The faith-based community has long played a vital role in expanding vaccination uptake in their congregations and in the community at large throughout the United States and abroad. Given the myths, misinformation, and distrust that many communities, including racial and ethnic minority groups have had towards the government and vaccination programs, health providers have recognized the importance and the usefulness of relying on faith leaders, faith-based organizations, and local places of worship to create initiatives to improve vaccine uptake.
NACCHO, with support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), released a funding opportunity for The Improving Vaccine Access, Education, and Outreach through Faith-Based Partnerships Project to support local health departments (LHDs) in collaborating with faith-based partners to identify and implement strategies to improve COVID-19 and routine vaccine confidence, education, and access.
The six selected LHDs were working with a variety of faith-based groups and demographics to complete their projects. YB Consultants, LLC (YBC) was contracted to provide technical assistance to the six LHD sites to strengthen capacity related to building and maintaining faith-based partnerships and increasing vaccination coverage in the community.
YBC provided technical assistance in the following areas for the six sites:
- To support LHD capacity for building and maintaining faith-based partnerships
- To advance LHD capacity to communicate with and message towards local faith-based communities
- To enhance coordination and connection with faith-based community leaders and organizations
- To provide tailored technical assistance, develop and identify resources, lessons learned, and best practices for LHDs
- To document and share strategic approaches to addressing vaccination confidence and uptake among faith-based communities, including addressing health equity
YBC offered specialized knowledge and guidance throughout the project to support LHDs’ capacity for building and maintaining faith-based partnerships and enhancing coordination and connection with faith-based community leaders and organizations. YBC also provided tailored technical assistance, including development and identification of resources, lessons learned and best practices for LHDs. YBC carried out activities to provide education and training to LHDs to improve their skills and knowledge in specific areas, such as communication, vaccine basics, evaluation, and community engagement.
While the materials developed during this project supported the LHDs in enhancing their partnerships with faith-based organizations; they can also further support LHDs across the country. Below are some of the resources and tools YBC developed that can help increase vaccine coverage through faith-based partnerships:
- Resource Repository: YBC gathered, organized, and maintained a collection of materials and resources that catered to various immunization topics and needs. Resources included articles, trainings, websites, and toolkits/guides organized by the following topics: News and Hot Topics; General Vaccine Information (adults and children/youth); Vaccine Confidence (addressing misinformation and vaccine messaging /communications); Vaccines and Partnerships; Addressing Vaccine Equity (Social Determinants of Health (SDOH)); and Evaluation. YBC included materials from reliable sources, such as professional organizations, government agencies, and non-profits along with journal articles and other industry sources.
- Suggested Steps for Cold-Calling Faith-Based Organizations: This document provides an example of how a cold call might unfold, where a local health department is reaching out to a faith-based leader for the first time to enlist them as a trusted messenger for vaccine education and promotion. This sample script can be used by LHDs to ensure their conversation is respectful, informative, and engaging with the goal of laying the groundwork for a productive partnership. The information in the script can also be used to compose an introductory email to a faith-based organization.
- Titles of Faith Leaders by Religion: This resource offers LHDs a comprehensive listing of prominent titles for faith-based leaders across various religions. By understanding the proper titles and roles of faith-based leaders within different religious communities, health officials can engage more respectfully and effectively with these leaders, who often play a crucial role in influencing their congregants’ attitudes toward health practices. LHDs can use this resource to enhance community outreach, build trust, and improve public health initiatives.
- Environmental Scan: YBC conducted a scan of the websites and social media accounts of the six LHDs and four additional non-designated LHDs (10 total) to identify any existing partnerships, best practices and lessons learned by working with faith-based organizations to improve vaccine uptake. A similar scan was conducted of 10 faith-based organizations representing ecumenical organizations, including Christian denominations, the Black Church, Latino/Hispanic community churches, and Muslim organizations. A one-pager, summarizing the full report, included website recommendations and social media recommendations to improve vaccine-related content and messaging that could be used by LHDs if funding and capacity allowed.
- Literature review: To further identify and share published best practices, successes, and challenges for improving vaccine access, education, outreach, and uptake through faith-based partnerships, YBC conducted a limited literature review of 15 journal articles published between 2014 and 2024. The report contained two sections: a summary of best practices and lessons learned that were broken down into 11 themes and an annotated bibliography of the articles reviewed. In addition to the full report, YBC developed an overview document that summarized the identified themes.
If you have any questions or comments about this project or the resources shared, please contact us at [email protected]. For technical assistance with your projects or to learn more about YB Consultants, contact [email protected].
