Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health Beauty Salon Health Education Program: Lessons Learned from Bridging Community, Agency and Academia in Philadelphia

As communities, organizations, agencies and universities begin to realize the need to include and reach vulnerable and minority populations, community based participatory research endeavors are becoming more common. While some collaborations have proven successful, others have struggled to reach their goals. The Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health (AAIUH), based in New York, was funded by a STEPS to a Healthier Philadelphia grant, to lead 8 community based and academic partners in expanding its beauty salon-based education programs (i.e., Black PearlsTM & Nuestra BellezaTM) for African American and Latina women in West and North Philadelphia. Such initiatives bring health messages into trusted community venues while encouraging clients to transfer their interest in personal appearance to personal health and wellness. There have been a few beauty salon health initiatives in other cities, and many of the previous programs have had off-site health education for clients or have had salon stylists conduct health education. The AAIUH's unique program encourages stylists to engage salon clients in the program and provides on-site health education conducted by community health educators. Working with two community-based agencies, three universities, one health center, and Philadelphia's mayoral appointed “Health Czar”, AAIUH effectively and successfully pilot tested an adapted salon-based health education program that incorporated existing expertise from all partners through all aspects of the program, from recruitment to data analysis. Key strategies and consensus decision making was employed to operate the collaborative. Pilot data and the lessons learned in conducting and managing a multidisciplinary partnership will be presented.