Families, Communities and Culture: Health Promotion with Newly-arrived African Communities in Victoria

This is the final report of a one-year study, Parent-centred and culturally competent literacies for health promotion with newly-arrived African communities project. The study was conducted as part of the Public Health Research Projects 2006/2007 and sought a deeper understanding of the values and beliefs of newly-arrived African communities that may be important to the promotion of health and wellbeing. The project was designed and conducted with a view to contributing to the wider work of DHS in generating new knowledge to address disadvantage faced by vulnerable communities newly-arrived to Victoria. The project investigated the following questions: 1. What is known about the effectiveness of health promotion initiatives that target newly arrived families from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds? 2. What factors (traditions, values, influences, strengths, and literacies) are central to the successful provision of culturally competent health promotion for newly arrived parents in Victoria? 3. How can this evidence base inform the development of a parent-centred and culturally-responsive health promotion model supportive of multiple literacies for newly arrived African communities? The first of these questions was addressed by a systematic review of the international literature1. The main study findings are presented in this report. The research was a collaborative project, led by the Centre for Community Child Health and the Royal Children’s Hospital Education Institute. It was conducted in partnership with Deakin University, the University of Melbourne and Monash University. The study drew significantly on the strengths and knowledge of African communities living in Victoria, firstly through the advice provided by the study’s expert African Review Panel and Project Partners, and also through the participation of over 100 members of African communities now living in both Melbourne and regional Victoria. Whilst the findings, model and recommendations in this report emerge from research with newly-arrived African communities in Victoria, we suggest this evidence is also applicable a) to promoting health literacy in regard to specific conditions e.g. Vitamin D deficiency within African communities; and b) to promoting health and wellbeing with other newly-arrived populations re-establishing themselves in Victoria.