House Chats as a Grassroots Engagement Methodology in Community-Based Participatory Research: The WE Project, Petersburg

The Wellness Engagement (WE) Project is an academic–community partnership developed to engage the community to inform the development of a pilot intervention aimed at promoting healthy eating and physical activity among residents of Petersburg, Virginia.

Objectives: To implement House Chats as a novel methodology for engaging community members in focused discussion about obesity, exercise, dietary intake, and barriers to health.

Methods: We recruited and trained laypersons as House Chat Leaders (HCLs) to host informal group discussions about obesity with members of their network in a social setting following predetermined questions.

Results: HCLs hosted 34 House Chats with 176 participants over a period of 4 months.

Conclusions: The House Chat proved to be a highly successful engagement strategy that allowed access to respondents who may not have participated in a traditional, focus group discussion.