Religious Congregations’ Collaborations

Abstract

This study explores how religious congregations interact with other community organizations to address health and, in particular, HIV-related needs within their membership and/or local communities. Case study data from a diverse sample of 14 urban congregations (6 African American, 4 Latino, 2 Anglo and 2 mixed race-ethnicity) indicate they engaged in three types of relationships to conduct HIV and other health-related activities, i.e. those where: 1) resources flowed to congregations from external entities; 2) resources flowed from congregations to external entities; 3) congregations interacted with external entities. These types of relationships were present in roughly equal proportions; thus, congregations were not primarily the recipients of resources from other organizations in these interactions. Financial, material, and human capital resources were shared across these three relationship types, and the most common organization types that congregations were involved with for health efforts were prevention and social service organizations, health care providers, and other congregations. In addition, congregations tended to have more collaborative relationships with other FBOs and to engage with non-FBOs more to either receive or provide resources. Results suggest that congregations contribute to community health by not only sponsoring health activities for their own members but also by providing specific support or resources to enhance the programming of other community organizations and collaborating with external organizations to sponsor congregation-based and community-based health activities.

An Intervention to Reduce HIV-Related Stigma in Partnership With African American and Latino Churches

“…It was apparent that congregants had previously had few opportunities to interact closely with health department personnel or other public health experts of whom to ask factual questions about HIV. This is consistent with prior research, which has found that most of the partnering organizations involved in congregational health activities are non-profit prevention and social service providers and not local health departments or other government public health agencies (Werber, Derose, Domínguez, & Mata, 2012; Zahner & Corrado, 2004). …”

Review of HIV Testing Efforts in Historically Black Churches

“…Offering HIV testing in Black churches has increased in acceptability as churches have opened their doors to external agencies to bring HIV testing to their congregations [ 17 , 36 , 41 ]. Today, churches often collaborate with certified HIV testers to conduct on-site testing as members of their health ministry are not always equipped with this skillset [ 32 , 38 , 42 ]. There are time constraints and infrastructure challenges for church leaders to become certified [ 20 ].…”

Advancing the New Communications Framework for HIV/AIDS: The Communicative Constitution of HIV/AIDS Networks in Tanzania’s HIV/AIDS NGO Sector

“…IOC as informal process, on the other hand, can be defined as service-oriented, loose-knit, and temporary. It minimally impacts each organization's autonomy and includes processes such as client referrals and the reciprocal exchange of informational and/or material resources (e.g., Werber, Derose, Dominguez, & Mata, 2012). For example, in a study of collaboration among 30 HIV/AIDS service agencies in Baltimore, Maryland, Kwait et al (2001) found informal IOC processes such as information exchange and client referrals having greater densities than the collective IOC forms of written agreements and joint-program linkages.…”

“…Social collectives are associated with multiple-party benefits (Lees, Kielmann, Cataldo, & Gitau-Mburu, 2012), political influence (Hardy et al, 2006), and obtaining funding from third parties (Kwait et al, 2001;Takahashi & Smutny, 2001). Informal IOC is associated with swift responses to clients (Kwait et al, 2001) and the mutual exchange of resources (Werber et al, 2012).…”