Executive Summary

• The 2006 Community Health Report: Welcoming a Diverse Community in an East Austin Parish is an abbreviated assessment of health and well-being done at the neighborhood level, or in this case, the parish level. Our study in East Austin is considered an introduction to the neighborhood and the parish rather than a comprehensive Healthy Neighborhood Initiative (HNI). Previous neighborhood studies have been conducted in ten neighborhoods in Houston, SLEHC’s home; this was our first effort at a neighborhood study outside our usual boundaries. Since SLEHC serves the 57 counties of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas, the East Austin study was an opportunity to extend our HNI model beyond Houston and to experiment with modifying the model for a briefer, more focused study.
  
  
• The assessment is drawn from both quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data include health, population, birth, death, and socioeconomic information drawn from a variety of sources, such as the US Census and city and state health departments. Much of the data is available through the SLEHC interactive Community Health Information System at our website (www.slehc.org). Qualitative data was collected through key informant interviews and participatory research activities done with and by community members.
  
  
• The focus of the parish study is two zip codes in East Austin, 78722 and 78723. The historically African American St. James Episcopal Church is located in 78721 and has served the surrounding neighborhoods and the city of Austin since 1941. Church members had heard about our HNIs and believed that their neighborhood could benefit from such a study. The zip codes are comprised of some of Austin’s oldest neighborhoods, most historically African American. The city’s white population and expanding Hispanic community are changing the composition of these neighborhoods and the congregation of St. James, and congregation members feel the stresses and tensions that accompany such landmark change.
  
  
• The area of study is bounded by Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to the south, IH-35 to the west, Highway 290 to the north, and Highway 183 to the east. According to the Census, 42,670 people reside there, an increase of over 27 percent since 1990; since 1990, the African American population has decreased by eight percent and the Hispanic population has almost doubled. There are more female-headed households, 20 percent of households earn less than $15,000 per year, and almost 16 percent of households live below the poverty line; all of these percentages are much higher than the city’s average. The changes happening to neighborhood demographics mirror the changes happening in the city. However, the church draws congregation members from outside of East Austin and most congregants differ demographically and economically from the zip codes studied.
  
  
• Findings are drawn from key informant interviews and participatory group discussions. Typically, findings refer to the needs of the community, and health resources and needs are a significant part of the discussion. However, in this study, the focus of respondents, both within and outside of St. James, was demographic changes the community is experiencing. In addition, findings from St. James’ groups and interviews reveal some common concerns for African American congregation members and Hispanic immigrant congregation members. For example, an African American churchwoman, when asked about Austin’s African American population, asked, “Why are we always at the bottom?” An Hispanic immigrant church member, when asked about the Hispanic immigrant population, said, “We are less than zero here.” Both are members of St. James Episcopal Church, and the church is where their racial interface happens. “Radical hospitality” became the answer.
  
  
• Recommendations for potential next steps toward improving community health and well-being include, but are not limited to, the following suggestions. The recommendations below are based on two different agendas identified by our research—one agenda for the African American church members and one agenda for the Hispanic immigrant church members. Our study began with St. James and the anxiety of many of the African American congregants because of the significant racial change in their congregation. Though the congregation is now 40% African American, 40% White and 20% Hispanic and other cultures, African American congregants in our study focused primarily on the new Hispanic congregants. Some told us they see their church and its history being taken from them by a people they have historically seen as transgressors in this country. At the same time, they are working to confront the change with the most positive approach possible, one that reminds them of their purpose as Episcopalians and gives them a blueprint for tolerance and acceptance. The Hispanic immigrant group feels the instability of their status in this country and is focused on issues of creating and maintaining an acceptable quality of life while safeguarding their existence here and their connection to their history and culture.
  
  
  The Rev. Dr. Rickel, Rector at St. James since 2001, proposed next steps for the congregation. Many of the steps are based in the work of the Rev. Eric H.F. Law, from the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, who developed the Kaleidoscope Institute for “enhancing a congregation’s ability to appreciate and celebrate differences . . . to grow into even more faithful and healthy communities” (www.ladiocese.org/ki):
  
  
  1. Continue to move forward as an “honest multicultural community,” never becoming “complacent with our diversity,” agreeing to “never deny that we will always need healing, we will always have that living within us that needs attention,” and always attempting to have the “conversation that must be had.”
     
