House Chats as a Grassroots Engagement Methodology in Community-Based Participatory Research: The WE Project, Petersburg

Abstract

Background The Wellness Engagement Project is an academic-community partnership developed to engage the community to inform the development of a pilot intervention aimed at promoting healthy eating and physical activity among residents of Petersburg, Virginia. Objectives To implement House Chats as a novel methodology for engaging community members in focused discussion about obesity, exercise, dietary intake, and barriers to health. Methods We recruited and trained laypersons as House Chat Leaders to host informal group discussions about obesity with members of their network in a social setting following pre-determined questions. Results House Chat Leaders hosted 34 House Chats with 176 participants over a period of four months. Conclusions The House Chat proved to be a highly successful engagement strategy, which allowed access to respondents who may not have participated in a traditional, focus group discussion.

The WE Project Partnership: The Role and Scope of Community Researchers

“…The partnership conducted an extensive needs assessment to understand the community's perceptions and challenges related to managing a healthy lifestyle. We used diverse research methods including asset mapping (Mosavel et al, 2018), house chats (Mosavel et al, 2016), focus groups, key informant interviews, and a community survey (Mosavel et al, 2020), which resulted in the development and pilot testing of a peer-led, community-based intervention to increase physical activity and nutrient-rich foods (LaRose et al, 2021). Ethics approval was received from the Virginia Commonwealth University institutional review board for all aspects of the research (HM14742).…”

Data Dissemination in CBPR: Accountability and Responsiveness

“…As a first step to developing a community-based intervention, a needs assessment was conducted by the research team, which included the WA. A total of six focus groups were held with representatives from community and faith-based organizations, businesses, the health sector, parents and youth; 34 House Chats (focused conversations led by a community member in a home setting) were conducted with 181 participants (Mosavel et al, 2016), 40 key informant interviews were completed, a community survey was conducted (N = 1,317), and an asset-mapping project was completed by teams of Petersburg youth and university students who identified 358 different assets in Petersburg (Mosavel et al, 2018). The data collected during this phase confirmed that obesity was a major health concern for many Petersburg residents and also shed light on the unique social and environmental barriers residents experienced.…”

“…The script was based on key findings and themes identified from the WE Project formative research which included family-based change, community cohesion, acknowledgment of social determinants of health, and motivational skills for changing unhealthy behaviors. Additionally, the team, which included the researchers, community members in the role of WAs, and CHLC members, determined that it would be important to address the numerous barriers to healthy living identified in the formative research including the perception that a healthy lifestyle is expensive or what "well-off" people do, that healthy living takes too much time, that healthy eating is seen as "punishment," and that there is a lack of knowledge of how to cook "healthy" (Mosavel et al, 2016). These key findings and themes were provided to the Conciliation Project and were intertwined with relevant statistics and data about health and obesity to inform the script for the play.…”

“…Similarly, community advisory boards can be used to provide input and generate unique ideas for dissemination strategies to meet the needs of their community (Vaughn et al, 2013). As a bi-directional and cyclical process (McDavitt et al, 2016), community engagement in data dissemination goes beyond community input into how the data is disseminated but also includes the actual engagement of the community with the data -dissemination becomes an engaged process where active engagement with the data is sought (Mosavel, Ferrell, & LaRose, 2016). Disseminating data in an accessible format can strengthen the research by allowing the community to verify or refute the findings, use it as a catalyst for addressing related concerns, and in the case of intervention development research, can provide additional data to inform the intervention (Stuttaford et al, 2006).…”

Responsiveness and adaptability in community engaged biobanking research: experiences from a Hispanic community

“…We can learn from cancer survivor models of engaging the survivor as educator (Saad-Harfouche et al 2011) and train those with experience in tissue donation: family members who have lost a loved one and donated to a biobank are often highly motivated to share their experiences and to provide personal testimonies. Creative and personalized methods such as house chats (members of social circle disseminating information) (Mosavel et al 2016) and reaching-in to community at places where they typically gather (churches, etc.) (Campbell et al 2007;Linnan et al 2014) and directly inviting community members to share their concerns can maintain the momentum of the initial education program.…”