African American communities, Moore County : an action-oriented community diagnosis : findings and next steps of action
Creators: name: Patterson, Kate
name: Perkinson, Leah
name: Porter, Kristie
name: Cornett, Amanda
name: Lumalah, Jerrie
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2008

description: An Action-Oriented Community Diagnosis (AOCD) of the African American communities in Moore County, North Carolina (NC) was completed in 2007-2008 by a team of five graduate students from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) in the School of Public Health. The team was guided by two staff of FirstHealth, who served as preceptors. The purpose of the AOCD in Moore County was to identify the strengths and needs of African American communities in Moore County and engage them in determining action steps to address their identified needs and priorities. The AOCD involved four phases: 1) gaining entry into the community; 2) collecting secondary data; 3) collecting primary data through interviews with community members and service providers; and 4) holding a community forum to discuss the findings and determine action steps to address needs and priorities. The team entered Moore County in October of 2007 and began with a driving tour of the county that was guided by their preceptors, and attending community events. Secondary data sources were reviewed, such as newspaper articles from The Pilot, published literature, and websites of U.S Census Bureau and North Carolina Center for Health Statistics. The team conducted qualitative key informant interviews with 16 service providers and 20 community members, located throughout Moore County. An analysis of primary data revealed that the following 17 issues were most frequently cited as concerns among African American community members and service providers who were interviewed: 1) unity in the African American community; 2) education; 3) recreation and social activities; 4) employment; 5) younger generation leaves county in search of opportunities and does not return; 6) health; 7) politics; 8) legal services; 9) communication; 10) affordable housing and property; 11) family; 12) transportation; 13) food; 14) community involvement and divisions stemming from 15) race relations, 16) economic status and 17) location. The final stage of the AOCD process was the community forum. In order to plan a community-informed forum, interested community members and service providers formed a student facilitated Forum Planning Committee (FPC). Nine FPC members chose five of the 17 themes, which emerged from the interviews, to be topics of small group, student-facilitated discussions at the forum. The themes chosen by the committee were: access to healthcare, employment, opportunities for youth, politics, and unity within the African American community. On April 7, 2008, the team presented the findings from service provider and community member interviews at the community forum, held small group discussions, and engaged community members and service providers in generating action steps to address the themes identified by the FPC. At the conclusion of the discussion groups, one community member from each group volunteered to present action steps developed by their group. Community members and service providers took responsibility for following through on most of the action steps. Below are the four themes discussed at the forum and the corresponding action steps developed during the small discussion groups. Access to Health Care This discussion session focused primarily on the lack of health insurance and access to health services for the African American community and resulted in the following action steps: Opportunities for Youth The majority of the discussion session focused on the lack of opportunities for youth to succeed in Moore County; this leads many to leave the county to pursuer better opportunities. The discussion generated the following action steps: Action Steps Increase public awareness about available resources. Use the TV and radio to relay public service ads. Distribute information to beauty shops, barbers, grocery stores, churches, etc. Push for better transportation at county commissioners meetings. Hold health fairs in local churches. Make online calendar and resources more accessible (i.e. when and where is the FirstHealth mobile van). Increase community awareness of political candidates’ viewpoint on healthcare. Action Steps. Organize youth programs and activities that are not just related to sports (i.e. churches, existing organizations, and business could help organize and offer resources and space). Tap into committed organizations in Moore County. Increase youth involvement. Utilize and expand on existing mentoring programs. Increase commitment of community members to volunteer. Gain ideas from new residents (new residents have new ideas for activities and events). Shadowing with African American business owners to allow youth exposure to role models and examples within the community. Develop relationships between community leaders and youth so that any efforts to develop activities will truly address the youths’ desires, rather than what adults think youth want to do. Politics Participants in this discussion session talked about the lack of African American representation in local Moore County politics. One pivotal action step was created by this group: Unity Within the African American Community Discussion in this session was centered on the difficulty that many African American community groups and organizations have when attempting to work together due to differences in opinions. Action steps generated include: A forum follow-up meeting, facilitated by an FPC member, was scheduled for May 29th, seven weeks from the date of the forum, to assess the progress of community action in response to the generated action steps. Action Step. Identify African American leaders to start a county-wide coalition of leaders to begin discussions around issues relevant to African American communities throughout Moore County. Action Steps. Create a list of all African American organizations in Moore County and build partnerships among the existing organizations in Moore County. Start a Community Unity meeting once every month where all African American organizations and community groups can exchange information about issues that affect them. Start an email listserv. Use existing organizations such as churches to disseminate information relevant to the community while being sensitive to each organization’s posting requirements. Communicate issues to elected officials. Identify who elected officials are. Identify ways to get involved in local government. Based on primary data collection, challenges identified and action steps generated during the forum, the team compiled a list of recommendations for community members and service providers: To encourage the youth of Moore County to continue to live in and succeed within the county after high school graduation, the team recommends collaboration between existing organizations that provides services to youth so that the scope and reach of these services might be broadened. To encourage young adults to become politically engaged citizens in Moore County, the team encourages collaboration between church, community, and political leaders to develop an organization that facilitates an opportunity for young adults to learn about and discuss the importance and the role of the politically active African American. To avoid overlapping efforts and to increase communication among Moore County leaders, the team recommends that FirstHealth facilitate a meeting between the 2006-2007 Forum Planning Committee and the 2007-2008 Forum Planning Committee members to discuss the action steps created during the recent forum and identify ways they can work together to affect positive change in African American communities in Moore County. It is the team’s hope that this document will serve as a resource and guide for community members and service providers who work with and within African American communities in Moore County to affect positive change.