Seven Principles Project - San Francisco

The Seven Principles Project is a federal Centers for Disease Control & Prevention funded demonstration project with four interventions to be tested for effectiveness both separately and combined to improve the health and survival of African American infants and their families.

Through the four "promising" interventions, individuals, families and the whole community are targeted with behavioral, environmental and social activities that promote protective factors. Community unity, spirituality, faith and creativity are essential messaged of the project and represent in part the Nguzo Saba, the Seven Principles of Kwanzaa.

The four interventions are:

1) Health care provider's training to improve knowledge and skills of working with African Americans.

2) A community awareness campaign to increase knowledge of infant health issues through social marketing in the targeted neighborhoods.

3) Neighborhood-based community action for health improvement through "Community Action Teams" and the Community Action Model.

4) A partnership and network of city and community agencies and leaders created to develop skills and capacity to improve the health of the community and carry on the work of the Project.

The goals of the SevenPrinciples Project, funded by the CDC's REACH 2010 Initiative, are to: eliminate disparities in infant mortality rates; improve African American infant survival; and improve the health of families and communities with infants through developing community capacity.

Project Successes
Nine Community Action Teams (CATs) have been organized.
Three CATs have completed final reports of their activities.
50 CAT members completed a baseline survey on feelings of a sense of community; African-American neighborhood social unity in the areas where the CATS are operating; members' levels of volunteering and engagement in activities; and self-assessment of advocacy skills (i.e. planning and leading meetings, public speaking, conducting a community diagnosis). Results include [show as chart/graph]:
68.8% of members know how to use the Internet to send mail.
54.7% know how to use the Internet to perform research.
12% know how to conduct a community diagnosis.
19.6% know how to assess their community.
18.8% know how to get their community to respond to an issue.