NC community centers prepare for COVID-19

Community health workers are a key part of Connecticut's public health response to COVID-19, particularly in marginalized communities. CHWs connect people to health care and other services, like rental assistance, help with contact tracing, and effectively increased vaccinations by taking the time to answer questions and dispel misinformation. Living in the communities they serve is a critical part of the model’s success and helps clients trust them more readily. The state now offers a CHW certification program, but the largely grant-funded model would be more sustainable with steady funding.

Promotoras de salud, also known as community health workers, are helping to connect Latino immigrants with reliable and factual information about COVID-19. Using a peer-to-peer outreach model, a team of seven promotoras de salud from Centro San Bonifacio have "interacted with more than 4,000 Spanish speakers in Chicago."

In Nashua, New Hampshire, public health officials have set up a Covid-19 testing site in the parking lot of a church to better serve minority communities. The testing site caters to both drive-up and walk-up appointments, and those who setup the site, are also taking part in a community outreach program that aims to better disperse information to local residents.

In Madison, Wisconsin, the coronavirus pandemic is disproportionately impacting the Latino population, but the local community has joined together to advocate for better access to care and information. The efforts have included pop-up testing sites equipped with Spanish speakers, better-targeted messages, and non-medical support like food boxes.

In cities across the United States, the coronavirus pandemic is disproportionately impacting communities of color in part due to a lack of information being provided to these areas. A non-profit in Pittsburg is working to close that gap by hosting a weekly virtual townhall that connects the black community with doctors, state lawmakers and health care workers.

Accredited social health activists (ASHA) across India fight COVID-19 related misinformation on WhatsApp. ASHAs provide basic health care to people in their villages, which puts them on the frontline of treating COVID-19 patients and educating people to dispel the many myths about the virus and its treatments. ASHAs' local interactions often identify prevailing myths, which they quickly dispel in their face-to-face exchanges and by posting in the many local WhatsApp groups that have been created. The local groups have been an effective mode of educating people and helped ASHAs gain villagers’ trust.

To increase the rate of those receiving the Covid vaccine, the village of Janefal in India implemented a public awareness campaign founded on building trust with local community members. Leading the charge was a task force comprised of public health officials. The group set up a vaccination camp in the village so that residents didn't have to travel to a hospital, which was successful enough to inspire other villages to ask Janefal's Primary Health Centre to serve their areas as well.

To help protect the predominantly Black community in Sedgwick County, Kansas, the county collaborated with local leaders and residents to create an information and messaging campaign that specifically addressed community concerns. Although the funding allocated to these efforts wasn't as plentiful as community leaders were asking for, the targeted outreach has helped to increase communication and trust around public health messaging.

Sheikh Nuru Mohammed uses weekly sermons as imam at Al-Abbas mosque to dispel false information about the COVID-19 vaccine, inspiring hundreds of skeptical congregants to get vaccinated. He also turned the mosque into a vaccination center and 50 mosques have since done the same. Mohammed’s public vaccination and his sermons, which emphasize getting information from experts not social media posts, make an impact because it is coming from a trusted source rather than government officials. The mosque also delivered over 15,000 doses to people in the area, making an important connection with the local community.

In Cuyahoga County, Ohio, a phone line has helped tens of thousands of residents access information about Covid-19 as well as make appointments to receive their vaccinations. The helpline is a "natural extension of the services" already provided by United Way of Greater Cleveland’s 211 HelpLink.