Likely Partners in the Public Sphere

The table on the previous page summarizes a wide variety of religious traditions and institutional structures. Keep in mind that this project has been most successful in mobilizing community resources to reach vulnerable, at-risk, and minority populations by working with local and regional organizations that have a long-standing history and commitment to working collaboratively in the public sphere on issues that are often important to and align with health organizations’ interests—safe neighborhoods, housing, education, food security, violence prevention, etc. These organizations with history and commitment are likely to have formed or be a part of agencies that collaborate regularly with government, social service providers, and groups of different religious traditions.

Of course, some faith-based organizations have commitments that do not align with public health values and priorities.

The achievements of the leaders who generated the Model Practices Framework and the history of the Interfaith Health Program have been built with those who serve the community, desire to reduce suffering, and seek well-being and health equity for all.

Why Faith-based Organizations as Partners?

In the 1980s and early ‘90s, Dr. William Foege, former director of CDC, worked with former President Jimmy Carter to build a national and global public health agenda and program for The Carter Center. With a vision of “closing the gap” in glaring health disparities among different communities, Foege worked to bring religious institutions to the table to work with public health practitioners.

Grounded in that vision, the Interfaith Health Program was created to mobilize these groups toward a common goal with a transdisciplinary approach.

Increasingly, practitioners and policymakers are recognizing the important role FBOs can play in many policy areas.  The White House has convened an office focusing on such partnerships.  Public health practitioners in many areas, infectious disease prevention in particular, are also recognizing the important role these organizations can play in reaching those most at risk for and vulnerable to the spread of and harm from infectious diseases.

The practices presented in this toolkit have grown out of Foege’s vision and these commitments.

The Evidence

As a resource alongside public health, religious institutions have three distinctive qualities that are salient to partnerships aimed at eliminating health disparities.

• First, in most parts of the country, congregations, faith-based agencies of different kinds, and religious healthcare systems are pervasive in the social-structural landscape of communities.

• Second, they hold a kind of trust that creates unique access to particular populations.

• Third, they have values and commitments that quite often (though not always) align with and can contribute to public health goals.

Undergirding these claims is a strong body of research on both social determinants of health and the impact of partnerships on community health. Over the last 30 years, the knowledge generated by public health and social science research has led to a greater appreciation for and use of a social determinants approach to understanding and shaping public health interventions.

“Three broad categories of social determinants are social institutions — including cultural and religious institutions, economic systems, and political structures; surroundings — including neighborhoods, workplaces, towns, cities, and built environments; and social relationship — including position in social hierarchy, differential treatment of social groups, and social networks.”
Anderson et.al., The Community Guide’s Model for Linking the Social Environment to Health, 2003

As a social-structural determinant of health, religious institutions may function as important contributors of both social capital and community resilience that lessen barriers of mistrust.  They can also respond in agile ways when public health and other government agencies cannot. This was the case in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the South and in Los Angeles during public health H1N1 vaccination efforts in African-American communities.

The faith community is often considered an environment where healthy behaviors of individuals can be supported.  This toolkit focuses on faith communities as important social institutions that can act when community-scale disease prevention and responses are needed.

In 2012, the Institute of Medicine called for “significant investments in partnership-building capacity” as “mission-critical capacity development” for public health.

Partnerships and the communities’ capacity to align their resources towards a common purpose are now accepted as essential to achieving public health goals. Recognizing this imperative in tackling the undergirding determinants of health disparities, IHP developed the Institute for Public Health and Faith Collaborations (IPHFC).  The Institute’s overall aim has been to strengthen organizations’ collaborative relationships across sectors. The practices described in this toolkit are based on the work of exemplar community leaders who participated in the IPHFC and continue to hone their partnership-building capacities.

A related and substantial investment has been made by CDC in the development and evaluation of interventions aimed at eliminating health disparities through an initiative known as Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH). Through these efforts, eight key principles and supporting activities have been identified as essential to successful health disparities achievements. Three of the REACH key principles are:

• Trust. Build a culture of collaboration with communities that is based on trust.
• Trusted Organizations.  Enlist organizations within the community that are valued by community members, including groups with a primary missions unrelated to health.
• Community Leaders.  Help community leaders and key organizations forge unique partnerships and act as catalysts for change in the community.

The practices described in this toolkit demonstrate the faith community’s capacity as a social determinant of health—ones that can build and mobilize vital kinds of partnership relationships to ensure that disease prevention and health promotion services reach those who need them the most.