OTTAWA, ON, Feb. 8, 2022 /CNW/ - Vaccination, along with other personal protective measures, is one of the most effective ways to protect yourself and your loved ones from severe COVID-19 outcomes. Increasing and maintaining vaccine confidence plays a critical role in the continued success of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout across the country.
Through the Vaccine Community Innovation Challenge (VCIC), the Public Health Agency of Canada provided funding to support community-driven initiatives that help to increase confidence in vaccination. The Challenge empowered trusted community leaders to share credible information on the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines, and encourage their community members to get informed and take action to protect themselves and others by getting vaccinated.
Today, Ron McKinnon, Member of Parliament for Coquitlam, on behalf of the Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos, announced that the Fraser Northwest Division of Family Practice Society received the $100,000 VCIC grand prize. Their 'Physician on a Mission' project amplified the voices of family doctors as trusted community members to encourage vaccine uptake using physicians' stories and personal experiences. The project team worked in collaboration with family doctors to develop and promote multilingual videos addressing different areas of hesitation surrounding COVID-19 vaccines.
The VCIC is one of the Government of Canada programs that works to engage community partners and stakeholders to increase vaccine confidence and address barriers to getting vaccinated. This includes the Immunization Partnership Fund, which was launched in 2016 and supports projects to improve access to vaccination and uptake.
Quotes
"Vaccines are one of the most important tools that we have to help manage the COVID-19 pandemic. The Vaccine Community Innovation Challenge helped to support and foster community-led projects to combat misinformation and promote COVID-19 vaccine uptake across Canada. I would like to thank all participants and offer my congratulations to the Fraser Northwest Division of Family Practice Society for their innovative and impactful work."
The Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos
Minister of Health
"The Fraser Northwest Divison of Family Practice Society amplified the voices of family doctors as trusted community members, providing accurate and multi-lingual information on COVID-19 vaccines through their "Physician on a Mission" project. This initiative empowered Canadians to make informed decisions about vaccination, allowing our community members to protect themselves, their loves ones, and their healthcare system."
Ron McKinnon
Member of Parliament for Coquitlam – Port Coquitlam
"The Vaccine Community Innovation Challenge encouraged community leaders to share vaccine promoting messages using language and formats that reach and resonate with their communities. These innovative and impactful community-based projects played a major role in Canada's successful COVID-19 vaccine rollout. Every COVID-19 vaccine dose helps bolster our defence against COVID-19 and protect our personal health and our health care system. I would like to thank everyone who participated in this program and offer my heartfelt congratulations to the Fraser Northwest Division of Family Practice Society for the Physician on a Mission project!"
Dr. Theresa Tam
Chief Public Health Officer of Canada
Quick Facts
- The Vaccine Community Innovation Challenge encourages individuals and organizations to share trustworthy information about COVID-19 vaccines and increase vaccine confidence through creative, community-driven and culturally appropriate means.
- PHAC invested close to $1.5 million into the challenge with which it was able to support 133 projects.
- Within the challenge, 20 finalists were each awarded $25,000 and 113 other recipients received smaller funding amounts of $5K or $10K. The recipients developed and implemented projects in their community to promote COVID-19 vaccine confidence and continued adherence to public health measures.
- The Fraser Northwest Division of Family Practice Society is the Grand Prize Winner for their "Physician on a Mission" project. As the winners they will receive an additional $100,000 to reinvest in the protection and promotion of public health of their community.
- The Physician on a Mission project amplified the voices of family doctors as trusted community members to address public concern over COVID-19 vaccines and to encourage vaccine uptake. They created ten videos in five languages (English, Arabic, Farsi, Cantonese, and Korean) addressing different areas of concern surrounding COVID-19 vaccines: vaccines in maternity and pregnancy, the importance of the second dose, seeking reliable information about vaccines, and using stories and personal experiences from a physicians' point of view.
Associated Links
Vaccine Community Innovation Challenge
Vaccine and Immunization
Immunization Partnership Fund: Increasing confidence, acceptance and uptake of COVID-19 vaccines
SOURCE Public Health Agency of Canada
Marie-France Proulx, Press Secretary, Office of Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Health, 613-957-0200; Media Relations, Public Health Agency of Canada, 613-957-2983, [email protected]; Public Inquiries: 613-957-2991, 1-866-225-0709; COVID-19 public enquiries: 1-833-784-4397
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