Our Work
County HHSA – COVID-19 Outreach & Education Program
SDRCC Goal – Ensure an effective response to COVID-19 within San Diego’s refugee communities as one that prevents spread, ensures early recognition, facilitates rapid access to testing and treatment, supports the recovery of impacted individuals, and builds a more resilient and culturally competent system.
Community Health Worker Model:
Our team of Community Health Workers represents the diverse refugee and new immigrant communities in San Diego. They are considered trusted messengers who speak their community’s primary language and are familiar with the various needs and cultures of their respective community. Their role is to do outreach within their communities, which includes:
- Translating and sharing the latest information and updates
- Getting feedback from their community members through their outreach efforts
- Answering questions that community members have about COVID-19 and related topics
- Helping community members to access and navigate the resources that they have available
- Facilitating vaccination and testing scheduling and site assistance
San Diego Refugee Communities Coalition Role:
The coalition’s role is to be the bridge between the county and the CHWs through weekly meetings with both groups. Through these meetings, we are able to:
- Facilitate weekly meetings to provide up to date information and bring presenters to train our team of CHWs on relevant topics
- Meet with the County to provide feedback from CHWs to inform outreach efforts and provide updates from the communities
- Meet with County’s marketing team to give feedback on messaging efforts and ensure communities are represented in public messaging efforts
- Provide data reports to keep track of outreach efforts
Some of our highlights include:
- Deploying 21 bilingual Community Health Workers who have capacity to communicate in 21 languages and dialects
- Developed a data collection and tracking tool that has since been modified and expanded for use by all County contractors
- Coordinating trainings/peer support sessions on weekly County updates and messages – joined by Somali Family Services and UPAC
- Hosting vaccination events specifically for our hard to reach communities at easy to access sites
