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Health Promotion Practice
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Article

A Lay Health Advisor Program to Promote Community Capacity and Change Among Change Agents

Marcus Plescia, MD, MPH1, Martha Groblewski, PhD, RD, LDN2, LaTonya Chavis, MS3

1 chief of the Chronic Disease and Injury Section in the North Carolina Division of Public Health and is adjunct associate professor of family medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine
2 health projects analyst in Charlotte, North Carolina and served as the evaluator for the Charlotte REACH 2010 project
3 the director of the Charlotte REACH 2010 project

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.


  Abstract

The Charlotte REACH 2010 project focuses on cardiovascular disease and diabetes among African Americans in a geographically defined community. The goal of the project is to create changes in individual behaviors, community capacity, change agents, and systemic policies and actions that will result in the reduction of health disparities related to cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The project consists of three main components: lay health advisors as change agents, targeted interventions (exercise, nutrition, smoking cessation, primary care), and environmental and systemic interventions. The purpose of this article is to describe the lay health advisor intervention using qualitative methodologies that were developed to document changes in community capacity and change among change agents. Lay health advisors report that they have internalized their role as a community advocate and have made positive changes in their own personal health behavior. Their understanding of the underlying causes of poor health has expanded to include social and institutional factors and they have begun to shift their emphasis toward advocacy for social and institutional change.

Key Words: lay health advisors, health disparities

First published on November 14, 2006, doi:10.1177/1524839906289670

Health Promotion Practice 2008;9:434.

A more recent version of this article appeared on October 1, 2008

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