Amplify your voice to increase vaccine confidence
Working with and for families as part of education means finding easy ways to get that great content you produce shared with more people. Amplifying your voice goes a long way to increasing vaccine confidence.
Tier I Coalitions
You don’t need to change your professional focus to be effective here. The number one thing you can do is leverage VFV and other partners’ family -focused resources. We’ve done the heavy lifting, all you need to share with your coalition partners and members. Educational materials, toolkits, fact sheets, podcasts, etc. are just waiting for you to share. Be the amplifier:
- Have a newsletter or email? include resource links in it
- Have a website? link to resources from it
- Have regular member meetings? Have a standing agenda item to highlight a new or relevant tool. Be clear that you view your partners’ role as being that direct link to families. Make it explicit that you are sharing things with them so that they will share with their patients. We often assume that we don’t need to make the direct ask. But you know what they say about assuming – so be clear about your expectations of your members.
Tier II Coalitions
These coalitions currently have limited interaction with families and/or are looking to increase their interaction. Education can be a sweet spot for them, with so many easy-to-do activities to foster family education.
These coalitions can do everything from the Tier I list, plus:
- Leverage the digital space: It’s low touch and high yield. You don’t need to do much, just make sure your efforts are targeted and pertinent. For instance, if your state is experiencing a measles outbreak, start educating on social media. If you are not active on social media, share content with partners who are.
- Record an educational series: On-demand content is great because you create it and it’s available whenever your audience wants it. No fussing with invitations and scheduling. Again, just be sure to share with your partners.
- Plug into existing efforts: For example, VFV has a regular podcast. Volunteer to have one of your experts as a guest on it. You don’t have to do any heavy lifting beyond hawking the amazingness of your experts!
Sharing is Caring. But Asking is Lasting.
The “if you build it, they will come” model really only works in Iowa cornfields. Anywhere else, we need to build it, share it, and ask others to share it too. That is the way to get lasting results. So start sharing your (and others’) resources with your partners and ask them to share with their patients and members. Research shows us that people are usually very happy to support good work. But they will not “go the extra mile” unless asked. So ask. And ask again. And remind partners. Share with them ways to get information in families’ hands. They are busy too so the easier and more explicit you can make it, the more likely they will be to do it.
Tier III Coalitions
These coalitions are more plugged in with the public, They can tailor their approach within their current efforts. Some education ideas include:
- Have a greater online presence: Record some webinars. Host a Facebook live event. Just remember to ask your partners to share with families so you get good attendance.
- Created targeted campaign: As part of back-to-school preparedness create a “campaign” that increases family education. Partner with school districts to host an educational webinar on required routine vaccinations or host “community classes” that build on tailored educational themes.
- Invest in Train-the-Trainers (TOTs): By providing TOTs statewide, your one-time investment builds a team of vaccine educators without increasing your workload.
© Voices for Vaccines. Excerpts and links may be used by websites and blogs, provided that full and clear credit is given to Voices for Vaccines, with appropriate and specific direction and links to the original content. Parents, providers, advocates, and others may download and duplicate toolkits in print, without alteration, for non-commercial use and with full and proper attribution only.