It’s worth the shot

Community engagement to support confidence in COVID vaccination

"It’s worth the shot" is a targeted community engagement strategy to address COVID vaccine hesitancy in rural and regional Australia through story and discussion within local communities.

Introduction

'It’s worth the shot" is based on the growing body of research that shows that trust, rapport and community cohesion on an issue such as COVID-19 vaccination is best built through ‘sharing and caring’, rather than ‘telling and selling’.

Overview

 

The strategy brings together small groups of community members together in familiar, welcoming places to start group discussions about COVID-19 and vaccination. The intent is to encourage people, through the use of story, to discuss and gain insights into reasons why vaccination is important – both to them as individuals and to their families, friends, work colleagues and community. It will also provide an opportunity for group participants to consider what is holding them back from getting vaccinated, and to discuss those issues together with a trusted community leader and a local health professional.

‘It’s worth the shot’ has been developed by Consumers Health Forum (CHF) with support from the Australian Government Department of Health. 

 

Quick links

Guiding Notes

Vital reading for PHNs and collaborative pairs to understand the strategy and the approach to people in your community. The notes will ensure your sessions run smoothly in your local communities.

These notes will provide information about:

  • concepts, purpose and objectives of the strategy 
  • roles and responsibilities for planning and delivery or local group sessions
  • selecting community leaders and health professionals for your collaborative pairs
  • selecting locations for group sessions
  • setting familiar with the resources
  • tips for getting your groups together
  • where to find session plans
  • information collection and feedback
  • extra information

Download the Guiding Notes

Training

Training is offered to help you understand and refine how 'It's worth the shot' will be delivered. We will cover both face-to face and online (via zoom) delivery.

The online training session will support you to:

  • select your target groups
  • understand how the community leader and health professional will work together.
  • give you an overview of and familiarity with the session plan kit
  • discuss some ways to elicit and maintain positive and solution-focused conversations about COVID-19 vaccination among people in local communities.

At the end of the training, we hope you will feel confident to make the most of these unique resources and story-based session approach. We also hope that the skills and experience you gain through working this way among people in your local communities will be useful to you in future community engagement work.

Please find the training registration form below. It includes a short questionnaire.

Each person participating in the training needs to complete the registration form

    Session Plan Kit and supporting resources

    A high-quality session plan kit has been prepared

    In this kit you will find:

    • An introductory sheet about the strategy
    • Suggested session plans for face-to-face group sessions
    • Suggested session plans for online group sessions
    • Notes to assist the community leader in responding to commonly asked questions
    • Notes to assist the health professional in responding to commonly asked questions
    • Log sheets to help with noting progress through the sessions
    • Cheat sheets to help with organising and running your sessions

    In the session kit you will find the following resources as PDF files:

    • A promotional flyer for your sessions for use as hard copy or online use.
    • Two sets of story cards
      • A set of cards called Benefit cards
      • A set of cards called Decision cards

    These two sets of cards have been designed to lead discussion between participants and provide insight into ways forward from indecisions to decision. The cards are the foundation of the group sessions and an interesting and engaging way to encourage discussion and storytelling among group participants.

    In addition, take-home bags containing sets of the cards and fridge magnets will be supplied for session participants. We hope participants will share these with friends and family in the wider community.

    Forms for monitoring

    Complete these forms to inform CHF reporting on the strategy

    Training feedback form

    Complete the training feedback form after you have completed the training session

    Training feedback form

    Pre-session survey

    Complete the pre-session survey before you run your local sessions. Only one response per pair is needed.

    Pre session survey

    Post-session survey

    Each collaborative pair to complete the post-session survey once only, after all sessions have been run. Remember to refer to your session log sheets as an aid to completing this form.

    Post-session survey

    Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

    A flyer and two fact sheets have been developed in the implementation of this program. They are useful explainers for people who are new to the 'It's worth the shot" and want to know more. Please feel free to share these with any one interested. The factsheets will be updated shortly in a more consolidated form. 

    Extra information

    Here you will find a number of resources that may be useful to you.

    They are grouped in categories as follows: 

    • About community engagement 
    • Research articles /information about vaccine hesitancy
    • The value of COVID-19 vaccination
    • National and State Campaigns about COVID-19 Covid 19 vaccine
    • Health information about vaccines currently available
    • Health information about side effects of vaccines
    • Local COVID-19 Covid 19 initiatives of interest

     

    Extra information