THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 22, 1996 TAG: 9603200191
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JANIE BRYANT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
THE NEXT TIME Fairwood Agape Baptist Church cooks up a church dinner, don't expect to hear fried chicken sizzling in the kitchen.
They're more likely to be serving broiled fish and low-fat salads.
A handful of church members are in the middle of an 11-week health training program to prepare as volunteers in the church's new Health Education Awareness Ministry.
In addition to their role as health educators, the four volunteers will ``serve as a link between their neighborhoods and the health care system,'' according to information provided by Sister Elaine Davia, who teaches the classes.
Sister Davia, a Roman Catholic nun with the Sisters of Bon Secours at Maryview, designed the health training based on a community-based program in Richmond.
At Fairwood Agape's April 14 worship service, the volunteers will receive certificates labeling them Lay Health Volunteers. The next week, the church plans to open an office in the church for the health ministry.
Hours of operation have yet to be determined.
The Rev. Robert L. Baker got the idea for the ministry while working on his doctoral thesis on health issues among African Americans and the role of the church.
Baker says he found the mortality rate for African Americans alarming, especially the numbers of people dying from cancer, diabetes and heart disease. He attributes part of the problem to poor eating choices and to inaccessibility of proper health care for lower-income African Americans.
His 5-year-old church is right in the middle of Fairwood Homes, one of the city's largest low-income housing complexes.
Baker believes his church can help. Volunteers will offer education and lend a well-trained ear to people in the community.
They won't be nurses, but they will be able to take people's temperature and measure blood pressure and listen to their concerns. And they'll stay abreast of health resources that can help.
Their training classes cover everything from the prevention of infectious diseases and diabetes to family abuse and child neglect.
Baker hopes to encourage other churches to establish similar health ministries in the community.
``I don't believe that one church attempting to eradicate the health problem will work,'' he says. ``I think we need to have a type of coalition.''
Baker appointed church member Lula Porter, a licensed practical nurse, to head his church ministry. Porter in turn contacted Sister Davia, who for the past five years has served as director of the Elm Avenue Center for Health - EACH - at Wesley Community Center.
``EACH was open until the city got something started. It wasn't meant to be a permanent place,'' says Sister Davia, who does some volunteer work at the health center, which opened last year.
Gradually over the past year, her center has transferred its patients to the new Portsmouth Community Health Center.
Sister Davia considers Fairwood Agape's initiative a trial program and hopes to get two similar health centers open by the end of the year. Already, she has been approached by representatives of the Ida Barbour and Dale Homes public housing complexes.
Beyond the education and counseling volunteers can offer, Sister Davia sees endless possibilities for such community-based health centers. She believes she can match those locations with agencies that offer services such as mobile vans to provide everything from blood sugar checks and health screenings to immunizations. For more information on Fairwood Agape's program, call 397-8911. MEMO: People interested in working with Sister Davia to set up a Lay Health
Volunteer Program may contact her at 397-6955. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MARK MITCHELL
Volunteers in the Health Education Awareness Ministry at Fairwood
Agape Baptist Church undergo training. They are, clockwise: Kannie
Murphy, Vertie Hill, Georgia Wright, instructor Sister Elaine Davia
and Lucy Kennedy.
by CNB