This study combined the African American tradition of oral storytelling with the Hispanic medium of "Fotonovelas." A staggered pretest posttest control group design was used to evaluate four Storytelling Slide Shows on health that featured community members. A total of 212 participants were recruited for the intervention and 217 for the comparison group from residents of senior affordable housing complexes located in Washington, DC, and Maryland. Participants significantly increased their eating decision scores as well as their knowledge of high blood pressure between pre- and postassessment (both p values <0.001) versus no change among comparison participants These findings suggest that participants mastered the importance of food selection, physical activity, and stress management. Self-efficacy was measured by two indexes, each containing 15 items on confidence in performing diabetes and high blood pressure management behaviors. Significant pre-post increases occurred in diabetes and in high blood pressure self-efficacy in the intervention (both p values <0.000) but not the comparison group. Increasing age was positively associated with increases in self-efficacy while health literacy was inversely associated with self-efficacy increases. These results suggest that the Storytelling Slide Shows and the skill building activities were of benefit in increasing self-efficacy, especially among the oldest participants and those with the lowest health literacy. A community health education policy that makes this approach more widely available has the potential to reduce learning disadvantages in older, lower health literacy populations, in a way that reduces health disparities while increasing community involvement.