This program is for families in the faith community.

Faithful Families Thriving Communities (Faithful Families), formerly Faithful Families Eating Smart and Moving More, is a faith-based program that is designed to promote positive health and health behaviors in communities and families of faith with a focus on healthy eating and physical activity.

No peer-reviewed publications evaluating the effectiveness of this program were located.

Faithful Families program sessions focus on nutrition, meal preparation and cooking, food safety, increasing daily physical activity, and reducing the risk of chronic health conditions. Through group discussions, recipe taste tests, and activities, individuals and families are encouraged to set goals to lead healthier lives. The curriculum also prompts discussions about changes that can be made in their organization and local community. The program includes peer education, policy and environmental support, and community engagement. Faith communities are encouraged to implement at least one policy change and one environmental change. Program sessions discuss the following:

Nutrition/Diet

• Education-based strategies - learn about nutrition, food safety, and food resource management and receive newsletters, bulletins, and sermons/lectures that reinforce healthy behavior messages;
• Behavior-modification strategies - practice goal-setting, problem-solving, and skill-building; and
• Environmental-modification strategies - receive social support for healthy eating; promote policy and environmental changes, including offering water, serving fruits and vegetables, and presenting healthy options like grilled meats at all events; and create community gardens to provide fresh fruits and vegetables.

Physical Activity

• Education-based strategies - Understand the importance of moving more throughout the day;
• Behavior-modification strategies - practice goal-setting and problem-solving; and
• Environmental-modification strategies - receive social support for physical activity, policy, and environmental changes (i.e., posting a map of available trails), which includes requiring physical activity breaks during meetings and classes and mapping out walking trails.

This program was founded in 2007 as a partnership between the North Carolina Division of Public Health and North Carolina State Extension. In 2016, Faithful Families held a bi-annual summit for public health professionals, universities, community organizations, and lay persons supporting faith communities across the country. In 2020, they held a virtual summit and walking challenge. Faithful Families is currently offered in 20 states across the U.S., and throughout North Carolina.

Trained lay leaders from individual faith communities are paired with nutrition/physical activity educators to co-teach lessons and deliver the program. Organizations can order the curriculum through Faithful Families to be able to deliver the program. Faithful Families offers a planning guide to help faith communities implement the program which include materials such as draft policy and environmental change templates, how to establish a health committee, and helath challenges. In addition to the curriculum and planning guide, Faithful Families offers online training. Registration and additional details about the online training can be found here: https://faithfulfamilies.com/ordering/

Considerations for implementing this program include acquiring trained nutrition/physical activity educators, recruiting and training individuals to become lay leaders, understanding the program curriculum and other materials needed for program implementation will need to be purchased, finding space to hold sessions, and realizing that creating and maintaining policy changes could be expensive and challenging.

The Clearinghouse can help address these considerations. Please call 1-877-382-9185 or email Clearinghouse@psu.edu

If you are interested in implementing the Faithful Families program, the Clearinghouse is interested in helping you!
Please call 1-877-382-9185 or email Clearinghouse@psu.edu

This program is implemented in 9 weekly lessons.

The digital Faithful Families program curriculum kit is $100 and can be purchased from the program website. The digital Chronic Disease Lessons kit is $75 and can also be purchased from the program website. The freep lanning guide for Faithful Communities assists faith leaders in adopting policy and environmental change in their faith community and can be downloaded from the same website. Approximately $125 is needed to purchase food for optional recipe tastings. A complete set of skill builders for a group of 10 participants costs approximately $150.  Skill builder materials may be purchased from North Carolina EFNEP.

To move the Faithful Families program to the Promising category on the Clearinghouse Continuum of Evidence, at least one evaluation should be performed demonstrating positive effects lasting at least six months from program completion.

The Clearinghouse can help you develop an evaluation plan to ensure the program components are meeting your goals. Please call 1-877-382-9185 or email Clearinghouse@psu.edu

Contact the Clearinghouse with any questions regarding this program.
Phone: 1-877-382-9185 Email: Clearinghouse@psu.edu

You may also contact Kim Eshelman, Special Projects Manager by phone 1-919-515-0244, email keshlem@ncsu.edu, or visit https://faithfulfamilies.com/contact-us/

www.centertrt.org/?p=intervention&id=1090 and https://faithfulfamilies.com/