Public Health and the Community Champions

Liverpool has a well-established sense of community. Public health has worked with the community champions, to build on this. 11 community champions work with many communities across Liverpool. They offer a familiar face. They create a sense of inclusivity and belonging in communities. Community champions work with communities who face the greatest health inequalities. They have shared public health messages, promoted campaigns and organised events. Co-production of initiatives has allowed communities to feel empowered to support each other. Trust and confidence between communities and Liverpool City Council has grown. This boosts involvement and the chance of sustained positive effects. Working with community champions means our information and events are more accessible and culturally appropriate. 

The community champions set new priorities each year. This year’s priorities are Vaccination uptake, including Covid-19, Flu, and childhood immunisations. Improving mental health and wellbeing and cancer awareness and screening.  

The School of Tropical Medicine is working with the community champions. This is part of phase two of the Health Equity project.  Supported by local partners, they are working to understand local data. Community solutions are being developed to encourage vaccination uptake and cancer screening. They are sharing health messages and addressing myths through face to face and online platforms. This increases reach and accessibility across Liverpool.

Roadshow events help people to get vaccinated and find health issues sooner. These approaches help us to reach communities who wouldn’t usually access these services.