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Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, community-based organizations (CBOs) have experienced an overwhelming demand for health and social services. While these organizations have adapted to new modes of delivery, many find themselves responding to requests for public health advice that is outside of their training, namely, COVID-19 vaccine information.
In an article published in Frontiers in Public Health, researchers from the CUNY SPH New York Vaccine Literacy Campaign (NY VLC), Hunger Free NYC (HFNYC), and Health Leads New York (HLNY) describe their efforts to create a comprehensive communication support system working in tandem with CBOs.
Early in the pandemic, HFNYC and HLNY recognized the urgency for targeted support for their employees and partners to provide vaccine information to their communities and worked closely with the NY VLC to develop two distinct approaches to address this challenge.
First, HFNYC and the NY VLC developed a suite of educational materials related to COVID-19 and the vaccines, targeting specific information requests. Later, due to the high volume of requests being fielded by pregnant and postpartum clients, the two organizations developed a toolkit complete with information on COVID-19 infection risk, particularly to pregnant people, benefits of vaccination, understanding potential vaccine side effects, a stepwise guide to vaccine appointments, and a script geared toward anticipating various questions. This collaboration also led to the production of an informational virtual panel discussion to answer questions from pregnant and breastfeeding attendees.
HLNY has long-established, close relationships with maternal health CBOs and saw the opportunity to co-design strategies to provide these partners with better resources to address their clients’ concerns about the COVID-19 vaccine. The NY VLC and HLNY teams collaborated on a survey for CBO partners to identify their biggest communication challenges. The results suggested that respondents overwhelmingly lacked adequate resources to address their maternal health clients’ questions and apprehensions. HLNY also held two focus group sessions to come up with innovative solutions and a forthcoming set of recommendations for CBOs.
Without substantial sustained investment, the authors say, CBOs cannot assume the principal role of health communicators.
“Restructuring policies and funding mechanisms to center communities and the workforces that serve them, would strengthen the capacity needed to meet demand and solidify a distinct community-driven communication system for the long-term,” says lead author and CONVINCE USA Senior Program Manager Lauren Rauh.
