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Introduction
Health educational programs are a part of the community and designed to help those members to become knowledgeable and make better decisions for either themselves, their families and both. The programs could be at the national, local and state levels which will bring awareness to anyone, regardless of the ethnicity, education, or money in one’s back account.
Throughout this discussion, the three programs we will review in particular are a) The Faithful Families, b) We Can! program and c) The Sista Project. While carefully analyzing these programs, we would be able to address the program’s objectives, funding resources, sponsors, stakeholders and their participation, partnerships, resources, opinions of the community about the program and the ways on how effective the program has been in influencing overall change. We will conclude on comparing and contrasting each programs within these previously mentioned various characteristics and a reflection on how could health educators increase their funding for these educational programs or network for more partnerships to support more health education programs.
The Faithful Families
Faithful Families is a local program based in the North Carolina area. This program’s objective is based on helping families of religious faith to learn how to make healthier food choices, as well as helping those families increase their levels of physical activity so that these individuals are not sitting around and not being productive. It is centered around a curriculum that consists around nutrition, as well as a kit which offers particular recipes and ways to move more in a physical manner. Although it does not mention anything directly about its funding to implement its program activities, but the Faithful Families program was “accepted by the Center of Excellence for Training and Research Translation which holds a close collaboration with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)” (Faithfulfamiliesesmm.org, 2016).
The CDC had assisted the faithful families with a certain type of process which reviews, translates and disseminates interventions that are geared towards reducing obesity and unhealthy eating habits. Therefore, this makes them the sponsorship of the faithful families. There were no mentioned stakeholders within this organization since it is considered a non-profit and the goal is not meant to make anyone money but to help become more aware of healthy food choices and understand the ways in lowering their risk for becoming overweight.
There are four partnerships with the Faithful Families. These include the North Carolina Public Health, North Carolina Cooperative Extension, North Carolina State University and the Eat Smart, Move More Initiative of North Carolina. The resources that the Faithful Families may have access to are the assessments and tools which are self-prepared by the program members consisting of one doctor and a program specialist. In addition, some of its other resources are guides, motivational posters, checklists, entry and exit forms, among other resources and tools.
It has been embraced by the community as a tool that provides guidance. It held recognition in such magazines like the Perspective and appeared at the White House in the Winter of 2013. The program has been very effective in the North Carolina community because their constantly training new specialists to learn about the program and to help educate other individuals about these kits that consist of a nine lesson curriculum, planning guides and the leader training guides. The kits are one hundred dollars which can be a bit expensive, but for those families who cannot afford to pay for a kit at this cost could follow Faithful Families on social media to become educated in this way as well.
The Sista Project
The Sista Project, which is a state owned program main objective is to focus on those scientific issues which are affected by not just minority women, but women in general who are either affected or may have a loved one with the illness of HIV, among other STD’s (sexually transmitted diseases. The program consists of lectures, role playing, and exercises which could be conducted from home (Harnett.org, 2016).
Since this program is offered by the Health department in the Hartnett County of North Carolina, the funding was made possible by the North Carolina STD prevention care branch. The sponsor, or partnership is with the Healthy Carolinians. Furthermore, the Sista program has many resources since it is again, offered by the state’s health department.
Some of its resources include a physician’s directory in case of questions, confirmation of health literature, or just information in general. The program also offers the United 211 to help individuals within the community get access to other programs that cater to men, women, children and senior citizens. This program has been significantly embraced by the community since the overall population uses their local health department. The website does not specify in detail the level of effectiveness in influencing behavioral change, however since the goal is to provide resources, information and awareness for STD’s, then it is almost certain that someone changed their unhealthy sexual behaviors in a more appropriate manner that would protect themselves from unwanted sexually transmitted diseases.
We Can! Program
For our final health education program, We Can! is a national program that is federally recognized and receives a great deal of its funding from the government (Nhlbi.nih.gov, 2016). Its biggest supporter and spokesperson is Michelle Obama, the first lady of the United States. The objective of this program is to “help parents, communities and caregivers monitor their children’s weight between the ages of eight through thirteen years old” (Nhlbi.nih.gov, 2016).
It wants parents to recognize that they are the primary influence in their own kid’s healthy development. This may include lessening the time in front of the television or computer screen, but instead, going outside to play fun activities and games with the family as a whole.
The stakeholders, or partnerships are with the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, National Cancer Institute, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The community embraces this program as well because it provides outreach services and learning materials for local agencies to teach the We Can! mission statement to members at the local level.
Its resources vary depending on whether if it is for the parent or community agency. For instance, the We Can! parental resources include tip sheets or reading literature, while for the community agencies may offer promotional or programming materials. The program influences a major behavior change in such a way that the logo or its message are featured on major children’s television programming networks such as the Disney channel or Nickelodeon cartoons. This type of method is crucial because its message subliminally helps the child to make good decisions as well like cooking at home instead of having a McDonald’s happy meal.
Conclusion
The levels of support vary throughout each program. But the agency with the most support is the We Can! program because it is backed by the government and the resources from the White House, while the two other agencies have to depend on lower levels of support. These levels of support have a tremendous impact on each program success rate. The first local program, Faithful Families may not be as successful because it charges one hundred bucks for educational literature that could easily be obtained via the internet for free. As a result, this could significantly discourage sign-ups.
While the Sista project have a more influential support system at the state level, the success rates may also be higher because the health program is not charging for their educational discussions. Nonetheless, the first two programs may achieve greater levels of success if there were more support. The third national program support is sufficient since it is being backed by the federal government.
Most importantly, health educators could increase the funding for their programs. First, they could collect statistical data to educate policymakers on the various reasons for why it is important to know this information and they would pull strings by creating partnerships. Secondly, the health educators could look towards grant writers and write grants to secure additional funding for their programs. The grant writer may support the mission and offer their services for free; while others may choose to get paid only once the grant is secured for the health program. Partnerships are created by networking and providing outreach in the communities and conducting social media marketing or targeted marketing to reach the population of individuals who could specifically be the most benefitted from the health education.
References
Faithfulfamiliesesmm.org,. (2016). Faithful Families Eating Smart and Moving More. Retrieved 6 February 2016, from http://faithfulfamiliesesmm.org/
Harnett.org,. (2016). SISTA Project (Sisters Informing Sisters on Topics about AIDS) | Harnett County, North Carolina. Retrieved 6 February 2016, from http://www.harnett.org/health/sista-project-sisters-informing-sister-on-topics-.asp
Nhlbi.nih.gov,. (2016). Welcome to We Can!, NHLBI, NIH. Retrieved 6 February 2016, from http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/wecan/
