As part of our commitment with the new administration in Newham to involve and work with residents, I was delighted to see that we are recruiting Covid-19 Community health champions: local people who can help share accurate, up to date information about how people can stay well and stay safe.

Lockdown restrictions may be easing, but our lives have changed, and the advice on what is permitted, and what is safe and recommended, can seem to be changing frequently. The public health team are therefore recruiting community health champions who can help to share simple information about staying well, and also in turn keep the Newham team informed about what is happening ‘on the ground’.

Colleagues in public health are producing simple, easy to understand bite-size images with plain text combined with simple graphics to help get information out to as wide an audience as possible. 

This graphic below gives information about test and trace:

And finally – fittingly –  this image gives information about how to become a champion.

To become a health champion, email covidhealthchampions@newham.gov.uk or call 020 3373 2777. We would like to recruit people from right across the community, who can share information with their friends, their family, their workplace, their local whatsapp group, their neighbours, their reading group, their quiz buddies, their knitting circle… anyone at all. You will be invited to regular briefings, get the most up to date information about the virus, and be given simple information to share. And you can feed back about what you’re hearing ‘on the ground’.

The time it will take you is minimal, but the impact on helping to share reliable information (especially in this age of misinformation and ‘fake news’) could be significant. Please do join in and help spread the word.

www.newham.gov.uk/covidhealthchampions