Abundant Life Health Ministry Initiative: An Academic-Community Partnership for Faith-based Cancer Control and Health Promotion

Purpose: African Americans experience disproportionate burden of cancer. The African American church is one of the most enduring and trusted institutions, and appropriate for health outreach. The University of California-San Francisco Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center's Faith Committee set the goal to reduce the burden of cancer in African American communities by establishing and strengthening church health ministries through a program titled "Abundant Life Health Ministries Initiative" (ALHMI) that encourages establishment of health ministries (HM) through outreach and training. Dissemination and development of evidence-based church interventions is best achieved in the context of HMs. The ALHMI is a coalition of multi-denominational churches, researchers, public health, and professionals from non-profit and voluntary organizations that strive to reduce cancer health disparities. Methods: 1) Relationship building and Readiness Assessment. 2) Environmental Scan. 3) Outreach and Marketing. 4) Training and Technical Assistance. 5) Mini-grants. Results: Established a coalition as an effective mechanism to leverage resources for outreach, training, technical assistance, and mini-grant funding; mutually built capacity and a context in which to facilitate the adoption of research tested programs and practices for disease prevention and control; 35 churches in the San Francisco Bay Area have signed on, adopting the Body & Soul program (31) or participating in the development of a prostate cancer education program (4). Through the ALHMI, a collaborative cancer control research agenda is under development. This presentation will describe the UCSF Abundant Life Health Ministry Initiative's purpose, components, outcomes, lessons learned, and a resource for identifying evidence-based programs.