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Evaluating the impact of Community Champions on tackling vaccine hesitancy in Leeds
Following on from their 2023 research, which highlighted the strength of the Leeds Community Champions programme during Covid, Dr Kris Southby, Dr Jenny Woodward, and Professor Jane South from the Centre for Health Promotion Research have been commissioned to evaluate the new Leeds Community Vaccine Champions programme. In this blog post, the team share how they are aiming to assess the success of the programme and provide evidence to inform both future community-centred public health programmes and the new NHS Vaccine Strategy, which is expected in 2026.
Community Champions (also sometimes called Health Champions) are local people that volunteer to promote health and wellbeing within their communities. They use their knowledge and trusted position in local communities to share information with their family, friends, and social networks. Community Champions programmes are recognised by the NHS and the government as a useful strategy for spreading health messages, particularly where trust in statutory services is low.
The Leeds Community Vaccine Champions programme is being delivered by Forum Central and Voluntary Action Leeds in partnership with Leeds City Council's Public Health team. The programme aims to use Community Champions to support awareness of vaccinations and vaccine uptake across the life course within communities in Leeds with low vaccine uptake. They are recruiting individual volunteers to be Community Champions and providing small grants to local community groups. The programme has been commissioned by NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board.
The current evaluation continues the positive relationship between the Centre for Health Promotion Research and Leeds City Council's Public Health team, Forum Central, and Voluntary Action Leeds. During the Covid-19 pandemic, we led an independent evaluation of the Leeds Community Covid Champions programme. This work showed how Community Champions were important to the pandemic response in Leeds by adding capacity to the local health system, helping with vaccine pop-ups, raising awareness of local health services, and being a friendly face to talk to during challenging times.
We know that Community Champions fulfil a really important, complementary role alongside statutory health services. Our new evaluation project will help us know more about how Community Champions help tackle the complex issues around why some people don't get vaccinated. We are very excited to be continuing our partnership working with the council and voluntary sector in the city on this important evaluation.
For more information about the current or previous evaluation, contact Dr Kris Southby.
To volunteer as a Community Champion, contact Voluntary Action Leeds.
Dr Kris Southby
Kris is a Senior Research Fellow and Assistant Director in the Centre for Health Promotion Research. Interested in community-centred approaches to health, the health and wellbeing of adults with learning disabilities, and participatory research methods.
Dr Jenny Woodward
Jenny is a Research Fellow in the Centre for Health Promotion Research interested in exploring the links between green spaces, volunteering / civic activism and health and wellbeing. Her work centres on tackling health inequalities via community-based interventions. She is an experienced qualitative researcher and evaluator.
Professor Jane South
Jane is Professor of Healthy Communities working in the field of community engagement and public health. Her research focuses on how community life and volunteering contribute to good health.
