ABSTRACT
This article examines ethnographic strategies used in a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach employed during a needs assessment to design a healthy-lifestyle intervention initiated with five Chicago, Illinois–area African American Baptist churches. It highlights the use of three strategies in particular: insider/outsider teams of ethnographers, participant observation, and prompts for community dialogues and lay leader trainings that culturally and spiritually resonate with participants. The needs assessment was conducted by the ALIVE! Research Partnership team, a community-based collaboration of Rush University Medical Center researchers and church pastors and congregants. Acknowledging the important role that subjective perceptions have on health, the design focused on empowering participants and emphasizes the strengths of the church community and existing resources rather than aiming to diagnose pathological behavior. This chapter explores the key findings of the research study and the ways the study helped to improve the program. The article concludes with a discussion of both the methodological promise and the limitations of such methods in the CBPR context.
