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DTE Vaccine Ambassadors Appreciation Event
By Adonis Huggins
Adonis is a staff member with FOCUS MEDIA ARTS CENTRE
On September 29th, 2022, the Downtown East Community Vaccine Engagement Team held an appreciation event at 519 Church St. to acknowledge the work of health ambassadors in building confidence and access to vaccines for Toronto’s diverse Downtown East and Regent Park residents in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Health ambassadors and supervisors celebrated their vaccine work achievements with music, food and words of appreciation. Among those in attendance was our very own Fred Alvarado, a community journalist for the Regent Park community. Fred provides information on vaccine engagement through his weekly news cast on Regent Park TV.
Another important health ambassador for the Regent Park community is Murshida Mueen a resident living in Regent Park. Every two weeks Murshida hosts a radio show on vaccine engagement and other health related matters on Radio Regent, an internet radio station based in Regent Park. The show, called the Downtown East Vaccine Radio, is produced in partnership with the Regent Park Community Health Centre. While Murshida was not able to attend the appreciation night, the work she and others have been doing were celebrated.
In the words of Jaymie Sampa, who heads the Downtown East Vaccine Engagement Partnership, “Everything that has happened through the partnerships in the Downtown East about making health care accessible to our communities has been precious and that is only possible because of the vaccine ambassadors’ work. It simply will not be possible without the ambassadors’ effort, work and without showing up their vision, contributions, and commitments to our communities, and tenacity which are incredibly inspiring. I’m grateful to the vaccine engagement ambassadors for creating space for light in dark times and fundamentally improving the health outcomes for the most systematic marginalized people in our city. This vaccine engagement work made an actual significant difference in peoples’ quality of life and health outcomes. Health ambassadors have been beacons of hope for people and rocks for folks to anchor into.
As well as heading the Downtown East Vaccine Engagement Partnership, Jaymie Sampa, is the Strategic Partnership Initiatives Director at the 519.
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FOCUS Media Arts Centre (FOCUS) is a not-for-profit organization that was established in 1990 to counter negative media stereotypes of low income communities and provide relevant information to residents living in the Regent Park area and surrounding communities.
We seek to empower marginalized individuals and under represented communities to have a voice, through the use of professional training, mentorships and participatory based media practices that enable the sharing of stories, experiences and perspectives on relevant matters and issues. In brief our mandate is to empower marginalized individuals and under-serviced communities to have a voice and tell their own stories.
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