     
  2. Continue monocultural discussion groups: Hispanic, African American and White, in order to define what it is to be Hispanic, African American and White. The concept of monocultural groups comes from the Rev. Law, who believes that “the color division tends to be the dominant force in determining people’s perception of their power” (p. 58). People need to be clear on their perception of their own power, or lack of it, before they can come together and adapt to each other; otherwise, they “will not be able to adapt and conflict will most certainly arise.”
     
     
  3. Come together as a whole for each monocultural group to teach what it means to be Hispanic, African American and White congregation members. Each has a platform to address the whole congregation. Groups can discuss their experiences in an intercultural encounter in what Law calls “a bridge building strategy.” In his words, “those in power and the powerless can meet in the middle where they can interact on equal ground... [they can] come together in a true ‘pentecostal’ encounter” (p. 51).
     
     
  4. Continue to be a home for the Hispanic immigrant congregants, e.g., celebrating Hispanic festivals, having joint services, and sharing sermons among congregant groups. The Hispanic immigrant congregants participate monoculturally in the life of the church, having “a time to be in community, to gain self-esteem in the context of the collective, and to gain strength before moving into a world that does not value who they are” (Law p. 50). When they come together with the larger congregation, “It is a time to learn that they are blessed, that in their endurance they are resurrected into the new life of empowerment. It is a time to heal...” (p. 50).
     
     
  5. Develop a Center for Reconciliation at the new church location, to address the challenge of reconciliation across contexts. The Rev. Dr. Rickel suggests that reconciliation is at the heart of healing. He gets requests from other churches for help in “integrating their church,” acknowledging a need for reconciliation across communities and a lack of knowledge in how to achieve this. Some of his goals for the center are to bring in nationally and internationally recognized lecturers, such as Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and President Jimmy Carter; to offer courses on enacting reconciliation; to create reconciliation teams to train others; and to promote the concept of living reconciled lives.
     
     
  6. An SLEHC suggestion from our work with the Hispanic immigrant group is connected to our partnership with People’s Community Clinic in Austin to support their Health Promoter’s project to provide disease prevention education, case management, and access to health care to the underserved populations in East Austin. Some members of St. James’ Hispanic group are interested in being a part of this program in order to improve the health of their community. The group would like to:
     
     
     • Encourage St. James to explore developing a partnership with People’s to include St. James’ representation in the program.
       
     • Work with St. James’ Parish Nurse to promote the program, educate the congregation about it, and recruit those interested to support it.
       
     • Collaborate with the Hispanic group to include their efforts and ideas in the Health Promoter’s program.
       
     • Work to extend the Health Promoter’s training and certification to interested members of the Hispanic group.
       
       
  7. Suggestions for further research include expansion of the Charities’ Project Safety Net to include Austin safety net clinics and recruitment of funding opportunities to support additional research to improve our understanding of diverse populations, contributing to the political discourse, policy making and public discussion of issues that have impact on these populations and their concerns. Project Safety Net is a newly launched database at the Charities website (www.slehc.org) that contains information about all public and nonprofit safety net clinics in Harris County in an interactive format that includes location, hours of operation, languages spoken, eligibility requirements, and more. The website is in English and Spanish. Access to healthcare has been identified as a significant health issue for vulnerable populations and was identified in this study as a concern as well; the website addresses this concern by bringing all pertinent information together in one easy-to-use location, for service providers, planners, and consumers. In addition, opportunities for further research are indicated by this study. For example, Hispanics in Texas are particularly likely to report being uninsured (43%); about one in seven Hispanics report needing medical care but not getting it due to cost and accessibility; and Hispanics have significantly higher risk for some chronic diseases and infections such as diabetes and tuberculosis (Pew Hispanic Center data). Funding for future research could be solicited from national funders, such as the Pew Charitable Trust, who focus on the country’s growing Hispanic population.

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