Emergency Preparedness and Risk Communication Among African American Churches: Leveraging a Community-Based Participatory Research Partnership COVID-19 Initiative

This article describes an emergency preparedness strategy within an existing community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnership among African-American churches to disseminate accurate COVID-19 information: The FAITH! (Fostering African-American Improvement in Total Health) program, an academic–community partnership between Mayo Clinic and local African American churches. The authors were guided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication framework to conduct a needs assessment, distribute emergency preparedness manuals, and deliver COVID-19–related messaging among African-American churches via electronic communication platforms. A needs assessment showed that the top 3 church emergency resource needs were financial support, food and utilities support, and COVID-19 health information CBPR partnerships leveraged to promote emergency preparedness and communicate risk among under-resourced communities during a pandemic.

Resource Details

• Population: Black or African American
• Setting/Context of Implementation: Community
• Topics of Practice: Outreach/ Education/ Communications
• Outcomes of Interest: Advancing Racial Equity|Reduction of Health Disparities
• Level of Evidence: Promising
• Tools or Materials Included in Resource: No
• Social Determinants of Health: Economic Stability|Social and Community Context
• Outside of US: No