Centennial College’s Community Development Work program gives its students the tools they need to make a real difference by making the communities we live in a better place. And there’s nothing a community needs more right now than healthy residents. That’s why, in the Fall 2021 semester, our Community Development Work students teamed up with the North Scarborough Vaccine Engagement Team, or NSVET, for a special initiative. The NSVET works with the City of Toronto with the goal of encouraging more people to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Ambassadors share information in community spaces, through information tables, flyers, online sessions, even going door to door. This special project saw all the third-semester students working outreach shifts. Four of the students were hired as ambassadors to do ongoing work during the semester. We spoke to three of the student ambassadors, Erica Barbara Babad, Isabel Tobon Vanegas and Bianca Zenoline Van Wyk, about their time helping spread the word.
Why they got into community development
“This is my third year in school at Centennial College,” Bianca says. “I started in 2018 in a Social Service Worker program.” Just as she was finishing the program, the first COVID-19 lockdown happened, which, funny enough, led her back to school.
“I decided, okay, I can't just sit home and watch Netflix the whole day,” she continues. “I need to do something productive. That's why I enrolled in the Community Development Work program, because it overlaps with social service work. Since then, I've met amazing students, my classmates, and professors. It was a hectic year, and if it wasn't for school, I don't know what I would have done. It kept me sane.”
“I came from the Philippines,” Erica says, “And I did some volunteer work in teaching young kids reading in public schools. I hope that the things that I learned here will be bring impact when I go back to the Philippines.”
“I have always been passionate about social causes and working with and for the community,” Isabel says. “It was very difficult to find a program with the characteristics that I was looking for, I was even thinking about studying law. Then, I saw the program description of Community Development Work at Centennial College and I saw myself reflected in every line.”
Why they took on the role of ambassadors
“One day, Linor David, one of our professors, came to us with this project,” Isabel says. “I thought that this was a great opportunity for me as a newcomer to gain Canadian experience and get to know the community. I was right, I started doing three outreach shifts per week, and it has been amazing for my professional career.”
“I said, well, you know what? Why not?” Bianca says. “I signed up for this because really, I'm scared of COVID, too.”
“The area of North Scarborough had one of the lowest vaccination rates at that time,” Erica adds. “So what they wanted was to increase that, especially given that the goal of the City of Toronto is to have 90% of the population vaccinated.”
The challenges they faced as Vaccine Ambassadors
“The mission of the NSVET is to inform the community and remove barriers to vaccinations,” Isabel says. “My main duties have been to manage the info tables together with my fellow ambassadors, while evaluating the causes of hesitancy in those who are part of the community. It is very important to be up to date with the information regarding vaccines and COVID-19 itself. It is a very unpredictable situation, but we have to be able to provide reliable resources.”
Being a Vaccine Ambassador wasn’t easy, and four ambassadors found themselves with a number of challenges, the first being the rapidly changing situation around the pandemic itself.
“The first shift we did,” Bianca explains, “we were there to tell people about the vaccine passport. The next Sunday, when we came back, things had changed. Now, it's about the booster shot. And then it kept on changing every week: it was the vaccine for kids, and then the booster shot was available for people 18 and up.
Outside of that, resistance on the part of Scarborough residents was a frequent problem.
“Some are quite hostile,” Bianca continues. “They’d say, oh, I'm not interested, you guys want to kill us, it was developed too soon. All the weird stuff we've been hearing, like ‘you guys are killers.’ We are not rude to them. We say, we understand your situation. It's your preference. We don't want to get into a fight or make a scene.”
“The most challenging part is to not give up when people ignore you,” Isabel says. “It is a very controversial topic that impacts people's bodies. It is important to have limits when still giving people a safe space to talk about their concerns.”
Rewards for their efforts
Despite all the challenges, there were plenty of rewarding parts to the job, too.
“The most rewarding part in the first shift was when we went door to door,” Erica says. “When you knock, sometimes people will frown and say no. But then after a while, somebody will say thank you, or smile, or just be kind to us. I think, at first, that was the most rewarding feeling.”
Beyond that, the long-term reward was in realizing that they were changing hearts and minds with their efforts.
“There's this regular visitor in the mall,” Erica continues, “who was really rude when we started talking to him, but he kept on coming back, he was there always on Sunday. So whenever we were there, he would approach us to talk to us. Eventually, during our last shift, he said that he really wanted to travel. And in order to travel, he has to get vaccinated. So I think we convinced him to take a vaccine.”
But most importantly, the Vaccine Team helped to raise the vaccination rate.
“When we started, it lower than 80%,” Bianca adds. “Now we are at 88 or 89%. So we've done a good job so far.”
Still, more than the numbers, it was the personal connections that affected them most.
“The most rewarding thing is when you create a connection and you see that someone that was hesitant is now interested in getting the vaccine,” Isabel says. “Receiving an ‘Oh thank you, you are being very helpful’ fills my heart.”
What they learned
The student volunteers didn’t just help the community, they also learned valuable lessons in community development, which they’ll carry with them into their careers.
“I have learned that community work is based on connections, on conversation, and on creating safe spaces for people to express themselves,” Isabel says. “About myself, I have learned that I am capable of many things. Mainly that my communication skills, the ones I thought were a challenge, since English is not my first language, are not as inferior as I used to believe.”
“I learned to be more patient and respectful of others,” Erica says. “Because not everyone shares the same opinion. And they have their own fears and uncertainties. I just realized that you have to respect them, and at the same time, make them feel that you're listening to them to build that connection, and for them to be able to listen to you as well.”
“You have to really listen to what they are saying,” Bianca echoes. “You understand, you respect their decision, and you ask them open-ended questions to make them open up. I’m here to educate.”
Written by: Anthony Geremia