Covid community champions

Could you help us share information about COVID-19 in your community?

Do you want to...

• help others to stay safe from COVID-19?
• know the truth about the pandemic?
• speak directly to experts about COVID-19?
• help Public Health to make good decisions for the people of Gateshead?

Gateshead Covid Community Champions

COVID-19 has had a huge impact on everyone here in Gateshead. We are looking for local people to volunteer to become Covid Community Champions. Gateshead Covid Community Champions will help ensure people across Gateshead hear correct and consistent information about Coronavirus developments. They will help Gateshead Public Health to gather insight about what's working well in our communities and what isn't. We need the Champions to tell us what questions people are asking and what people think we can do better. And they will share some of the challenges and opportunities we are facing in providing services and support for those in need

Why become a Covid Community Champion

Our Gateshead Covid Community Champions will have access to the most up to date and reliable information about Covid; you'll hear first-hand from Public Health professionals what the latest evidence is telling us, what we think this means for you, your family, friends and communities, what we're learning and how we're going to respond. You'll have the opportunity to ask questions to get the information you want and need, and you'll be helping us to shape services and to inform the way we respond to the virus.

If you become a Covid Champion you'll play an essential role in the sharing of information within your family, friendship groups, workplace, networks and communities, helping us to myth bust and ensuring people get the right information in a way that works for them.

Who can become a Covid Community Champion

We are looking for people who

• have an understanding of and / or interest in helping people in the community.
• have good social skills and are a good listener
• have the ability to give and receive feedback
• are reliable and dependable
• have a sensitive and caring attitude towards others
• live, work or study in Gateshead

What Covid Community Champions do

• invited to regular briefings from public health professionals to hear the latest news, updates and medical evidence around COVID-19
• ask questions on behalf of your family, friends, colleagues and communities and feedback the answers to help keep them informed and safe
• help us to share accurate information and solutions to keep the local people of Gateshead safe.
• help us understand the issues and worries that local people face regarding COVID-19 and help us work together to look for solutions.

How to become a Covid Community Champion

• take part in on-line training modules covering all the basics on COVID-19 and vaccinations.
• sign a Code of Conduct

What support you get as a Covid Community Champion

• Access to a weekly meeting where we share the latest updates, discuss issues and solutions and cover any key topics.
• Membership to a resource hub where the latest information and resources are kept so you can always have information at your fingertips
• Freedom to share this information with whoever you want in order to keep local people informed.
• Direct route to let us know what is and isn't working and ask questions on behalf of you and others.

Covid Community Champions Network

All Covid Community Champions will become part of our Covid Community Champion network.

• We want to make sure that residents, from across every community and sector in Gateshead, stay up to date with the latest guidance and advice. This is why we have launched our Covid Community Champion network
• The network is made up of volunteers from all over Gateshead who want to make a difference in their communities, businesses, services, local area or to local individuals. You may be from an organisation that works with a particular community group; an individual who is well connected in your community or someone who wants to know more about COVID-19 to share information with friends, family or colleagues. Everyone is welcome.
• The network gives people the chance to stay up to date on the latest advice about COVID-19 to be informed and to ask questions so that you can share information with your family, friends, colleagues and other community members to help them to make sense about the facts about the virus.

Get in touch 

You can help us keep people safe. Get in touch today.

If you would like to find out more about the scheme to see whether it's right for you then get in touch by:

• Email communitychampions@gateshead.gov.uk.
• Private message us through our One You Gateshead Facebook page