Improving health outcomes through community-based approaches to capacity building assistance

Issues: Cardiovascular disease and cancer continue to be the leading causes of mortality and morbidity plaguing African American communities. The risk factors associated with these diseases are largely contributed to lifestyle and behavior. The most effective means to reducing the risk factors in African Americans is to use a community-based approach to improve health outcomes. One effective community-based approach is to train lay community members to disseminate prevention messages at the local level.

Description: This poster presentation is based on community health education instructor trainer certification courses; Cancer Prevention for African Americans Fundamentals of Community Health Education Instructor Training and Cardiovascular Disease Prevention for African Americans Fundamentals of Community Health Education Instructor Training. These courses are designed to provide participants with the necessary knowledge and skills needed to disseminate health promotion and disease prevention messages in the community. The participant recruitment, training, evaluation, and certification process will be outlined in the poster presentation.

Lessons Learned: The certification courses have been delivered as a pilot to 19 participants representing 9 community-based organizations. Fifteen participants received instructor certification status. Quantitative evaluation data revealed that 100% of the participants felt their awareness about cancer prevention and cardiovascular disease prevention had increased due to the skills learned during the courses. The data also revealed that 85% planned to utilize the community health worker skills gained to improve health outcomes in their communities.