BetaHCF Case Studies Library is in beta. We're still adding campaigns and fixing things.
HCF Case Studies Library

← All campaigns · Open in the library

EmPOWERED to Serve: Stimulant Use Disorder lesson

Also: Empowering Your Community Against Stimulant Use Disorders

American Heart Association educational campaign, built with the University of Colorado and church partners, that put a free 10-minute video on methamphetamine and other stimulant use disorders into Black and Hispanic congregations. Church leaders trained by AHA staff showed it at Sunday School, services, family nights and food bank events in 12 churches in six states and Puerto Rico, to build knowledge of stimulant use and compassion for people who use drugs.

Years
2022
Country
Puerto RicoUnited States
Topic
Drugs
Asks people to
RecognizeReduce stigmaTalk to someone
Strategy
Cultural tailoringStigma reductionTrusted messenger
Channel
EventsInterpersonalSocial (organic)Website
Audience
Adults
Members of 12 Black and Hispanic church congregations in California, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, New York, Wisconsin and Puerto Rico (survey respondents 91% Black, 70% female).

Evidence

ObservationalMixed

Pre/post surveys in 6 churches (478 responses; no comparison group): agreement that it is hard to have compassion for people who use substances fell significantly (p<0.001), correct naming of dopamine rose from 57.9% to 90.2%, and recognition of signs of stimulant use rose from 61.9% to 92.5%; comfort talking with someone with a substance use disorder and seeing it as a medical illness did not change. About 18,193 people reached across the 12 congregations (Olsavsky 2025).

Sponsor (who paid)

  • American Heart Association (EmPOWERED to Serve) NGO, creator and implementer
  • University of Colorado School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry Academic, co-developer and evaluator
  • Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (via American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry and the Opioid Response Network) Federal government, funder (subaward of SAMHSA grant 1H79TI085588)

Credits (who made it)

Not recorded yet.

Executions (individual ads)

Sources

  1. Olsavsky AK, Boggs B, Dehinbo O et al. Collaborating to Leverage American Heart Association's EmPOWERED to Serve Faith-Based Networks for Methamphetamine and Stimulant Misuse Educational Campaign in Black and Hispanic Churches. Psychiatr Res Clin Pract 2025 evaluation · 2025 · DOI 10.1176/appi.prcp.20240051 · PMID 40548316

Research notes

Drafted by Claude (Claude Code) on 2026-10-28 for #130 from the PMC article listed and the AHA YouTube upload (oEmbed-checked); unreviewed, including the cardSummary. startYear 2022 is the YouTube publish date of the AHA video (15 Apr 2022, 9.5 minutes), which is probably the lesson video but not confirmed as the same file; the paper gives no run dates. A small, church-delivered education campaign rather than mass media; included because the paper frames it as a campaign and it has an outcome evaluation. Country lists PR (Puerto Rico) separately as ISO does. 'mixed' because two of the four attitude/comfort measures did not move; knowledge rose. Check the percentages before reuse. Discovered in case-studies/research/addiction-research.json (pm-40548316).

Record cases/aha-empowered-to-serve-stimulant-use.json, updated 2026-10-28· Link to this campaign