Promoters and Barriers to Good Health Within the African-Australian Community in South-Eastern Melbourne

Although there is some literature analysing the factors impacting upon migrant and resettled African communities in Australia, there is limited evidence reporting on African-Australian people’s experiences of what promotes or obstructs good health. This article examines the promoters and barriers to good health identified by an African-Australian community in South-Eastern Melbourne as a key element to co-designing a sports-based youth development program, the Junior Black Rhinos Basketball Program. Data from 10 interviews with 14 African-Australian community members was thematically analysed. The participants identified personal, interpersonal, and structural promoters and barriers to experiencing good mental and physical health. Barriers to good health were reported as (a) resettlement, (b) generational differences in understanding mental health, and (c) racism and discrimination. Promoters of good health were reported as (a) sport and other group-based activities, (b) spending time outdoors, (c) employment and education, and (d) community connection. In designing the program, participants proposed the program could counteract these barriers through the inclusion of (a) mental health education; (b) life skills development; and (c) promoting safety, inclusion, and African community values. It is important to design health interventions with the community the program aims to serve that may result in the valorisation of community knowledge, values, and experience and decentre western assumptions about what constitutes good health.