Launched in 2019, the CHURCH (Congregations as Healers Uniting to Restore Community Health) project is a cutting-edge research initiative focused on improving mental health for African Americans by building on the existing strengths and resilience within Black faith communities. This project was a natural fit for the current lead researcher and Dr. Deborah Moon, who has a background in Implementation Science, Music Therapy, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. With many years of experience serving as a leader in ethnic churches, Moon was deeply familiar with the essential role ethnic churches play in the community. Moon was eager to collaborate with Dr. John Wallace, the founder of the CHURCH project and a leading scholar in African American communities’ well-being, on “developing a training based on evidence-based mental health interventions to build more capacity for African American faith leaders to provide informal mental health support to their congregation members.”
According to the Pew Research Center, three quarters of African Americans (compared to 49% of whites) say religion is very important in their lives. Additionally, 73% report praying daily, and nearly half (47%) attend religious services at least once a week. Collaborating with Black faith leaders including Jonathon D. Counts, LMSW, DMin, Pastor of Spottswood A.M.E. Zion Church and William R. Glaze, the senior pastor of Bethany Baptist Church, the CHURCH project emphasizes the pivotal role of clergy and other faith leaders in providing informal mental health support. The initiative aims to enhance the capacity of Black churches by educating faith leaders in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) in a culturally acceptable manner. The CHURCH project team, which includes Pitt Social Work faculty members Drs. Aliya Durham and Toya Jones as well as Paula Powe in the Department of Psychiatry, has employed innovative methods to culturally tailor CBT by integrating spiritual teachings and sacred music central to Black church experiences. The musical integration was carried out in collaboration with a Black church musician, Rev. Nikki Porter and her music team, who is a professional musician and the minister of music in Eastminster Presbyterian Church. Translating the technical language of CBT into accessible spiritual language familiar to Black faith communities exemplifies efforts to disseminate evidence-based mental health programs to racial and ethnic minority communities.
These accomplishments were achieved through close collaboration among diverse interdisciplinary researchers and community partners, each contributing unique expertise and perspectives essential to the project’s success. “The CHURCH Project is benefitting the community in positive ways,” shares Pastor Counts. “Mental health treatment has been a taboo topic in many Black churches. Religious jargon such as ‘just pray about it’ or ‘He’ll never put more on you than you can bear’ is very common. This intervention and project helps faith leaders to support congregants with a tool to mitigate minor stressors. It benefits a community who is resistant to seeing a therapist to receive support in a space where they are comfortable initially which may open the door to greater interventions.”
The team’s efforts have culminated in the development of Renew Your Mind (RYM), a CBTbased and spiritually informed mental health training curriculum designed to help African American faith leaders better serve the mental health needs of their congregations. Recently, partnering with Pastor Cynthia Wallace at the Bible Center Church, the CHURCH team implemented Renew Your Mind for the first time with faith leaders from ten African American churches in Homewood. The CHURCH team is currently analyzing data regarding RYM’s preliminary effects on participants’ knowledge of core CBT skills and attitudes toward mental health promotion and treatment. The study also examines faith leaders’ perceptions of the acceptability and feasibility of implementing and sustaining RYM in Black churches. Ultimately, this initiative seeks to promote positive mental health within African American communities by increasing access to culturally tailored, evidencebased strategies to manage mental distress and integrating spirituality into mental health care.