Strategy
Collaborate with community champions amongst Central Pennsylvania’s Hispanic and Latino community to create marketing and communication materials to increase adult vaccination rates focusing specifically on COVID-19 and influenza.
Challenge(s)
Misinformation about vaccinations has flooded the Hispanic and Latino populations due to the increase in vaccine recommendations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Vaccine uptake amongst the Hispanic and Latino community has been slow and providing education about the benefits of vaccines has been derailed by the amount of misinformation being spread amongst this community.
Solution(s)/Success(es)
Community champions are well-respected community members who collaborate with a wide variety of partners to improve the quality of life for others. They are often passionate about creating wellness opportunities and are willing to cooperate with partners to make a difference. Equipping community champions with education to help stop the spread of misinformation related to vaccinations therefore helps to improve vaccine confidence. Also, having community champions share their stories of why they have received vaccinations can create opportunities for questions to be asked and answered using information from reliable sources.
Outcome(s)
Two stakeholder boards were formed including community partners and members to learn more about what misinformation was being spread in their communities about vaccines and the best ways to communicate the accurate information to the Hispanic and Latino community. From the input of these stakeholder boards, communication materials were created in both English and Spanish to provide information to increase vaccine confidence. These materials and instructions on how to share the materials were shared with community champions. Materials were also distributed to community organizations and everyday destinations to increase visibility.
Supplemental Materials