COVID-19 Vaccine Communication Project – Our collaborative COVID-19 vaccine communication project with UMD’s Prevention Research Center wrapped up in May. We leave behind a wealth of communication resources for community organizations to use to encourage vaccination.
Advancing Health Literacy in Baltimore City: Baltimore versus COVID – The Center assisted the Baltimore City Health Department with health literacy activities for its Baltimore vs. COVID project. We are developing customized health literacy training sessions about the teach-back method and organizational health literacy workshops.
Advancing Health Literacy in Frederick, MD: Lifting All Voices (LAV) Project – We continue to partner on this federal Office of Minority Health–funded project which provides plain language COVID-19 vaccination information in 9 languages and promotes health literacy best practices with a focus on long-lasting changes.
Our team’s contributions include
Educational materials about COVID-19 vaccines in up to 9 different languages
Organizational health literacy training and support for the Frederick County Health Care Coalition
Training on health literate communication skills and culturally and linguistically appropriate COVID-19 educational materials for community health workers
A clear communication practices training module for health care providers that will be delivered in early 2023.
“HealthyMe” Smartphone Application – We completed our National Library of Medicine–funded smartphone application (app) project. The app, for finding and receiving personalized health information, is tailored for Black and Hispanic adults. Dr. Devlon Jackson has been exploring making the app available in one or more of the Asian languages in the LAV project. She interviewed community members, leaders, and health workers who speak Asian languages and live/work in Frederick, MD.
Diabetes Prevention and Management Activities – The Center continues its diabetes prevention collaborative projects with FHI360. We completed the two-year CDC-funded “Partners Approach” which intentionally recruited pairs of family/friends to join diabetes prevention programs. Our participants had high program completion rates, met program goals, and reported partners were a great asset. Now, we’re working on “Black Families Defying Diabetes Together” with FHI360 and the African American Health Program of Montgomery County, MD. Black families will work together on health literacy skills for diabetes prevention and management. Stay tuned for results!