Building a Community Partnership for the Development of Health Ministries Within the African American Community: The Triad Pastors Network

Abstract

African Americans continue to have worse health outcomes despite attempts to reduce health disparities. This is due, in part, to inadequate access to healthcare, but also to the health care and medical mistrust experienced by communities of color. Churches and worship centers have historically served as cultural centers of trusted resources for educational, financial, and health information within African American communities and a growing number of collaborations have developed between academic institutions and community/faith entities. Herein, we describe the infrastructure of a true and sustainable partnership developed with > 100 prominent faith leaders within the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina for the purpose of developing or expanding existing health ministries within houses of worship, to improve health literacy and overall health long-term. The Triad Pastors Network is an asset-based partnership between the Maya Angelou Center for Health Equity at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and faith leaders in the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina that was created under the guiding principles of community engagement to improve health equity and decrease health disparities experienced by African American communities. A partnership in which co-equality and shared governance are the core of the framework provides an effective means of achieving health-related goals in a productive and efficient manner. Faith-based partnerships are reliable approaches for improving the health literacy needed to address health disparities and inequities in communities of color.

Keywords: African Americans; Community engagement; Faith-based organizations; Health disparities; Health equity; Health literacy.

Fig. 1

Mapping of participating churches in the Triad Pastors Network across the state of North Carolina

Fig. 2

Leadership Structure of the Triad Pastors Network. The Ecclesiastical Council is comprised of a subset of faith leaders from the TPN at large, as well as individuals from the MACHE Coordinating Team

Fig. 3

The Triad Pastors Network Conceptual Framework. MACHE – Maya Angelou Center for Health Equity

Fig. 4

Core Principles of Community Engagement, as adopted from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). [39]