Case study: Stockton’s Covid-19 Community Champions team

The role of Stockton’s Community Champions is to provide advice to the community, collate feedback and ease worries connected to myths that crop up relating to the vaccine, and the pandemic in general. They then feed back to a project team who collate all of the information and intelligence provided.

This is then fed back to a team at Public Health, who discuss the matters at hand and produce key messages to provide factual and accurate information to community residents.

Project Lead Andrea Love, who is overseeing the initiative, said:

“We want to work with Covid-19 Community Champions to ensure the right messages get to the right people at the right time.

“We want to deliver key messages in a format that’s easy to understand, so that people feel reassured and empowered as we move through each step of the lockdown roadmap.

“We’re also eager to find out how the pandemic is affecting you, your family, your work colleagues, friends and local community.”

The project - which was launched through Public Health and Pioneering Care Partnership (PCP) - works across various sectors and community spaces, including; community mosques, voluntary sector organisations and local support hubs.

It’s hoped that by having and sharing clear information, the local community can make informed choices and help to keep Stockton-on-Tees safe whilst feeding back local opinion, misbeliefs and any worries or concerns.

Champions will also have the opportunity to meet virtually in a bi-weekly forum attended by PCP, Public Health and an NHS representative to help respond to questions about the vaccines, testing facilities and local infection rates. The forum helps address community concerns by allowing local residents to have their voices heard.