 2018), and hypertension (Dodani et al, 2014).…”

“…Because religious texts are viewed as being authoritative and religious organizations are often able to reach more people across socioeconomic barriers, faith community-based organizations are often able to make impacts that governmental or medical entities are not (Harmon et al, 2014;Schwingel & Gálvez, 2015). This narrative paper investigates the outcomes of faith-based wellness programs on Latino and African American populations with respect to general health and wellness (Baruth & Wilcox, 2013;Hardison-Moody et al, 2011;Harmon et al, 2014;Schwingel & Gálvez, 2015;Wilcox et al, 2018), obesity management (Cooper et al, 2015;Gonzalez, Villanueva, & N Grills, 2012;He et al, 2013), DM type 2 (Gutierrez et al, 2014;Morales-Alemán, Moore, & Scarinci, 2018), and heart disease, specifically hypertension (Dodani, Beayler, Lewis, & Sowders, 2014) and the role of the contemporary Christian faith-based nurse.…”

Development and Effectiveness of a Community Capacity Building Program for the Wellness of Traditional Marketplace Merchants: A Pilot Study

“…Although the concept of community capacitybuilding may differ among scholars, community capacity is defined as the interaction of human capital, organizational resources, and social capital within a community, which can be used to solve the population's problems and improve the community's wellbeing [6]. Previous community capacity-building programs included combining leadership training and organizational development to promote the wellness of black people [7], community leadership training in a healthy city [8], obesity prevention and environmental changes among low-income people [9], and health promotion projects in rural areas [10]. However, community capacity-building programs to create a healthy market for merchants are lacking.…”