Rise Up, Get Tested, and Live: an Arts-Based Colorectal Cancer Educational Program in a Faith-Based Setting

Abstract

Engaging community members in efforts to reduce cancer-related health disparities through community mini-grant programs has been shown to have meaningful impact. A predominantly African-American church in South Carolina was awarded a community mini-grant to increase awareness about colorectal cancer (CRC) screening among disproportionally high-risk African-American communities through culturally appropriate arts-based cancer education. The church's pastor, health and wellness ministry, and drama ministry created a theatrical production called Rise Up, Get Tested, and Live. Over 100 attendees viewed the play. A pre/post-test evaluation design assessed the effectiveness of the production in increasing participants' knowledge about CRC and examined their intentions to be screened. Results showed increased knowledge about CRC, increased awareness and understanding about the importance of CRC screening, and favorable intentions about CRC screening. Findings suggest that arts-based cancer education may be an effective tool for the dissemination of information about CRC screening.

Maximizing the Potential of Mini-Grants to Promote Policy, Systems, and Environmental Changes: Outcomes and Challenges

“…This study has limitations similar to those reported in other evaluations of mini-grant programs (Abildso et al, 2019;Friedman et al, 2019;Perry et al, 2020). First, because the mini-grants were focused at the organizational or community level, we did not measure change at the individual level.…”

“…Mini-grants, also known as microfunds, have gained traction as an innovative way to build community capacity for health promotion as, even with small amounts of funding, they provide a mechanism for community-driven approaches (Bobbitt-Cooke, 2005; Hartwig et al, 2006). Mini-grants have been used to fund rural churches and worksites to disseminate evidence-based nutrition programs (Honeycutt et al, 2012), African American churches to offer arts-based education to increase awareness of the importance of colorectal cancer screening (Friedman et al, 2019), community-based cancer survivor organizations to increase physical activity among cancer survivors (Perry et al, 2020), economic development organizations (Abildso et al, 2019), community coalitions (Kelly et al, 2019) to improve access to healthy food and physical activity, and schools to increase youth physical activity (Moore et al, 2016). Although existing studies point to the potential of mini-grants to improve community health, few have an explicit focus on promoting and evaluating PSE changes.…”

Implementation During a Pandemic: Findings, Successes, and Lessons Learned from Community Grantees

“…The South Carolina CPCRN (SC-CPCRN) Collaborating Center has been continually funded since 2002 (with the exception of the 2004–2009 funding cycle) and is now in its fourth cycle [ 3 ]. The SC-CPCRN’s Community Health Intervention Program (CHIP) awards $10,000 grants to community/faith-based organizations that have a clinical partner and that propose to implement evidenced-based strategies and interventions for cancer prevention and control [ 4 – 7 ]. Connecting community members to institutional resources through mini-grants is a recognized strategy to translate the content expertise of academics with the contextual expertise of community members to collaboratively study and act to address health disparities [ 8 ].…”

“…Central to mini-grant awards are strong existing collaborators, communication, and engagement among trusted collaborators, including the community-based organizations [ 9 ]. Engaged participants and their influence on their community-based organization (i.e., social, religious, occupational) have demonstrated communities’ diversity and conditions for successful partnerships with researchers and funders [ 4 , 10 , 12 – 17 ].…”

“…Institutions determine their criteria for selecting grantees/projects, measures of impact, and the evaluation process [ 5 ]. Previous mini-grants have addressed cancer disparities in rural settings [ 4 , 5 , 18 ], churches [ 4 , 6 , 13 ], federally qualified health centers [ 19 ], and worksites [ 18 ]. The CHIP mini-grants program is guided by the team’s prior experience working with communities across the Midlands region of South Carolina (i.e., the area around the center of the state where Columbia, the state’s capital, is located).…”