CHPPR Partners with Houston in Action to Conduct Community Listening Sessions
Published: April 4, 2023
As part of the Connecting Behavioral Science to COVID-19 Vaccine Demand (CBS-CVD) Network PRC COVID-19 Supplement Project, CHPPR collaborated with long-term partner Houston in Action, a Houston-based grassroots civic organization, to identify factors contributing to vaccine hesitancy in Houston’s underserved populations. The CBS-CVD team conducted 14 community and business listening sessions in low-income Black and Hispanic communities to learn their motivators, fears, and barriers related to the COVID-19 vaccine. The results allowed the project team to develop vaccine interventions tailored to the concerns of these communities.
“In the peak of the pandemic, there were heaps of information about vaccinations, a lot of access to vaccination, and plenty of opportunities to affirm your stance on COVID vaccines,” said Chris Valdez, Director of Communications at Houston in Action. “But there weren’t as many opportunities to have a dialogue and reconsider your position on COVID vaccination, especially not with a medical professional present. These sessions showed us that when given the chance to talk about COVID vaccination with peers in a judgement-free space, people were able to reconsider and change their positions. That informed our work greatly, and ultimately helped us get more people vaccinated.”
The CBS-CVD project’s primary goal was to increase COVID-19 vaccine confidence and uptake among Black and populations in Harris and Cameron counties. Despite nationwide COVID-19 vaccine eligibility, Harris County has relatively low vaccination rates and high vaccine hesitancy, particularly among low-income Black and Hispanic communities. These populations are also more likely to have worse health outcomes from COVID-19, including higher rates of diagnosis, hospitalization, and death.
To gain an understanding of the factors influencing vaccine hesitancy, the project team worked with Houston in Action to conduct 7 community listening sessions with nearly 70 participants and 7 business listening sessions with 42 participants. Community sessions were conducted with Black and Latin American refugee and international communities in both English and Spanish to identify their motivators, fears, and barriers related to COVID-19 vaccination. The business sessions included employers and workers from lower socioeconomic communities and explored how business vaccination policies influence vaccine confidence and behavior.
Participants in these listening sessions indicated 3 areas of concern: misinformation, confusion, and new and pre-existing mistrust in government and health providers. Analysis of the business listening sessions showed misinformation as a critical barrier to employee vaccination, with changing vaccine guidelines worsening the issue. On the other hand, participants indicated that employer policies and external incentives as served as strong vaccination motivators.
Using this feedback, the project team used behavioral science to develop a multi-level adaptive intervention tailored to the low-income, Black and Hispanic target populations. This included a Community Health Worker outreach program and a message campaign explicitly designed to address the barriers identified during the sessions.
The CBS-CVD is funded by the CDC Prevention Research Center Vaccine Confidence Network. To learn more about Houston in Action, visit their website.