Community Engagement through Contact Tracing Training

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought many physical, mental, and economic challenges and has provided an opportunity for academia to participate in community engagement to help support public health. Through a partnership between a university and a local health district, a contact tracing training program was developed and implemented in the late spring of 2020. That training program increased the health district’s capacity to respond to the pandemic and provided an experiential learning experience for public health students. Through this community engagement endeavor, university faculty and students helped support a local health district’s COVID-19 response efforts and, in so doing, also helped to support public health in the early stages of a global health crisis. The products of this endeavor, including contract tracers, case investigation, and trained instructors, continue to support public health contact tracing efforts in the community.