Taking it to the Pews: A CBPR-Guided HIV Awareness and Screening Project with Black Churches

Abstract

Utilizing a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach is a potentially effective strategy for exploring the development, implementation, and evaluation of HIV interventions in African American churches. This CBPR-guided study describes a church-based HIV awareness and screening intervention (Taking It to the Pews [TIPS]) that fully involved African American church leaders in all phases of the research project. Findings from the implementation and evaluation phases indicated that church leaders delivered TIPS Tool Kit activities on an ongoing basis (about twice a month) over a 9-month period. TIPS church members were highly exposed to TIPS activities (e.g., 91% reported receiving HIV educational brochures, 84% heard a sermon about HIV). Most (87%) believed that the church should talk about HIV, and 77% believed that the church should offer HIV screening. These findings suggest that implementing an HIV intervention in Black church settings is achievable, particularly when a CBPR approach is used.

Examining Church Capacity to Develop and Disseminate a Religiously Appropriate HIV Tool Kit with African American Churches

“…Their preference was to collaborate with other organizations that conducted condom education or targeted gay/bisexual men -but not in the church. Finally, although a TIPS case study found that increased exposure to TIPS tools was related to lower HIV stigma and increased HIV testing intentions, 12 future tool kit research using community trials is needed. To this end, we are pilot testing a TIPS HIV Tool Kit intervention versus a standard HIV information intervention on HIV testing rates with church members and community members who use church services.…”

“…Our preliminary focus groups and ongoing discussions with church leaders further indicated the need to increase HIV education among church leaders, which is reported elsewhere. 12 In addition, a promising number of churches had facilitated HIV screening events. To increase communitywide church capacity to address HIV education and screening, the development of the TIPS Project and its tools included creating several routinized strategies to train church leaders on HIV topics and the HIV Tool Kit, and to simplify the process for their churches to facilitate HIV screening events.…”

“…Increasingly, studies have reported on HIV interventions in African American churches. [11][12][13][14][15][16] Yet, challenges related to church capacity issues (e.g., lack of HIV training, time, and church-appropriate HIV materials) and controversial church topics (e.g., condom use, premarital sex, homophobia) have also been reported as barriers to churches' delivery of HIV interventions. [17][18][19][20] Despite the calls for Black churches to help fight HIV and the growing numbers of church-based HIV studies, few reports exist on the availability and utility of churchbased supportive tools that build on church infrastructure capacities, address controversial HIV-related issues, and equip faith leaders to efficiently promote HIV awareness, prevention, and screening.…”

“…Other collaborators included Black churches, health organizations, and the UMKC Psychology Department Community Health Research Group. The TIPS project, fully described elsewhere, 12 was developed in response to KC faith leaders' reported barriers to carrying out HIV education and screening in their churches including lack of training, easy-to-use/religiously appropriate materials, and financial resources. To address these barriers from a faith-based perspective, our CBPR approach engaged faith leaders in all phases of the TIPS project from identifying the research aims to project development, implementation, evaluation, and dissemination.…”

“…A TIPS project case study in the KC area found that it was highly feasible to implement. 12 Ten TIPS churches, with an average of 200 members each, delivered about two TIPS tools per month over a 9-month period with over 3,400 church/community members exposed through church services and outreach activities in the case study. Members with increased exposure to TIPS tools were significantly more likely to have positive beliefs about the church addressing HIV, fewer HIV-stigma beliefs, increased encouragement from church members, and greater intentions to get tested for HIV.…”