About EPICC

What is the overall goal of the EPICC Project?

The goal of the Engaging Partners in Caring Communities (EPICC) Project is to help congregations that serve African American communities expand their ability to provide evidence-based health promotion programs to their congregants. We have developed this online platform with tools that we hope many churches can use to provide effective and free health promotion programs for their communities.

Who is involved?

The EPICC Project was designed by leaders of the Congregational Health and Education Network (CHEN) and faculty from Tennessee State University, Meharry Medical College, and Vanderbilt University. This community-academic partnership recruited representatives of community organizations to serve with them on the Project Leadership Team. The Project Leadership Team (PLT) includes:

Community Partners

Academic Team

Who is paying for the work?

The EPICC Project is funded by the Office of the Director of the National Institutes, a federal agency that is committed to promoting health equity. CHEN staff, the academic faculty, and NIH recognize that many circumstances contribute to higher rates of health problems like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer, among African Americans. The Project is designed to work with churches that serve African Americans.

How can our church be involved in the EPICC 30 Project?

All congregations that are members of CHEN are eligible to participate in the first phase of the EPICC 30 Project. This includes selecting a health promotion program and completing the EPICC Survey. Each participating church will receive a written report of their survey responses with suggested strategies for offering the health promotion program they selected to their church.

Church leaders and interested members will be invited to participate in an orientation program. The program will describe:

  • How the church will identify a primary contact to coordinate the church’s involvement in EPICC;
  • The primary contact and 2-4 members of the congregation will agree to serve as the survey response team for the church;
  • The team will be given information about six research-tested health promotion programs that the church might want to offer to its members. They will be asked to select one for this Project;
  • After the church completes a contract for participation, the team will complete the online EPICC Survey that asks for information about the church’s size, experience offering health-related programs, and other related queestions;
  • The team will meet with EPICC staff who will provide a Survey Results Report, and ask members of the team about the accuracy and usefulness of the Report in describing their church.

If your church participates in the first phase of the EPICC Project you will receive the following:

  • Your congregation will learn about health promotion programs that are designed for community organizations to deliver, with materials that are available and free.
  • Your team will receive a report based on your responses to an online survey that will describe your congregation’s strengths and possible challenges you will face in implementing the health promotion program you selected.
  • CHEN congregations that complete the survey and provide feedback about the Survey Results Report will have opportunities to learn more about the next phase of the project.

What happens next?

After participating CHEN congregations have completed their survey, the EPICC Staff will invite up to 30 congregations to participate in the next phase of the research project. The research project will involve churches that represent at least four different denominations, vary in size, and vary in the kinds of health promotion experience their teams identified. These 30 congregations will be invited to participation in another phase of the research project as research partners with the EPICC staff. CHEN will continue to be involved with all CHEN churches as they take steps to improve access to health promotion programs and services for their members.

How will our church benefit from being part of the CHEN 30?

The churches in CHEN 30 congregations will:

  • Learn how evidence-based programs to promote health are developed, and what are their advantages over programs that have not been evidence-based.
  • Gain knowledge about specific evidence-based programs to promote health, including ones developed for faith-based organizations.
  • Obtain health-based program materials for a evidence-based program chosen by church members, and some guidance for setting it up in their church.
  • Have access to the web-based EPICC Survey to be completed by a team in the church to identify the congregation’s strengths and resources for offering a health promotion program, as well as some challenges the church team might face for delivering a health-based program to the congregation.
  • Receive a written report of the results of the EPICC Survey and opportunity to meet with members of the research team to discuss its accuracy and usefulness, as well as suggestions for how to use the results in planning.
  • Have access to updated versions of this website being developed for churches that serve African American congregations, designed with input from community members to provide information and guidance for selecting and offering evidence-based health promotion programs in faith-based organizations.
  • Have access to a larger website being developed for churches that serve African American congregations, designed with input from community members to provide information and guidance for selecting and offering evidence-based health promotion programs in faith-based organizations. The website will be in development at the beginning of the EPICC Project, and once it is up and running CHEN 30 congregations will have access to it.