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A Community-Partnered Approach to Developing Church-Based Interventions to Reduce Health Disparities Among African-Americans and Latinos

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Abstract

Faith and public health partnerships offer promise to addressing health disparities, but examples that incorporate African-Americans and Latino congregations are lacking. Here we present results from developing a multi-ethnic, multi-denominational faith and public health partnership to address health disparities through community-based participatory research (CBPR), focusing on several key issues: (1) the multi-layered governance structure and activities to establish the partnership and identify initial health priority (obesity), (2) characteristics of the congregations recruited to partnership (n = 66), and (3) the lessons learned from participating congregations’ past work on obesity that informed the development of a multi-level, multi-component, church-based intervention. Having diverse staff with deep ties in the faith community, both among researchers and the primary community partner agency, was key to recruiting African-American and Latino churches. Involvement by local health department and community health clinic personnel provided technical expertise and support regarding health data and clinical resources. Selecting a health issue—obesity—that affected all subgroups (e.g., African-Americans and Latinos, women and men, children and adults) garnered high enthusiasm among partners, as did including some innovative aspects such as a text/e-mail messaging component and a community mapping exercise to identify issues for advocacy. Funding that allowed for an extensive community engagement and planning process was key to successfully implementing a CBPR approach. Building partnerships through which multiple CBPR initiatives can be done offers efficiencies and sustainability in terms of programmatic activities, though long-term infrastructure grants, institutional support, and non-research funding from local foundations and health systems are likely needed.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R24MD007943 (PI: Derose). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. The authors acknowledge the important role played by the LAM Faith Organizers, Rev. Jawane Hilton, and Rev. Juan Sarmiento, in recruiting churches to the partnership, and the broad and sustained contributions of other members of the Community Steering Committee, especially Rev. Rosalynn Brooks, Rev. John Cager, Rev. Walter Contreras, Jaime Huerta, Rev. Martín García, Dr. Jan King, Rev. Felipe Martínez, Bp. Gwendolyn Stone, Nina Vaccaro, and Bp. Craig Worsham.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. RAND Corporation, 1776 Main St., Santa Monica, CA, 90401, USA

    Kathryn P. Derose, Malcolm V. Williams, Jennifer Hawes-Dawson & Eunice C. Wong

  2. Los Angeles Metropolitan Churches, Los Angeles, CA, 90011, USA

    Cheryl A. Branch

  3. CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, New York, NY, 10027, USA

    Karen R. Flórez

  4. Azusa Pacific Seminary, Azusa, CA, 91702, USA

    Michael A. Mata

  5. Bethel AME Church, Oxnard, CA, 93030, USA

    Clyde W. Oden

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  1. Kathryn P. Derose
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  2. Malcolm V. Williams
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Correspondence to Kathryn P. Derose.

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The study was approved by the RAND Human Subjects Projection Committee. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Derose, K.P., Williams, M.V., Branch, C. et al. A Community-Partnered Approach to Developing Church-Based Interventions to Reduce Health Disparities Among African-Americans and Latinos. J. Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities 6, 254–264 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-018-0520-z

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