Community Health Champions

The Community Health Champions project builds on the success of the Community Vaccine Champions (CVC) programme which ran throughout 2022. The CVC project aimed to increase vaccine uptake across communities in Reading by sharing evidence-based health information through the network of community vaccine champions, working with communities to understand what the barriers were to accessing their vaccine and running a calendar of pop-up events, bringing the vaccine to communities across the borough.
You can read the full project evaluation to find out more. At the end of 2023 the Community Vaccine Champions evolved into the Community Health Champions project which builds on the learning and model used for the Community Vaccine Champions.

The project is a partnership between the Alliance for Cohesion and Racial Equality (ACRE), Public Health and New Directions College.

See what the Community Health Champions have been up to recently.

What is a Community Health Champion?

Community Health Champions are people who live in Reading and help their community by making sure everyone knows about important health information, services, and activities. They also listen to feedback from others about how to make things better for everyone’s health.

Who can be a Community Health Champion?

This is a voluntary role. If you are over 18 and live, work, volunteer or visit Reading you can become a Community Health Champion. All you need is a passion to connect, inform and empower your community around health and wellbeing.

Some benefits to becoming a Community Health Champion

This is an opportunity to support your community by sharing evidence-based health and wellbeing information. You’ll get to meet other Community Health Champions and connect with different organisations. Being part of this program means you can support people and communities to find the right services for their health needs.

You will receive training and ongoing support to carry out your role as a champion, with regular training opportunities based on what you want to know as a Community Health Champion.

As a Community Health Champion, you will be invited to health and wellbeing events in your area, and you’ll receive a monthly e-bulletin with updates about the programme and information that might be helpful to share.

Sign up to become a Community Health Champion

Role description

You may:

• help signpost health evidence-based information or advice that is NHS approved or Public Health approved
• ensure that residents in Reading are aware of, knowledgeable about and up to speed on the information, services and activities that are important for their health and wellbeing
• build the confidence, knowledge, skills and capacity of local people
• sharing learning with other Community Health Champions
• attend or host health workshops to share information or take part in promotional activities

You won’t have to:

• give medical advice to residents
• act as a health expert or enforce health measures or opinions

Once you have completed the registration form, the next step is to book your short training session. You can complete the registration form below and a member of the Community Health Champion team will contact you to book your training.