COVID-19 Health literacy, Accessibility, Management, Prevention, Intervention, Outcomes, and New Skills (CHAMPIONS) for Equitable Communities - Aligning with the Health and Human Services Strategic Plan Goal 2, four Healthy People 2030 objectives (HC/HIT-01, HC-HIT-02, and HC/HIT-03, IID-D02), and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health?s priority on health disparities, Project COVID-19 Health literacy, Accessibility, Management, Prevention, Intervention, Outcomes, and New Skills (CHAMPIONS) for Equitable Communities is designed to reduce health disparity in COVID-19 by improving understanding and adherence to COVID-19 public health practices in high-risk and underserved racial and ethnic minority populations in Vicksburg, Mississippi. The City of Vicksburg will partner with Jackson-Hinds Comprehensive Health Center, the largest community health center in central Mississippi, and Jackson State University to plan, implement, improve, and evaluate the proposed health literacy intervention program that will specifically target the culturally and linguistically diverse population in Vicksburg. The overarching goal of Project CHAMPIONS is to develop and implement a health literacy plan that is designed to improve the accessibility of public health messages and approaches for promoting COVID-19 health recommendations in communities that have a higher proportion of culturally and linguistically diverse populations to reduce COVID-19 infections. The project specifically focuses on people who may be most likely to have limited health literacy, most likely to experience a communication mismatch during the healthcare experiences, and/or least likely to be engaged or reached especially through public health messages and approaches for promoting COVID-19 health recommendations. The project?s five objectives will be anchored in the National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) in Health and Healthcare and include:OBJECTIVE 1: Conduct a systematic evaluation of existing COVID-19 public health messaging in the targeted community (Vicksburg).OBJECTIVE 2: Co
nnect the City of Vicksburg, partners in healthcare, and community members to advance health literacy to enhance equitable community responses to COVID-19OBJECTIVE 3: Create culturally and linguistically appropriate COVID-19 public health messaging in multiple modalities.OBJECTIVE 4: Train and implement health literacy strategies that are applied at all points of contact during healthcare experiences.OBJECTIVE 5: Identify and offer professional development to bilingual individuals (e.g., Spanish and American Sign Language) who are eligible to be medical interpreters.
