The North Carolina Community Engagement Alliance (NC CEAL) research team, also known as the Increasing Reliability Through Action and Mobilization Project (I-TEAM), is one of 21 state teams in the country funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The overall goal of NC CEAL is to use innovative qualitative methods to identify factors that contribute to the reliability of COVID-19 information and to leverage community engagement approaches to improve COVID-19 messages and communication channels. distribution targeting NC communities of color disproportionately affected by COVID-19.
To achieve the overall goal through community participation, NC CEAL operates through three Community Response Teams (CRTs). The African American / Black CRT, the Native American / American Indian CRT, and the Hispanic / Latinx CRT. Each CRT is made up of an academic co-leader (Dr, Krista Perreira), a community co-leader (Norma Marti, a project coordinator (Nicole ArguedasVillalobos) and 10 members of the NC community representing various counties and links with organizations in those regions.
1. Mariela Hernandez (Orange County)
2. Maritza Mata-Betancourt (Pitt County)
3. Jessica Vasquez (Carteret County)
4. Jessica Aguilar (Union County)
5. Javier Romero (Guatemalan Consulate / NC and SC)
6. Gilda Cowan (Guilford County)
7. Grisel Trejo (County of Forsyth)
8. Prudencio Martinez-Mengel (Lenoir County)
9. Bacilio Castro (Burke County)
10. Eliazar Posada (County Durham)
The Hispanic / Latinx CRT is currently made up of these 10 community members representing different Hispanic / Latino origins (eg Guatemalan, Mexican, Puerto Rican), NC regions or counties, and essential workers (eg Community Health Workers , representatives of organizations that provide services to our community, local health departments, ect.). We have identified critical deficiencies that need to be addressed in relation to the outreach and communication of COVID-19 and found that there is a need to have (1) Public Service Announcements (PSAs) in Spanish or in two languages on radio stations in Spanish; (2) Short photo novels (eg video message) to be uploaded to YouTube and shared via social media instead of flyers and posts that use many words; and (3) Brochures that use pictures (instead of words) and are distributed door-to-door.
To address the gaps our team identified, we began collaborating with NIH CEAL, Arizona State University, and UC-Merced to create the PSAs, photonovels, and brochures in a video / animation series.
There are currently a total of 13 PSAs (6 in Spanish, 6 in English, 1 in Zapotec), 30 fotonovelas (14 in Spanish, 13 in English, 3 in Zapotec).
H / L CRT Leadership E-mails:
Norma MartÃ, Community Co-Lead | marti.norma@gmail.com 919.600.3307
| Krista Perreira, Ph.D, Academic Co-Lead | krista_perreira@med.unc.edu
Nicole Arguedas Villalobos, MPH, Project Coordinator | nav21@live.unc.edu
