Now more than ever there is a need to focus on Black men's health in higher education and ensure that future practitioners are trained to ethically and culturally serve this historically oppressed community. This textbook provides practical insight and knowledge that prepare students to work with Black men and their families from a strengths-based and social justice lens. There is a dearth in the literature that discusses the prioritization of Black men's health within the context of how they are viewed by societal approaches to engage them in research, and health programming aimed at increasing their participation in health services to decrease their morbidity and mortality rates. Much of the extant literature is over 10 years old and doesn't account for social determinants of health, perceptions of health status, as well as social justice implications that can affect the health outcomes of this historically oppressed population including structural and systemic racism as well as police brutality and gun violence. The book's 13 chapters represent a diversity of thought and perspectives of experts reflective of various disciplines and are organized in four sections: Part I - Racial Disparities and Black Men Part II - Black Masculinity Part III - Black Men in Research Part IV - Social Justice Implications for Black Men's Health Black Men's Health serves as a core text across multiple disciplines and can be utilized in undergraduate- and graduate-level curriculums. It equips students and educators in social work, nursing, public health, and other helping professions with the knowledge and insight that can be helpful in their future experiences of working with Black men or men from other marginalized racial/ethnic groups and their families/social support systems. Scholars, practitioners, and academics in these disciplines, as well as community-based organizations who provide services to Black men and their families, state agencies, and evaluation firms with shared interests also would find this a useful resource.

Now more than ever there is a need to focus on Black men's health in higher education and ensure that future practitioners are trained to ethically and culturally serve this historically oppressed community. This textbook provides practical insight and knowledge that prepare students to work with Black men and their families from a strengths-based and social justice lens.  There is a dearth in the literature that discusses the prioritization of Black men’s health within the context of how they are viewed by societal approaches to engage them in research, and health programming aimed at increasing their participation in health services to decrease their morbidity and mortality rates. Much of the extant literature is over 10 years old and doesn't account for social determinants of health, perceptions of health status, as well as social justice implications that can affect the health outcomes of this historically oppressed population including structural and systemic racism as well as police brutality and gun violence. The book's 13 chapters represent a diversity of thought and perspectives of experts reflective of various disciplines and are organized in four sections: Part I - Racial Disparities and Black Men Part II - Black Masculinity        Part III - Black Men in Research                        Part IV - Social Justice Implications for Black Men's Health         Black Men’s Health serves as a core text across multiple disciplines and can be utilized in undergraduate- and graduate-level curriculums. It equips students and educators in social work, nursing, public health, and other helping professions with the knowledge and insight that can be helpful in their future experiences of working with Black men or men from other marginalized racial/ethnic groups and their families/social support systems. Scholars, practitioners, and academics in these disciplines, as well as community-based organizations who provide services to Black men and their families, state agencies, and evaluation firms with shared interests also would find this a useful resource.

This work is designed as a working resource for academicians and practitioners involved with community health work at the higher educational level. Faculty, students and community participants are the focus of this collection whose purpose is community health-based service learning - where and when coming out to the community as caring catalysts is central to a higher education mission. All these catalysts must see themselves as partners in a service learning community of practice; They must embrace the analysis of self-reflection toward cultural competence, and thy must engage in data and diagnostic decision-making through action research or service learning in community health intervention. Service learning literacy" is defined as skill, behaviour, attitude, knowledge or awareness that is manifested, within the community health worker or researcher, as a result of or outcome from a faculty led, community service learning activity or experience as part of a student's academic program of study in higher learning. Higher education, through civic engagement and community service learning, must combine efforts with local and regional communities to help eradicate health disparity, eliminate health vulnerability, optimize healthy life style, promote inter-generational and cyclical health and wellness and maximize health care access to the under-served and uninsured. All these aspects of community health work are dealt with by contributions from scholars and practitioners involved in the community health movement. Contributing Editors include Dr.s Tracy Mims, Jerry Watson and Karen C. Wilson. Contributors include Professors Richard Schmuck, Joseph Martin Stevenson, Ricky Boggan, Chris Ann Arthur, John J. Green and Dr D. Melissa Phillips. The first volume of the book conceptualized specific frameworks in the context of action research, faculty reflections about action research, general rubrics for action research, overlapping action-research methods, scope of both proactive and responsive action research, and collaborative processes involving action research. The second volume deals with broader frameworks relative to service learning as social work, global perspectives, cultural competence, community health, environmental justice, hypothetical case scenarios and presented examples by two of the authors who trained and active social workers.

The authors have not considered a traditional executive summary for this book so that readers will read and absorb the entire the book to capture the essence, content and scope of this timely publication. Their experience has been that, too often, college students limit their reading of material about race to synopses versus synergies of information. The primary purpose of this holistic handbook is to provide guiding prescriptive principles toward institutionalization of policies and practices that foster global diversity and local inclusion in institutions of higher learning in the aftermath of the unsettling and disturbing racial incidents in the Deep South following the re-election President Barack H. Obama. Ironically, President Obama was criticised in 2013 for the lack leadership diversity (especially women) among his cabinet and senior staff. In any event, this handbook has been conceptualized based on the individual, collective and culminating Southern "cotton to" experiences of the five authors from both predominantly/historically White institutions of higher learning (PWIs) and predominately/historically Black institutions of higher learning (HBCUs). Both institutional communities can use this book to create campus climate and culture for global diversity and local inclusion. The handbook encompasses seven chapters, seven conceptual frameworks in a logic model, and seven steps for campus-community collaboration. The book also highlights three dimensional "circular" themes and threads from spirituality in the preface and the initial chapter from several faiths and religions to introduce and symbolize spiritually different yet "commonly" denominating doctrines from around the world. We believe these themes and threads represent the "Commonwealth of intellectual intersections" in modern academe, driven by diverse intellectual capital and inclusive cerebral currency. This book was written to encourage systemic, holistic and systematic inputs, operations, outputs, outcomes and impacts that yield returns on investment (ROI) from campus-wide implementation of global diversity and local inclusion efforts.