African American churches are "the central hub in the social fabric of the African American community." So says Brian Letourneau, director of the Durham County Health Department in North Carolina. It's hoped that understanding this fact - and working with and through local churches (not around them) - will help the medical community to improve the lot of the area's black residents, many of whom suffer from Type 2 diabetes.

Letourneau's agency and the Department of Community and Family Medicine has begun working with experts from Duke School of Medicine and local black churches to reach out to African Americans, many of whom suffer from poor health and have limited access to health care services. The initiative, funded primarily by the National Institutes of Health, is called the African-American Health Improvement Partnership (AAHIP). The collaboration makes a lot of sense because, as Duke's campus paper The Chronicle reports, black churches are no strangers to dealing with difficult social problems.

The program will have Duke faculty members brought out to talk about healthy lifestyles: what constitutes a healthy lifestyle, why it's important for preventing or controlling diseases like Type 2 diabetes, and about the kind of medical care required to manage diabetes. Duke professor Sherman James (pictured) told The Chronicle, "Diabetes in on the rise across the country, driven largely by increasing obesity and sedentary lifestyles. Poor people of color are among the most severely affected groups, and of course that includes many African Americans. Our goal...is to develop a project that is not only scientifically sound, but culturally appropriate and sustainable."