Abstract
Community-based organizations (CBOs) are experiencing some of the highest demand in years for a wide spectrum of health and social services. Their client-facing employees have taken on a new, challenging role as a sought-after source of COVID-19 vaccine information and guidance. These workforces operating on the frontlines, do their best to meet the increased need for services and information, often without additional resources or training to do so. The most effective immediate response to this challenge is a comprehensive communication support system working in tandem with CBOs. Our three organizations, the New York Vaccine Literacy Campaign at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, Hunger Free NYC, and Health Leads, have collaborated in key short-term approaches to meet these needs. We outline these processes and anticipated outcomes and offer lessons learned to advocate for long-term structural changes needed to increase community-level communication support.
Highlights
Community-based workforces are the most connected to the priorities of populations they serve, building trusted relationships over time through one-on-one interactions and by being a reliably accessible and available presence. Leveraging this trust, these workforces are a much-needed resource to the underserved and fill, to the best of their abilities, a gap in appropriately tailored COVID-19 communication and information resources. While these organizations have adjusted and adapted to new modes of delivery throughout the pandemic, many find themselves responding to requests to reinforce public health advice that is outside of their training and scope of work, namely, COVID-19 vaccine information
Through partnerships with community-based organizations (CBOs), the New York Vaccine Literacy Campaign (NY VLC) [1] at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY SPH) has aimed to mitigate the demands of COVID-19 vaccine communication heaped upon trusted frontline workforces
HLNY is currently gathering input on the feasibility and potential impact of two ideas generated during the sessions, which focus on peer community members as trusted messengers for pregnant and postpartum people: [1] Recruit community members who are pregnant or new parents to create video testimonials that explain motivations to get the COVID-19 vaccine and their vaccination experience; share these videos with maternal health clients in community or clinical settings
Summary
Community-based workforces are the most connected to the priorities of populations they serve, building trusted relationships over time through one-on-one interactions and by being a reliably accessible and available presence. Through partnerships with community-based organizations (CBOs), the New York Vaccine Literacy Campaign (NY VLC) [1] at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY SPH) has aimed to mitigate the demands of COVID-19 vaccine communication heaped upon trusted frontline workforces.
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