Abstract
Purpose To connect low resource communities to innovative services that address gaps in health access and knowledge. Description We describe the house party model, as a community-based workshop approach to health education developed by the Westside Healthy Start program (WHS) in Chicago, Illinois. Key elements of the WHS house party model include use of community health workers as facilitators, collaboration with participants and community-based organizations, referrals to health care and social services, and engagement strategies such as interactive activities, personal stories, and discussion. Assessment In 2014 and 2015, WHS completed 23 house parties with 271 participants, delivering education on relevant maternal and child health (MCH) topics. Participants demonstrated improvements in knowledge of several health-related areas. About half of participants were able to identify causes or signs of preterm labor prior to the house party, compared to over 80% after. In addition, 94% of participants rated the house party workshops “excellent” or “good”. Conclusion House parties are a promising strategy for increasing knowledge about MCH topics and linking hard-to-reach populations to resources in the community.
Highlights
What is already known on this subject? Health education and access to care are important social determinants of health
What does this study add? The house party model for community-based health education is a promising strategy for increasing knowledge about maternal and child health (MCH) topics and providing links to health care and social services for diverse, hard-toreach populations
In 1997, Access Community Health Network launched the Westside Healthy Start program (WHS) to improve perinatal health outcomes by providing maternal and child health (MCH) services to high-risk, predominantly African-American women and children residing in Chicago
Summary
House party workshops included a variety of elements to engage attendees. Healthy refreshments helped CHWs foster a warm environment to facilitate engagement, and lessened the burden on the host to buy food for workshop attendees. During the house party workshop, the CHW promoted health education through interactive activities- such as pregnancy bingo and family planning Jeopardy- shared personal stories, and distributed prizes. This helped to create a lively atmosphere and build trust and credibility between attendees. Workshop attendees in need of healthcare or social services received referrals to organizations within the WHS target area and neighboring communities. Providing education and referrals for the participants empowered them to share their new knowledge with other community members
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