Health Advocates Addressing Vaccine Hesitancy in Minority Communities: A Program of the Texas Community Engagement Alliance (CEAL) of Fort Worth, Texas
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Racial and ethnic minority groups have experienced worse health outcomes related to the COVID-19 pandemic, including higher rates of infection, hospitalization and death when compared to White people. Community health outreach offers a tailored approach to delivering health information, taking into account the cultural differences among ethnic minority groups. While health profession schools often incorporate cultural competency training in the curriculum there is often little time for students to work with the community in a partnership. Through support provided by the Texas Community Engagement Alliance (CEAL) Against COVID-19 Disparities program, we recruited health profession students from the UNTHSC campus as community health advocates to provide a service learning experience. Students were provided a structured course providing contextual information on health disparities and participated in building a community project to increase COVID-19 vaccine uptake. Pending IRB approval, we will evaluate student's cultural competency and efficacy in participating as student health advocates. This research was, in part, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Agreement 1OT2HL156812-01 as part of the NIH Community Engagement Alliance (CEAL)