Special Community Engagement Projects

Shop Talk

Shop Talk is a pilot health promotion campaign that focuses on engagement of non-traditional community partners to communicate health information to their peers. The Tulane Prevention Research Center (PRC) has been working in New Orleans for nearly a decade conducting community-based participatory research and asset-mapping exercises. In the African-American community, barber shops have long been considered comfortable settings for conversations about personal matters. Shop Talk aims to increase awareness and modify attitudes about diet, physical activity, and other health behaviors with a culturally-competent information campaign. The intervention includes basic lay-health advisor training to barbers and stylists and distribution of the Feel Good Guide, developed with barbers’ input, and containing information on key health issues, recipe cards, a Body Mass Index wheel, and a guide to community resources. The evaluation component uses a pre-post test, randomized group design with six intervention and six delayed-intervention locations, which will serve as controls and receive the intervention after follow-up data collection. Baseline surveys were given to patrons (N=374) before the intervention. About 80% of respondents visit their barbershop at least twice a month. Approximately 57% feel consuming fruits and vegetables regularly is very important; 66% feel the same way about doing physical activity. Post-test surveys will be conducted in November 2009 and enable us to report impacts on these and other attitudes and behaviors. Process evaluation indicates the approach is very popular, and requests to implement the project have come from a wide range of places, including those in neighboring cities and states.