title: Exploring community health center and faith-based partnerships: community residents' perspectives.
abstract: Community health centers (CHCs) play a critical role in the primary care safety net. Partnerships between CHCs and faith-based organizations are promoted as a way to increase outreach to underserved populations and support health-promoting behaviors and effective disease management. Through six focus groups (totaling 58 participants), we explored low-income residents' perspectives (African American, Latino, and White) of their communities, the meaning of health, the role of spirituality, and their experiences with and preferences for congregation-based health programming to inform future outreach efforts of a CHC. We found that community perspectives varied based on race/ethnicity and neighborhood, but health concerns tended to cluster by race/ethnicity alone. We also found that spirituality was deemed important for health by all racial-ethnic groups, but attendance at religious services, religious affiliation, and preferences for congregation-based health programming varied across and within groups. Community health center-faith based partnerships could facilitate health care access in underserved communities but may have limited reach among certain subgroups and individuals.
authors: Brookings Institution, Washington, DC, USA.
authors: Kavita K
authors: KK
authors: Patel
authors: Kenneth A
authors: KA
authors: Frausto
authors: Anne D
authors: AD
authors: Staunton
authors: Janine
authors: J
authors: Souffront
authors: Kathryn Pitkin
authors: KP
authors: Derose
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000368:Aged; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003151:Community Health Centers / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006304:Health Status; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007373:Interinstitutional Relations; D015141:Los Angeles; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012068:Religion and Medicine; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055815:Young Adult