HOPE Works: Health, Opportunities, Partnerships, Empowerment

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention

Topics:
Nutrition & Physical Activity for Adults | Obesity & Overweight

People who are hopeful are more likely to engage in preventive health behaviors and to set and achieve life goals than are people who have lost hope. For residents in rural counties of eastern North Carolina, prolonged stress from unemployment, low income, ongoing recovery from the 1999 Hurricane Floyd, and high rates of obesity have increased their risk for chronic diseases, which in turn contributes to residents’ discouragement about creating positive changes in their lives. Recent surveys confirm that women in these counties believe they cannot improve diet, manage stress, increase exercise, or lose weight when they are concerned about having jobs and supporting their families.

The center’s community advisory committee (CAC) asked researchers to develop a project—HOPE Works—to empower local women to improve their economic status as well as their level of health. The CAC helped plan and is implementing an intervention in two economically disadvantaged counties of eastern North Carolina. The intervention consists of two community health promotion events per year, and a behavior change intervention that combines providing health education materials tailored to individuals’ health risks with a support group (HOPE Circle). Women from the community are trained to be HOPE Circle facilitators and conduct bi-weekly HOPE Circles for about 500 women (in groups of 10-12). At the 2-hour meetings, women learn strategies to manage stress, prevent and control obesity, and overcome barriers to change. They also exercise and prepare healthy foods together. Facilitators encourage each group member to set one health behavior goal (such as eating more fruits and vegetables or getting more exercise) and one life improvement goal (such as completing a high school certificate program (GED), attending job training, enrolling in college, or starting a small business).

The participants completed surveys before joining the HOPE Circles and will complete them again 6- and 12-months later. The surveys measure health behaviors as well as self-esteem, sense of hope and empowerment, economic levels, and educational levels. Researchers will analyze the results to assess changes in the women’s emotional, physical, and economic well-being after participating in the HOPE Circles.

 

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