Building effective partnerships: The role of lay leaders in the implementation of a faith-based health promotion program with low-income families

Introduction: Faithful Families Eating Smart and Moving More (Faithful Families) is a research-based program that promotes healthy eating and physical activity in faith communities in four counties in North Carolina. Faithful Families targets low-income populations, focusing on improving nutrition behaviors, food resource management and increasing community access to healthy foods and physical activity. The program is a collaboration between the North Carolina Division of Public Health and North Carolina State University (Cooperative Extension Service), with sustained input from a state-level interfaith team of leaders and experts. Program Design: Lay leaders in fourteen low-income faith communities have been trained to partner with county health educators in the delivery of a nine session educational series. This series empowers individuals to adopt positive nutrition, food resource and physical activity behaviors. Faithful Families addresses the effects of food insecurity on nutrition behaviors by teaching families to plan, budget for and prepare healthy foods, using state and federal food assistance programs as needed. Program Evaluation Results: Over 130 individuals have graduated from the nine series educational sessions. As a result of participation in the Faithful Families educational series, individuals have reported an 88% improvement in one or more food resource practices, 46% increased vegetable consumption, 49% increased fruit consumption, 30% increase in physical activity, and 38% increase in families eating meals together at home. Discussion: Faithful Families demonstrates the importance of training local lay leaders to partner with community health educators in the implementation of faith-based health promotion programs, particularly in low-income communities.