The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released another COVID-related rural resource that may be of interest. A “Rural Considerations” addendum was recently added to its field guide for conducting a Rapid Community Assessment (RCA). An RCA is a process for quickly collecting community insights about a public health issue in order to inform program design. The assessment involves reviewing existing data and conducting community-based interviews, listening sessions, observations, social listening and surveys.
Why Should You Conduct a Rapid Community Assessment?
- To identify communities at risk for low COVID-19 vaccine uptake among adults, adolescents, or children
- To understand what communities are thinking about COVID-19 vaccines for adults, adolescents, and children, and plan for potential solutions to increase confidence and uptake
- To identify community leaders, trusted messengers, and other important channels through which you can reach communities
- To identify areas of intervention and prioritize potential intervention strategies to increase COVID-19 vaccine confidence and uptake
In addition to the rural considerations addendum, the CDC RCA webpage provides an assessment guide and tools for those who wish to better understand their community’s needs regarding COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and uptake among adults, adolescents and children. Addendums for conducting RCAs in tribal communities and among adolescent populations were also recently posted to the webpage.
The original COVID-19 Vaccination Field Guide: 12 Strategies for Your Community presents evidence-based strategies being applied in communities across the country to increase COVID-19 vaccine confidence and uptake. To help rural communities apply these strategies, the addendum includes rural considerations and examples for the 12 strategies based on successes in the field and input from health departments and rural health organizations.
State and local health departments, community- and faith-based organizations, and local nonprofits are encouraged to try a combination of these strategies to increase vaccination rates. Please share widely! Questions may be directed to ruralhealth@cdc.gov.
Additional Resources:
- Building Confidence in COVID-19 Vaccines
- What is Vaccine Confidence?
- COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence Data
- 12 COVID-19 Strategies for Your Community
- Community Engagement Playbook (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry) – Guidance on what programs/partners could consider as they develop a plan for engaging communities, to include four phases and nine key activities of community engagement