Equity, Community and Trust: Building vaccine confidence with marginalized populations

#Context

The Alliance for Healthier Communities, a network of team-based comprehensive primary health care organizations across Ontario, has implemented a Community Vaccination Promotion project to promote access to and uptake of COVID-19 vaccines for children and their families in marginalized communities most affected by COVID-19.

#Objective

To examine how an equity-informed approach using community leadership, and trusted relationships built vaccine confidence and vaccination uptake through 12 diverse communities.

#Study Design

A program evaluation is currently underway to understand the processes and outcomes achieved in this vaccination project. A series of focus groups and surveys have been conducted to measure outreach, vaccine uptake, confidence and provider awareness. Specific attention was paid on the barriers and facilitators for vaccine outreach for various population.

#Analysis

Simple descriptive analysis and thematic qualitative analysis has been undertaken with ongoing data collection.

#Populations Studied

Populations included: Racialized, Black, and Indigenous communities, French-speaking people, Mennonite groups, people living in rural communities throughout Ontario, Canada.

#Results

The impacts of these community initiatives are continuing to be tracked and evaluated through client post-activity surveys. As of March 2022, interim results have found that participating organizations held 104 online or in-person public events, connected with 19,734 individuals and families through phone, text and door-to-door visits, and reached a broader audience of 241,890 individuals through social media and local advertising. Approximately 14,581 individuals booked vaccine appointments or were vaccinated directly as a result of these initiatives.

#Upon completion of this session, participants should be able to

1. Understand the barriers to COVID-19 vaccination faced by marginalized populations
2. Understand the equity and community-informed practices that were implemented for COVID-19 vaccine outreach and administration

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