This application, which is being submitted in response to RFA MD-05-002, will allow for a dynamic and unique partnership for community-based participatory research between the award winning Metro Denver Black Church Initiative (MDBCI), Faith & Health Ministries (FHM), and an outstanding group of senior behavioral scientists drawn from the AMC Cancer Research Center, as well as science faculty from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, and the University of Colorado Comprehensive Cancer Center. The main goal of this partnership is to reduce cancer-related health disparities among African Americans living in northeast Denver, where nearly 30% of all African-Americans in the State of Colorado reside, representing about 77% of all African Americans living in Denver. Within this area about one-in-three of the adult population are members of churches affiliated with MDBCI. Described in this application is a partnership structure and process that will include Partnership Summits, Research Workshops, a Community Advisory Board and an External Advisory Board, as well as a definitive program of partnership process evaluation, where lessons learned and recommendations will be distilled to benefit future efforts at partnership development, particularly involving faith-based organizations. Other significant features of the proposed collaboration include the theoretical foundations of community-based partnership, incorporating the more contemporary view that such partnership should be based on Community empowerment, self-help and collaboration, and where the goal is community regeneration. An explicit focus on behavioral science theory and Diffusion of Innovative Theory to guide this effort are also noteworthy. As proposed herein, this partnership will seek to pilot test not one but two cancer prevention and control interventions to reduce health disparities, with the long-term vision of extending this research to larger-scale efficacy and effectiveness trials, and to a dissemination phase that would ultimately extend the reach of this research beyond the boundaries of Colorado. ? ?
| Woods, Gaye; Levinson, Arnold H; Jones, Grant et al. (2013) The Living Well by Faith Health and wellness program for African Americans: an exemplar of community-based participatory research. Ethn Dis 23:223-9 |
