immPACC has been designed to encourage conversations and accelerate local planning to reduce the structural barriers to COVID-19 immunization. Through the method, it seeks to ensure a diversity of perspectives and to consider solutions that are more equitable and inclusive, better supporting people who are experiencing obstacles to getting vaccinated.
As a facilitator, it is important that you embrace this and bring it into your own process. Here we are highlighting several ways to bring this into your own work with communities.
There are several ways to bring in diverse voices from the community. First seek to understand where the barriers are in the community. You can then strongly encourage that specific organizations / communities have representation in the mapping session (see below).
Another way to bring the voices into the discussion if participation is not possible is to engage directly with people to hear more about the barriers they experienced.
Facilitator training often suggests setting ground rules such as "equal air time" and brainstorming rules often include "no bad ideas". Both of these are good to get people talking. Equitable air time might be better - this way you are giving more space for the voices at the table with lived experience or who speak to the barriers directly, so that others can better understand the local issues.
Sometimes on video conference (like on Zoom) it is easy for people to not be so engaged, so it is especially important as a facilitator to watch the contributions of all the participants and create space for everyone. Further to this, you can also encourage multiple ways to contribute in the session. We have found encouraging use of the chat feature can be very helpful for some people and then one of the facilitators can read out and capture the ideas, inviting the person to speak as well. There is information in the facilitator roles page on how to help bring chat voices into the conversation.
When writing the report, describe the solutions in community first language. For example:
"People living with unstable housing experience challenges in coordinating and scheduling a vaccine appointment online that is 1-2 weeks in the future, to better support this population the recommendation from the group was to develop a mobile pop up clinic that would be able to visit the following locations on a rotating schedule"
The personas are a key way to embed diversity and inclusion into the dialog of the group and they are a key mechanic of immPACC. This is important when you do not have control over all the stakeholders who may need to be or are able to attend a session.
Select personas that represent the populations where immunization barriers (and thus lower uptake) are prevalent. As you select your personas ensure they have a diversity across your 4-6 personas. Consider gender, age, race, location, socioeconomic status, language, culture, social support, and other factors.
Intentionally, the personas have areas for you to insert local details. This makes the personas more realistic for the participants. Further, feel free to modify the personas to better fit the local context.
Validation of the personas is also key. Ideally you can validate the persona you have selected or adapted with trusted local people.