Grant to help churches develop health plans

LAWRENCE — A University of Kansas-led project has won a $50,000 grant to help predominantly African-American churches in the Kansas City area improve leadership among their participants in their quest to build sustainable health promotion plans for underserved communities.

The Kansas Leadership Center has issued a Leadership and Faith Transformation Grant to Faith Works, a KU-based effort that collaborates with about a dozen churches in Wyandotte County and surrounding areas to help build culturally relevant and appealing health promotion programs; some of the components of the programs include education and health communication plans that are designed to be primarily delivered by churches along with medical and public health personnel. While Faith Works has been working with church and community leaders since 2012 to assess their needs and develop community plans, the grant will enable community members to take further ownership in developing sustainable health programs for the future through strategic leadership.

Community and church leaders will be able to attend about 75 workshops offered by the Kansas Leadership Center in 2015. The goal is to improve the leadership skills of participants, thereby empowering them to create sustainable plans to address health topics of importance to minority and underserved populations.

Crystal Lumpkins, assistant professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the KU Medical Center and, by courtesy, assistant professor of journalism, is director of Faith Works. The project has grown out of her research and service with underserved populations to develop communication plans and health interventions. The project has addressed topics such as colorectal cancer, the importance of screenings and how churches can play a central role in educating their members when such information is often lacking from other sources.

“Faith Works has grown into much more than I ever expected,” Lumpkins said. “It’s true community-based participatory research. We now have 10 churches in the project, and we have a vision that we’re going to be able to continue partnering with those churches and grow our reach, not only in Kansas, but beyond.”

Future programs could address health issues such as obesity among African-American women and cancers like breast, cervical and kidney, which affect African-Americans at disproportionate rates. In previous projects, Faith Works personnel, including faculty, staff and KU students, have worked with churches to gather data, develop printed and electronic communication materials, educate church leaders, develop an intervention, hold health screenings and more.

“This grant will help us help the churches build the programs they determine that they need, which they’ll be able to sustain in the future,” Lumpkins said. “The process we’re about to go through is not going to be easy, but it is something that is necessary and will enable these churches to serve their communities.”