Healthy families Brooklyn: working with health advocates to develop a health promotion program for residents living in New York City housing authority developments.

Decreasing health disparities must increase access to care, improve health education and ease navigating the health care system. Community Health Workers (CHW) take on these tasks in professional and culturally competent manners. The Healthy Families Brooklyn (HFB) Program serves residents in two public housing developments in Brooklyn, NY. Healthy Families Advocates (HFA), a type of CHW, are at the core of HFB. Curriculum development for, training of and services provided by the 10 HFA over 19 months are described. Pre and post knowledge assessments of HFAs are analyzed. Data from HFA surveys regarding training were analyzed using grounded theory methods. HFA served 172 unique clients at 222 visits. Services offered include accessing public benefits, health education, and connection to hospitals. There was a significant increase between pre and post assessment knowledge scores (P < 0.01). Taking temperature, building trust, and communicating care and connection emerged as themes related to interpersonal skills used by the HFA. The HFA are committed to moving clients forward in their health knowledge and behaviors. Themes from the HFA survey closely mirrored the HFA training curriculum. Lessons learned pertaining to training needs, data collection, and supervision are explored. The HFB program is a model way of working in communities in New York City and expansion with faith-based groups and other housing development communities is underway. Engaging communities to improve access, screening, prevention and treatment is paramount to the nation's health and the success of the 2010 Affordable Care Act. CHW's role in this mission is integral.

Community-academic partnerships: lessons learned from replicating a salon-based health education and promotion program.

BACKGROUND: We present a model of a community-academic partnership formed to replicate a unique salon-based health education and promotion program among African-American and Latino communities in Philadelphia. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this article is to describe the partnership principles established and lessons learned in replicating the salon-based program that sought to develop a cadre of community-academic partners and build community-based organizations' (CBOs) capacity to implement and evaluate the program. METHODS: As the lead organization, the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health (AAIUH), formed a partnership with two CBOs, three universities, and 17 salons. Guiding principles were established to manage the large collaborative and ensure success. LESSONS LEARNED: By embracing a common mission and principles of understanding, co-learning, building capacity and sharing responsibility and recognition, this partnership was able to achieve positive outcomes. Challenges faced were related to replication, CBO infrastructure, data management capacity, and other process issues. CONCLUSIONS: Despite challenges, we created and sustained an enduring partnership and brought positive change to the community. Lessons learned highlight issues to examine before furthering this work such as fostering trust and building meaningful relationships.

Assessment of preventive health knowledge and behaviors of African-American and Afro-Caribbean women in urban settings.

OBJECTIVES: This report measures the extent of health knowledge and preventive behaviors of African-American and Afro-Caribbean women in New York City. METHODS: Two-hundred-twenty-one females in 10 Brooklyn-area beauty salons were surveyed in mid-June 2004. Participants completed a 30-item questionnaire (Cronbach's alpha=0.76) focusing on six domains: heart health, breast health, prostate health, second-hand smoke, asthma and sexual health. The instrument included 10 items on preventive behaviors related to the aforementioned domains. Mean knowledge scores were calculated, and analyses were performed to evaluate the factors associated with higher knowledge scores and with greater likelihood of preventive health behaviors. RESULTS: Despite a high level of knowledge about risk factors and symptoms for several common diseases, a large percentage of the sample engaged in high-risk behaviors. In addition, higher knowledge scores were associated with family history of heart disease (p=0.035), family history of prostate cancer (p=0.032) and being a member of an HMO (p=0.001). Higher scores, in turn, were associated with not currently smoking (p=0.049) and going for a blood cholesterol screening in the past year (p=0.045). CONCLUSION: Future intervention efforts should place greater focus on educating participants about symptoms and risk factors for commonly occurring diseases in the community, and on generating behavioral changes.