List date(s) this work was published or aired.
3-Sep-12
Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
Prime Time Sister Circles is a 12-week program focused on helping African American women in midlife improve their nutrition and fitness, and deal with stress. The group provides culturally competent techniques and tools that help Black women overcome obstacles to better health and wellness. But more importantly, participants found wonderful unintended consequences of the group including great emotional and spiritual support.
Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?
The resources used in this story were mainly interviews from human sources.
Explain types of human sources used.
Prime Time Sister Circles was developed by two African-American Washington, D.C.-based doctors. I interviewed them as well as several women who were either in the program or who had participated in one of the previous sessions.
Results:
Black women are the backbone, foundation, if you will, of the African American community. They are the center of the Black family, the Black church and Black educational and service organizations. When a Black woman improves her life, then she touches her entire community. The article provides our readers, a mostly African American audience, to a group that addresses the issues that middle-age Black women deal with as they navigate life’s difficulties. We found that Black women in mid-life longed for a group like the Prime Time Sister Circles that helped them deal with health issues as well as provided support for dealing with stress that stemmed from family crisis to financial hardships.
Follow-up (if any). Have you run a correction or clarification on the report or has anyone come forward to challenge its accuracy? If so, please explain.
none
Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.
You have to be in the middle of the action. I had interviewed the doctors who created the program as well as several participants. But I didn’t really get a good sense of how it worked or the importance of the circle until I actually attended a session. I witnessed how the women interacted with each other and how serious they were about getting healthy. I also was able to witness the emotional support they offered each other when one was dealing with a difficult situation.