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PRIME TIME SISTER CIRCLES

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PBWHA implemented Prime Time Sister Circles® (PTSC) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 2011 in partnership with the co-founders and developers, Drs. Marilyn Gaston and Gayle Porter, of The Gaston and Porter Health Improvement Center, Inc. (GPHIC). PTSC is an evidence-based socially innovative intervention that educates and motivates Black women 40-75 years of age to improve their health outcomes by reducing and eliminating risk factors for chronic illness.

 

​PTSC is a facilitated, culturally relevant support group for women augmented with experts in the areas of stress management, nutrition, fitness and prioritizing their own health.  PTSC meets for two hours over 13 consecutive weeks in partnership with community-based organizations and churches.

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​Positive behavior changes occur and result in: increased knowledge, improved attitudes, and modification of behaviors in unmanaged stress; poor nutrition; sedentary behavior; and failure to prioritize health.   

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​​Statistically significant health outcomes occurred in the 350 plus women who participated in the BWHA PTSC program over the last thirteen years. The findings mirror the evaluation results of PTSC programs conducted in numerous cities in the US as noted below:

• reduced high blood pressures by 20-30 %

• reduced weight by 6 pounds over the first 3 months

• Improvements in self-report risk factors:

  • 20% decrease in stress.

  • 30% increase in portion control and

  • 10% increase in exercise.

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Educational/Academic Partnerships

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In 2023 PBWHA partnered with Dr. Andria Johnson and students from a ”Social Determinants of Health” class at University of Pennsylvania. The students conducted an Oral History Project and captured the voices of 3,000 women who participated in the PTSC conducted in partnership with Stop and Surrender, an Addiction Treatment Program.

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The students are: Andrea Dongmo-Zebaze, Chizoba Onyekere, Liz Lazarus, and Mahlet Yared. See the following document for the results of their work.

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                  Prime Time Sister Circle Oral History (click here for PDF)  

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ADAPTATION AND EXPANSION

OPIOID PTSC:  PBWHA and Drs. Gaston and Porter believed that the PTSC program had the potential to have a positive impact on the lives of women dealing with emotional and physical health issues including opioid addiction.  The PTSC intervention could possibly provide a safe, supportive transitional space in which women could bridge the gap between being perceived- and often perceiving themselves- primarily in terms of their opioid/heroin addiction. PBWHA, Drs. Gaston and Porter, with support from the Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disabilities Services, collaborated with Stop and Surrender, Inc., a local residential recovery program to implement the first Opioid Prime Time Sister Circle.  Drs. Porter and Gaston conducted a focus group to take into consideration the stated needs and challenges of the participants. This first Circle provided preliminary results on the potential impact of the PTSC intervention on the physical and emotional health outcomes of midlife Black women who were in a substance abuse recovery program for opioid addiction. These results served the twofold purpose of providing evidence of the feasibility of conducting this type  of study on a larger scale and yielding insights on the potential impact of the PTSC intervention with this population. 

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       Click links below:

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                  Drs. Gaston & Porter Presentation on Opioid PTSC 

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                  Opioid PTSC Preliminary Results

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PBWHA partners with schools and community-based organizations to conduct workshops. 

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​MILLENNIAL PTSC:  Given the success of the Prime Time Sister Circles, graduates of the Philadelphia PTSC program, and PBWHA interns expressed that a program similar to PTSC would be beneficial for younger women. The Philadelphia Black Women’s Health Alliance and Gaston & Porter Health Improvement Center have come together to adapt and expand this program to the needs of young women between the ages of 18 and 39.  This project offers an opportunity to develop and evaluate an intervention that prevents and/or reduces the onset of chronic diseases and improve infant and maternal mortality and morbidity outcomes.

 

A survey and two focus groups were conducted to capture the voices of women in the identified age group and guide development of the project.  The finding of the survey and focus groups revealed that the most important issues to this group are: 1) emotional and mental health, 2) physical health 3) sexual health and relationships and substance abuse. The project was funded by the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disabilities Services. We would like to acknowledge involvement of Consultant, Kassandra McGlonn, MS – doctoral candidate and the following interns:

 

• Kaira Brickhouse, MPH

• Aissia Correll, MPH

• Audretta Parker, BS

• Lauren Satchell, MPH

• Shanice Campbell, MPH

• Zeeherah Eugene, BS

• Alexandra Pierre, BS

• Kenna Yadeta, MPH

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       Click links below:

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                The Millennial Project Poster

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                 The Millennial PTSC Curriculum Analysis

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