Black Immigrant Fort Morgan and Weld CO-CEAL Community

Waa Maxay Calaamadaha Lagu Garto COVID-19?

If you are interested in other artwork for promotional materials like the image displayed here, please contact Meredith Warman for more information. All materials are copyright 2022 CO-CEAL.

Colorado's Community Engagement Alliance Against COVID-19 Disparities, or CO-CEAL, partnered with the Black Immigrant/Somali communities of Morgan and Weld Counties in Colorado. The main two towns in Morgan and Weld Counties are Fort Morgan and Greeley. This community was comprised of ten community members, two group facilitators, a graphic designer, and a simultaneous interpreter. Each member joined with a unique background, including business men and women, shift leaders, elders, community leaders, family men and women, and students. Over an 8 week period, the group met to get to know each other, learn about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccinations from a medical doctor, and work together to address relevant community needs. Main questions that were asked and answered throughout the process, and were later reflected in the materials produced, included: "What is COVID-19?," "How do you get COVID-19?," "How do you prevent COVID-19?," "What do I do if I get sick?," "What are the vaccination options and which vaccine should I get?," “What do I need to know about booster doses?". In working through these questions and more, the group collectively realized that credible sources of information were hard to find in a language and level to which they could all understand. This group learns about and shares information orally and via social media, where it is often difficult to know what to believe as the truth and what is misinformation. Because of these issues of trust and where to get factual information, our group wanted to be sure all members of the community had the opportunity to learn. People within these communities share information mostly orally: in the mosque, at coffee shops and restaurants, through conversations with family and friends, and social media. Collectively, the group decided this information needed to be shared in all of these settings.

We worked together to create materials in Somali and English that shared the important information about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccinations identified by our group. A 2-sided flyer and poster were created for community members and business owners to read and post, and a PowerPoint presentation was created to supplement a series of community events intended to share important information orally in Somali by trusted members of the community. Lastly, our group made a short Somali-language video that can be shared via social media to share all of this important information. Many members of our group continue to support the dissemination of these materials.

We heard throughout meetings from several group members that they felt that the information they learned in our meetings was the only source of information on COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccinations that they knew they could trust. We built and developed relationships throughout our 8 weeks of meeting to a point where people felt comfortable sharing their own stories and asking hard questions about vaccine topics they were unsure of. This process will continue to bring factual information to Somali-speaking members of the Fort Morgan and Weld communities in a language and style that is accessible to them.