title: The African American church and university partnerships: establishing lasting collaborations.
abstract: This article highlights the experiences of the Health Wise Church Project, a community outreach initiative between a diverse group of African American churches and a university health education program. The objective of the program was to develop early detection and illness prevention networks among older church members. Not all partnerships results in long-term collaborations, and this article makes a clear distinction between different types of "working together" arrangements. The project discussed in this article presents a four-stage model to illustrate how organizations achieve collaborative partnerships. Involving community partners in the early phase of project planning contributed to the success of the church-university collaboration. This type of shared planning helped to sustain community interest during the project's implementation.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School at North Carolina Central University, Durham, NC 27514, USA. rjackson@wpo.nccu.edu
authors.forename: R S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Jackson
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Reddick
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American; D002835:Christianity; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D006266:Health Education / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006284:Health Plan Implementation / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D017146:Models, Organizational; D009657:North Carolina; D015397:Program Evaluation