African American Community Outreach

Experiences to Share

Many counties reported some targeted outreach through churches, health fairs, African American community events, and low income housing events, in addition to general outreach through organizations such as Smart Start, Head Start, daycares, etc...

We attend a community health fair with the Health Educators, and we dedicated a new basketball court with them. We set up a display on HC/NCHC so we could share our information with moms and children. We joined a walk around their community with them.
--Wilma Young, Haywood County

We conduct outreach through our Minority Health Council and through health promotion teams.
-- Sheila Wellmon and Anne Short, Cleveland Co.

We partnered with the Orange County Health Education and Promotion Division to present a program about HC/NCHC to a Lay Health Promoters class.
-- Darrell Renfroe, Orange Co.

The director of NAACP is on our coalition. Special posters and flyers and church bulletins have been developed targeting this special population. The African-American ministers have been most cooperative and have suggested appointing "champions" in the churches. These individuals would be trained to assist families needing to apply as well as re-enrolling. This outreach was determined following two focus groups representing NAACP/community leaders and ministers from predominantly African-American Churches.
--Harriett Marlor, Buncombe Co.

From "NC Covering Kids:
A Retrospective"
(A report on the RWJ Covering Kids grant outreach activities of 1999-2001)

(Below are excepts from the African American Adolescents Outreach efforts in Guilford county. For additional ideas, see Overall Lessons & Conclusions)

Student Outreach
This initiative targeted African-American families by engaging African-American high school students in a service-learning project. The community assignment was designed not only to improve "the chances that more eligible low and moderate income children would receive available health insurance," but to "show students how government works, while simultaneously teaching the valuable concept of civic duty, aimed at improving the quality of life for the citizenry."

This approach succeeded in educating students and families about Health Check/Health Choice but not in getting families to apply.

Next time

We would target families more carefully to increase the likelihood that the targeted families are not already enrolled.
We would follow up with those who said they were interested in applying. This information could be passed on to an application assistant (DSS worker or adult volunteer) for follow-up. Such follow-up would not only facilitate enrollment, but would increase our understanding of the barriers that interfere with enrollment.
Incentives for families might also be considered - to move families from "pre-contemplation" to "action," e.g., cab vouchers to the Department of Social Services and a coupon to receive something concrete and of value once the family has applied. Materials that are distributed should be carefully selected to ensure that they are effective in motivating families to take action, i.e., obtain input from parents.