Introducing the Hamilton Vaccine Ambassador Program

Hamilton Black Health Community Leaders Forum's aims to become the unified voice of the African Diaspora communities in Hamilton on issues related to social determinants of health. During the COVID pandemic, our communities came face to face with its devastating effects on our members. Majority of our people in Hamilton live in multigenerational homes and most families found it very difficult to quarantine while living in an apartment. For these persons, to self–isolate while living in an apartment was rather difficult to accomplish owing to limited living space. Also, many families found it difficult to simply communicate their needs for services especially access to primary health care which is a huge social barrier. Many persons in our communities have mental health issues coupled with anti-black racism stress and social isolation leading to suicidal thoughts. Families were left without access to primary health care which caused stress and anxiety which negatively impacted their health outcomes. 

In addition to the above, there was a very high rate of vaccine hesitancy among our African communities because of their distrust of public health system and fear of being used for a potential second Tuskegee experiment. Many in our communities entertained fear about how quickly the Covid-19 vaccine was produced, and as a community we lacked public confidence in the vaccine because we never had equal representation or any African like us at the decision-making boards or organizations where issues about our health and welfare are decided. Our community members didn’t feel their concerns mattered because there seemed always to be attempt by decision makers to water down or dilute any resources allocated to us to address specific health related issues in our community.

When Hamilton Urban Core Health Centre informed HBHCLF that Public Health Services had approached them to look for solutions to address Vaccine hesitancy among the African and other marginalized and racialized communities in Hamilton, we shared our ideas about hiring Vaccine Ambassadors. We met with a team from Hamilton Public Health to discuss these challenges being experienced by our community members, the impact of covid-19 related deaths and high rate of vaccine hesitancy in our community. We suggested to them the Vaccine Ambassador Program - i.e. the idea of employing trusted individuals from our communities to go into the communities to provide information about the Covid-19 vaccine and answer questions about vaccine safety with the hope of building vaccine confidence among community members who are hesitant. We explained to them that these Vaccine Ambassadors would provide education about vaccine efficacy by sharing personal reasons for confidence in the vaccine based on real-world experience etc.

Public health liked this idea and said that they would look for funds and approval from the City to try to establish and implement this Program. They came back to meet us again later to ask for a draft a job description for the Vaccine Ambassador Program which we gladly obliged. Public health secured the funds, implemented the Program, recruited and hired Ambassadors.

The three main goals of the program are to build confidence, build trust, and share information. This will be accomplished by:

• Building confidence:
• Promote community supports for COVID-19 and vaccination
• Distribute information and resources about vaccines
• Act as a bridge to community supports; hearing the needs of the community
• Building trust:
• Partner with community leaders, organizations and networks
• Greet clients at vaccine clinics, answer questions, and provide guidance, support, and interpretation
• Be accessible and answering questions to support informed choice
• Sharing information:
• Share vaccine, health, and support information with the community
• Sharie the experiences of the community with Hamilton Public Health
• Help shape Hamilton’s vaccine response in the community

9 Vaccine Ambassadors were hired to start this program on May 17, 2021 with one more Vaccine Ambassador expected to join the team later. Currently on the team there are 11 Vaccine Ambassadors. 

The Vaccine Ambassadors were connected to various communities in Hamilton and speak a range of languages including Arabic, French, Nuer, Dazaga, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Spanish, Hindi, Rajasthani, Gujrati, and Punjabi.

The Vaccine Ambassadors were trained and prepared to engage with communities across the city. They worked closely with Hamilton Public Health’s Vaccine Confidence Team to keep up to date on vaccine information and frequently asked questions and resources, and the Ambassadors developed community engagement and outreach plans. The Vaccine Ambassadors were also introduced to the Vaccine Readiness Network. 

The Vaccine Ambassadors continue to reach out to racialized and marginalized communities in Hamilton. If you would like to connect with a Vaccine Ambassador about a community outreach opportunity, please email vaccineambassador@hamilton.ca.

For more information to support COVID-19 vaccine confidence please visit they City of Hamilton’s COVID-19 Vaccine Resources page: https://www.hamilton.ca/coronavirus/covid-19-vaccine-resources