Dr. Michele Gourley, 2009 alumna of the Master of Public Health program at East Tennessee State University, has published an article in the Journal of Community Health. The article is titled, “Supporting Faith-Based Communities Through and Beyond the Pandemic.”
Co-authors includes members of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai where Dr. Gourley serves as an Assistant Professor of Medical Education. New York. Dr. Gourley obtained her medical degree and Masters of Public Health degree from East Tennessee State University with an emphasis on rural primary care and community health. Additionally, she holds a Masters in Theological Studies from Duke Divinity School where she was a Fellow of Theology, Medicine and Culture.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought widespread and notable effects to the physical and mental health of communities across New York City with disproportionate suffering Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino communities alongside additional stressors such as racism and economic hardship. This report describes the adaptation of a previously successful evidence-based community engagement health education program for the deployment of resilience promoting workshop program in faith-based organizations in BIPOC communities in New York City. From June 2021 to June 2022, nine faith-based organizations implemented 58 workshops to 1,101 non-unique workshop participants. Most of the workshops were delivered online with more women than men participating. All organizations completed the full curriculum; the workshop focused on self-care and physical fitness was repeated most frequently.
The Building Community Resilience Project is an easy and effective way to modify an existing, evidence-based community health education program to address new and relevant health needs such as resilience and stress amidst the COVID-19 pandemic among faith communities serving BIPOC populations. More research is needed regarding the impact of the workshops as well as adaptability for other faith traditions.