Supporting Faith-Based Communities Through and Beyond the Pandemic

Michele Gourley, Sydney Starkweather, Katheryn Roberson, Craig L. Katz, Deborah B. Marin, Zorina Costello, Jonathan DePierro

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic brought widespread and notable effects to the physical and mental health of communities across New York City with disproportionate suffering Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino communities alongside additional stressors such as racism and economic hardship. This report describes the adaptation of a previously successful evidence-based community engagement health education program for the deployment of resilience promoting workshop program in faith-based organizations in BIPOC communities in New York City. From June 2021 to June 2022, nine faith-based organizations implemented 58 workshops to 1,101 non-unique workshop participants. Most of the workshops were delivered online with more women (N = 803) than men (N = 298) participating. All organizations completed the full curriculum; the workshop focused on self-care and physical fitness was repeated most frequently (N = 13). Participants in the workshops ranged from 4 to 73 per meeting and were largely female. The Building Community Resilience Project is an easy and effective way to modify an existing, evidence-based community health education program to address new and relevant health needs such as resilience and stress amidst the COVID-19 pandemic among faith communities serving BIPOC populations. More research is needed regarding the impact of the workshops as well as adaptability for other faith traditions.

Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Community Health
DOIs
StateAccepted/In press - 2023

Keywords

  • Community engagement
  • Faith-based organizations
  • Resilience
  • Under-resourced communities

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