African American community, Rockingham County: an action-oriented community diagnosis: findings and next steps of action
Creators: name: Meier, Carrie E.
name: Edwards, Alrick S.
name: Gottert, Ann L.
name: Stoioff, Elizabeth C.
name: Whetsell, JoAnn P.
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2008

description: In October 2007, a team of five graduate students from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health began an Action-Oriented Community Diagnosis (AOCD) with the African American community in Rockingham County. An AOCD is a community-based process by which the resources, strengths, needs, and challenges of a community are identified. After identification, the process transitions to generating dialogue and creating action steps to build on community strengths and address challenges. Guided by preceptors Debbie Mason of Rockingham County Healthy Carolinians and Katrina White of the Rockingham County Department of Public Health, the student team spent the next seven months attending community events, examining data about Rockingham County from websites and government documents, and conducting interviews and focus groups with both service providers and community members regarding community strengths and community challenges. After analyzing the responses, the team identified thirteen common themes. With the help of a community advisory committee (CAC), the team planned and held a public forum, “Community Dialogue for Change,” on April 14, 2008. The CAC selected five of the original thirteen themes for focused discussion at the forum based on their importance to the community and how easily they could be addressed. Five themes were chosen so that the five student team members could each lead a discussion group on one theme..At the forum, the team highlighted the community‟s strengths such as churches and spirituality, caring people, and leadership capacity as well as challenges related to the five themes chosen for discussion. The approximately 70 people in attendance broke into smaller discussion groups and generated action steps to address each theme. The following challenges and action steps were presented at the forum: Employment- The lack of job opportunities for African Americans within the county is a concern. This affects both adults who have lost jobs and youth seeking jobs. Develop a mentoring program that would place youth in government, corporate, and small business environments. Survey students to determine their career interests so that job fairs and career programs would be more appealing. Create a resource listing of employers willing to hire ex-offenders. Attitudes Towards Education- There is concern that education is not a priority in the county, as seen by high drop-out rates and not enough students going to college. Approach the school board about offering diversity training to teachers and other employees. Approach local colleges that train teachers about offering diversity training in their curricula. Guidance for Youth- Too many African American youth, especially young men, lack positive guidance for their futures. Set up a forum for youth-adult conversation as a starting point for better understanding. Use the media, church newsletters, and organizations to spread the word about the need to come together for better guidance for youth. Find out what mentoring programs churches currently have in place, and increase the number and quality of these programs. Include volunteering for school mentoring programs in regular church service projects, with an emphasis on peer mentors. Establish programs to re-train parents and include professionals in the community with different skill sets for parenting. Racial Discrimination- Community members noted various ways in which racial discrimination happens in the county, such as differences in pay, ability to get loans, and treatment of students. Create a forum to increase dialogue between parents of school children to address issues such as racial discrimination in schools. Increase parental and community involvement in volunteer opportunities in schools. Create guidelines for fair treatment of students for use by teachers and administrators. Preventive Health Care- Low use of preventive health care services for conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure leads to an increased need for treatment and poor health. Form a group in charge of developing educational flyers with health messages to be placed in grocery stores, doctors‟ offices, daycares, churches, schools, and recreational facilities. This education campaign would also incorporate the use of nutritionists to develop health messages for church newsletters. Form a “take a friend to the doctor” program to assist those without their own personal transportation in getting to preventive health care appointments. This would build upon existing resources available in the community such as Caregivers of Rockingham County and Pelham Transportation in order to make transportation to medical appointments more convenient for community members. The purpose of this final report is to give the African American community of Rockingham County and other concerned individuals a tangible resource that presents the findings of the community assessment as well as a report of the discussions and action steps which emerged at the community forum. It is divided into six sections: Introduction; Background on Rockingham County; Primary Data Findings; Methods; The Forum; and Recommendations and Conclusions. This document should be a tool which all community members can continuously refer to as they address various challenges and work towards progress.