Promoting Confidence and Access to COVID-19 Vaccination among Youth Experiencing Homelessness
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and COVID-19 vaccine rollout, HYD-PRC researchers Janna Gewirtz O’Brien, Renee Sieving, Ingie Osman, Katie Pierson, and team collaborated with an interdisciplinary, cross-sector team to develop and implement a series of interventions aimed at increasing COVID-19 vaccine confidence and access among youth experiencing homelessness (YEH) in Hennepin County, MN. In their forthcoming publication, “Promoting COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence and Access among Youth Experiencing Homelessness: Community-Engaged Public Health Practice”, Osman and team highlighted their engagement with community partners from a variety of disciplines to inform their approaches and strategies, while centering equity and youth voice.
Drawing on the tenets of community-based participatory research, study PI Gewirtz O’Brien, Osman and team, with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Vaccine Confidence Network, convened a cross-sector group, including youth-serving agencies, public health organizations, and healthcare institutions, around shared goals of promoting health and well-being among YEH. Monthly meetings allowed partners to learn about and align work around these shared goals, collaborate, and share resources to promote COVID-19 vaccine confidence among YEH at every phase of this project.
In addition, Gewirtz O’Brien, Osman, and team intentionally engaged in data collection with youth and youth-serving agency staff members. They conducted intentional outreach with youth through many tabling events and conversations at agencies and with youth boards.
Through these engagement efforts, the team identified the main barriers to vaccination faced by youth experiencing homelessness: concerns about vaccine safety; mistrust of government and healthcare systems due to the impacts of systemic racism; doubts about whether vaccination is really necessary for young people; and unease with navigating the logistics of getting a vaccine. In response to these barriers, the cross-sector team identified and implemented four intervention strategies to promote vaccine confidence and access among YEH:
- Developing youth-friendly, trauma-informed, culturally responsive messaging about COVID-19 vaccination in partnership with youth.
- Holding site-based, fun, and inclusive health events organized in partnership with youth and youth-serving agencies.
- Distributing vaccine aftercare kits to youth to offer physical, emotional, and educational support after vaccination.
- Offering training and resources to staff at youth-serving agencies who work directly with youth to help them navigate conversations about vaccination.
Project engagement and intervention development required open feedback loops, continual refinement, and an openness and willingness to learn and adapt. Several key lessons were learned and reinforced through this partnership:
- Cross-sector engagement is complex and ever-evolving.
- YEH engagement requires adaptability.
- Continual reflection on equity and positionality as a team is a necessary step in accountability.
- Incorporating COVID-19 into the broader public health landscape helped combat COVID-19 fatigue among YEH and partnering organizations.
“This community-engaged project highlighted the value of cross-sector partnerships and consistent youth engagement in addressing vaccine confidence among YEH,” said Osman. “Our efforts through this work have laid the foundation for ongoing cross-sector collaboration focused on enhancing public health programming and health services for YEH.”
To learn more about this project’s community engagement efforts, visit the Youth COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence Project.