African American women in Alachua County are experiencing higher rates of poor birth outcomes than their white counterparts (FLHealthCharts, 2018). This is, in spite of the fact that women from both races have clinically similar starts to their pregnancies (FLHealthCharts, 2018). Trauma, experienced in the form of toxic stress from environmental and social variables, is the key difference between these women (Sandoval, 2018). My grant proposal looks to reduce the amount of stress a black woman must put up with from the first trimester through one year after giving birth. Outcomes will be measured qualitatively through surveys and interviews as well as quantitatively through laboratory testing of biomarker samples.
I plan to recruit women to participate in extended healthy start programs and specialized work groups to discuss various stressors or experiences that others in the same position share. The goal is to assist pregnant women through their pregnancies and the first year after birth to reduce the traumatic events and toxic stress they might be going through and to help build up a social network with peers in the community. Participants will guide the focus of the intervention based on their needs throughout their time in the study.
I will mainly be focusing on the individual and interpersonal levels of the social ecological model (McLeroy, 1988). These will be addressed through the relationships we aim to build in the work groups and the personal knowledge and assistance to build up the individual. This project will utilize various trauma informed principles including: peer support, mutual self-help, empowerment, and working with cultural and gender issues (Feuer-Edwards et al., 2020).
This project will operate in a social and behavioral public health framework and will rely on the secondary and tertiary prevention levels set forth by the Trauma Informed Philanthropy Guide (Feuer-Edwards et al., 2020).
References
Feuer-Edwards, A., O'Brien, C., & O'Connor, S. (n.d.). Trauma-Informed Philanthropy: A Funder’s Resource Guide for Supporting Trauma-Informed Practice in the Delaware Valley. Philanthropy Network Greater Philadelphia.
Florida Health Charts (n.d.). Retrieved February 12, 2020, from http://www.flhealthcharts.com/....CountyHealthProfile
McLeroy, K. R., Steckler, A. and Bibeau, D. (Eds.) (1988). The social ecology of health promotion interventions. Health Education Quarterly, 15(4):351-377.
Sandoval, H., Clark, C., House, M., & Girson, M. (2018). Understanding Racial Inequity In Alachua County. Gainesville, Florida: University of Florida, Bureau of Economic and Business Research.
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