Project DIRECT's Church Outreach Program: Innovative Approach to Diabetes Prevention and Management

Diabetes places a significant health burden on the African American citizens of North Carolina, and throughout the country. It is important to develop appropriate strategies to reduce the burden of diabetes. For the last eight years, Project DIRECT (Diabetes Interventions Reaching and Educating Communities Together) has served as a demonstration project with the goal of identifying culturally sensitive and appropriate strategies to reduce the burden of diabetes among African Americans in Southeast Raleigh. This paper will outline the use of innovative outreach practices to the communities as part of Project DIRECT activities. Several strategies and tools were developed such as the Church Health Assessment Tool, the Church Health Action Plan and a Church Outreach Visit Summary sheet to assist staff and other professionals in working effectively with African American faith-based communities in health promotion efforts. The strategies and tools developed are rooted in theory and best practice for community based health promotion as noted in works by J. Hatch, E. Eng and M. Tuggle.Master of Public Healt