Background: The COVID-19 pandemic unmasked and amplified the longstanding health disparities impacting African-American (AA) communities. Given this, the Fostering African American Improvement in Total Health! (FAITH!) Program, an academic-community partnership with AA churches, pivoted from a focus on cardiovascular disease prevention to COVID-19 prevention and emergency preparedness (EP). The primary objective of this study was to assess the feasibility of implementing an EP initiative (EPI) with AA churches to mitigate the risk and impact of COVID-19 on AA communities and prepare churches for future emergent situations.
Methods: Utilizing a community-based participatory research approach and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication framework, we conducted EP capacity assessments (EPCAs) among AA churches in Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) and Rochester, MN. Each church pastor completed a 1-hour virtual semi-structured interview via a FAITH! EPCA instrument devised by the study team. The tool assessed EP within 4 subscales (EP Team/Health Ministry, Communications Strategy, Established Collaborations/Partnerships, Church/Community Outreach Plans) with a scoring possible range of 0-100 (low <33, moderate 34-66, high >66) in each domain and for overall EP. Each church received an individualized EPCA. An EP manual was distributed to all participating churches, which contained culturally tailored, step-by-step guidance for structuring and establishing EP teams (EPTs). The EPI also included a 3-part virtual webinar series. Further, a dissemination EP showcase was held, which provided collective church EPCA reports and participating churches highlighted their COVID-19 prevention and EP efforts through videos.
Results: Twenty-two churches were enrolled to the initiative from our pre-existing FAITH! network. Of these, 16 churches participated in the semi-structured interviews (n= 12, 75% in MSP). Average attendance at each webinar was 9 participants. The mean EPCA score was 67.1 (range 30-82), with the highest subscale mean score of 88.1 for Communications Strategy and lowest subscale mean score of 42.4 for Church/Community Outreach Plan. The majority of churches (n=14, 88%) reported that they were prepared for future health crises.
Conclusion: Our CBPR-driven EPI demonstrated feasibility and that church capacity assessments may facilitate EP for future public health emergencies and outreach to AA church congregants.