A 3-step planning tool to organize, prepare and respond to COVID-19
Jessica Farber, Community Readiness Coordinator, SeeChange Initiative
& Rachel Kiddell-Monroe, Executive Director, SeeChange Initiative
Tuberculosis today affects the Inuit community living in the Canadian Arctic, 300 times more than Canadian-born non-indigenous people. SeeChange has been supporting the Inuit community of Clyde River to co-create a truly community-led approach that addresses tuberculosis. When the COVID-19 pandemic threatened to reach the community, the isolated communities faced challenges in accessing accurate and relevant information around COVID-19. As part of their commitment to ensure communities had agency in tailoring public health measures and responses to their own culture, reality and needs, SeeChange launched the Community First COVID-19 Roadmap, on May 14th.
The emergency planning with Clyde River became the basis for the CommunityFirst COVID-19 Roadmap. Created by SeeChange Initiative in collaboration with Ilisaqsivik Society, the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health, and Médicos Sin Fronteras Association in Latin America, this CommunityFirst Roadmap is available as a generic and adaptable tool to support other vulnerable and isolated communities globally. It is now available in English, French, Inuktitut, Portuguese and Spanish.
The CommunityFirst COVID-19 Roadmap offers three community-level supports:
The template emergency plan is a simple step-by-step approach to support communities in implementing custom-made emergency plan adapted to their reality and cultural needs. It is available as well in a checklist-form, to help communities monitor their progress and have a template to edit and adapt.
The resources are curated in line with World Health Organization and Pan American Health Organization guidelines. The resources include community case studies, guidelines, infographics and radio segments. Everything is downloadable and adaptable to community’s needs. These resources highlight community-led innovation in responding to health crises. Examples include the emergency plan created by the Inuit community of Clyde River, emergency committee meeting agendas from the Tsimane in Bolivia, and health promotion infographics from Madagascar.
SeeChange offers training, orientation and mentoring for community leaders interested in implementing the Roadmap. Workshops including: using the Roadmap to support specific vulnerable and high-risk groups, maintaining mental and physical health in times of COVID-19, and maintaining health services and treatment for people with comorbidities, such as TB. A network of community activators has been created for community leaders and organizations in order to share experiences and create a community of practice.
While the focus of the Roadmap has been COVID-19, it does not detract from the efforts around addressing TB in these same communities. The Clyde River community’s efforts to address the historical trauma related to tuberculosis, to learn about the disease and to apply innovate community-led responses gave the community the confidence to quickly adapt to COVID-19.
Many of the community’s strategies around the prevention, detection and supportive treatment of TB are easily applicable to COVID-19. Complementing this, the strategies used in the community response to COVID19 and the lessons learned can now be applied to the ongoing efforts to eliminate TB in Nunavut. For instance, responding to the COVID19 emergency has normalized online workshops (which is useful in remote communities where travel is expensive), has raised awareness about airborne disease and how to prevent it, has activated the community’s communications networks and prompted leaders to communicate about prevention and control of infectious disease. Furthermore, the community is talking about the importance of contact tracing and is raising awareness on the need to protect the more vulnerable members of the community. In sum, COVID19 has jumpstarted these types of prevention and control measures, which have become widely disseminated and understood. While addressing the impact of COVID-19, it has become clear that the Roadmap can also be integrated into the effort of reducing the burden of TB on vulnerable populations.
“Using the Roadmap, I was able to create an emergency plan for our office to prepare and follow through with new safety measures” says Sheila Enook, TB Project Coordinator at Ilisaqsivik Society, “It has helped us share understanding about COVID-19 and we can already see how it will be applicable in our future TB trainings.”
The way in which Ilisaqsivik Society has taken the lead on addressing this health crisis by implementing the Roadmap and new activities in their office also sets an example for other employers in isolated communities as they prepare for and respond to COVID-19, as well as TB.
The Roadmap is a flexible, adaptable and effective resource in the preparation and response to the current COVID-19 crisis.It has proven to have further versatility in addressing TB and other infectious diseases as needed by isolated communities. To date, the Roadmap has been accessed in 57 countries worldwide and in 13 Canadian provinces and territories, and with plans to translate into additional languages we hope to expand the global reach to even more communities.
SeeChange Initiative is driven by the principles of humanity and solidarity. anchored in a strong partnership with the well-respected Inuit-led organization Ilisaqsivik Society based in Clyde River, has inspired the ethos of SeeChange. SeeChange’s ‘Community First’ approach has been developed with Inuit as a methodology that truly recognizes and believes in the power of communities to be their own agents of change.
Jessica Farber, Community Readiness Coordinator, SeeChange Initiative
Jessica works with community leaders to organize, prepare and respond to COVID-19 using the CommunityFirst COVID-19 Roadmap. With experience working with refugees in both Canada and Mexico, Jessica is a passionate advocate for migrant rights, global health equity and climate justice.
Rachel Kiddell-Monroe, Executive Director, SeeChange Initiative
Building on her 30 years of experience as a humanitarian practitioner and lawyer, Rachel founded SeeChange Initiative in 2018. She believes that putting communities first is the key to creating a more humane, just and fair society. She continues to lead the SeeChange team in designing and developing key CommunityFirst tools and supports through both the Tuberculosis Initiative in Nunavut and the CommunityFirst COVID-19 Roadmap.