The Organization of HIV and Other Health Activities within Urban Religious Congregations

Abstract

Most religious congregations in the USA are involved with some type of social service activity, including health activities. However, relatively few formally engage with people with HIV, and many have reported barriers to introducing HIV prevention activities. We conducted a qualitative case study of HIV involvement among 14 urban congregations in Los Angeles County in 2007. In-depth qualitative interviews of lay leaders and clergy were analyzed for themes related to HIV and other health activities, including types of health issues addressed, types of activities conducted, how activities were organized, and the relationship between HIV and other health activities. We identified three primary models representing how congregations organized HIV and other health activities: (1) embedded (n07), where HIV activities were contained within other health activities; (2) parallel (n05), where HIV and other health activities occurred side by side and were organizationally distinct; (3) overlap (n02), where HIV and non-HIV health efforts were conducted by distinct groups, but shared some members and organization. We discuss implications of each model for initiating and sustaining HIV activities within urban congregations over time.

Spirituality and Religion among HIV-Infected Individuals

“…In the CBPR design, researchers engage with community stakeholders to assess the needs and opportunities of communities and work together to improve community-level health; community engagement is essential at all stages of the research process – design, implementation, evaluation, and dissemination. CBPR is considered a “gold standard” in community interventions, especially for addressing health disparities [70]. …”

Congregational involvement in HIV: A qualitative comparative analysis of factors influencing HIV activity among diverse urban congregations

“…[For further details on these methods, see (27)]. The thematic results have been reported extensively in previous articles (27,(41)(42)(43)(44)(45), and subsequently used to generate variables for the comparative analysis described below.…”

“…We then reviewed the congregational case histories and qualitative themes identified in prior published analyses (41)(42)(43)(44)(45) to identify factors that emerged as explanatory variables.…”

“…Under organizational structure and process, we coded each congregation to the era in which it became involved in HIV according to Fauci's periodization of the epidemic, i.e., the early "dark ages" period (1981-86), the middle "pre-HAART" period (1987-96) and the later "HAART" period (1997-present) after the availability of highly active antiretroviral therapies (46). We also used results of a prior analysis that identified three organizing models for HIV activities within our case congregations, based on whether HIV activities were contained within other health activities or were organizationally distinct (43), and another analysis that distinguished different forms of HIV collaborations with different types of external organizations (42).…”

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 ].…”