Welcome Mentors help the fight against Covid
The Welcome Mentors were approached by Kirklees Council via the Migrant Health Hub to look at supporting Tolson Primary Care Network. They were hosting four drop-in Covid Vaccine clinics which were aimed at encouraging vulnerable people to attend and get their jabs. They needed support from people with community languages and asked the Welcome Mentors to help.
How did we help?
- We provided nine volunteers to support with the sessions, these nine Welcome Mentors were able to communicate with patients in Arabic, Farsi, English, Pashto, Spanish, Urdu, Punjabi, Amharic and Hindi.
- The Volunteers greeted all patients on arrival, found out their first language and matched them up to a volunteer who spoke that language. From there they were able to give them facts about the jab and reassure them, they also went in with the patients whilst they had their jabs to make sure that they were ok.
The outcome
- 336 received their Covid vaccines
- The Welcome Mentors have been asked to support with two future vaccine clinics
- The Welcome Mentors felt like they got a lot out of this experience, some used the experience to go on to gain paid employment as Covid Community champions and all nine were quick to volunteer for the next clinics which we are all really pleased about!
Sally who organised the vaccine sessions said:
“Thank you so much Steffi & team, you’ve all been brilliant and really helped to support people with accurate information and a listening ear so they felt comfortable to ask questions and feel understood, it really put people at ease so thank you”
Find out more about the Migration Team
Find out more about Welcome Mentors