Engaging America's grassroots organizations in promoting public health

Abstract

"In the 21st century, the United States needs a health system that measures, values, and promotes health and prevents disease. This transformed health system would serve racial, cultural, religious, and socioeconomic segments of the society to ensure equitable access to the information and services people need to achieve and maintain the best possible health outcomes. Faith-Based and Community-Based Organizations (FBCOs) can play an important role in ensuring such equitable access and would potentially be a critical component of the new, transformed health system. The importance of FBCOs for better health outcomes is already widely recognized. Many FBCOs participate in initiatives to improve health in international settings and provide services to many communities in the United States. They are also a key component of the preparation and response to natural disasters and emergencies. In fact, a 2006 White House report, The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned, recommended that "the Department of Health and Human Services working with the Department of Homeland Security should work to include faith-based, community, and nonprofit organizations in emergency planning, preparedness, and delivery of human services." To this end, CDC has been strengthening its linkages with faith-based and other volunteer, nonprofit organizations to better reach diverse populations. Indeed, CDC's FBCO partners are critical to helping us reach underserved communities, delivering our products, and achieving our public health goals. It is with this understanding that we highlight CDC's innovative work with its faith-based and community based partners. This report highlights several strategic alliances between CDC and its faith-based and grassroots partners. We feature examples of partnerships with faith-based and nonreligious community-based organizations. We also include CDC's new grassroots partnerships along with its existing partnerships with well-established nonprofit organizations, giving preference to examples from 2005 through 2008. To compile the report, we identified three areas covered in CDC's Health Protection Goals: Eliminate Health Disparities for Vulnerable Populations of all Ages; Healthy People in a Healthy World; and People Prepared for Emerging Health Threats. We have asked CDC's National Center Faith-Based and Community Initiative (FBCI) Coordinators to provide examples of noteworthy FBCI partnerships. The highlights given here are not intended to be comprehensive or necessarily representative of all FBCI activities at CDC. Each feature includes information on the specific public health challenge, the partnership that was developed to disseminate the program, and the target audience characteristics." - p. 5Partner spotlight: CDC HIV/AIDS prevention and faith-based organizations -- Section 1. Health disparities in the United States -- Section 2. International health and immigrant communities -- Section 3. Emergency preparedness -- Partner spotlight: CDC partners with state health departments and grassroots community-based organizations to prevent sexual violenc