COVID-19 Vaccine and Your Campus

Staying up to date with vaccination remains the safest strategy for preventing serious illness, hospitalizations, and death. These materials are designed to support sustaining vaccine promotion, normalizing COVID-19 vaccine on campus, and increasing COVID-19 vaccine uptake among students, faculty, and staff.

Vaccine outreach and education

Resources for vaccine outreach

Vaccine outreach actively promotes the use of COVID-19 vaccine. It also normalizes COVID-19 vaccine by making vaccine information and conversations commonplace—an accepted, routine aspect of your school's social and physical environment. A critical element of vaccine outreach is letting your community know why they should be vaccinated and where they can find vaccine.

Use the Vaccine Education resources below to help community members understand why getting COVID-19 vaccine is important.

Encourage students, faculty, and staff to find convenient vaccine locations using vaccines.gov—a quick and easy way to search for nearby vaccine locations. There are COVID-19 vaccine locations across the state, including clinics, pharmacies, and local health departments.

Outreach material includes posters, social media messages, flyers, infographics, videos, email—simple messages designed to encourage the use and acceptance of vaccine. Choose resources that speak to your target audience and address relevant concerns. Providing culturally relevant information about vaccine can help people understand how to keep their communities safe and healthy over time.

COVID Campus Coalition
This student-led organization creates accurate, timely social medial content on COVID-19 vaccines for other post-secondary students. Students across the country are invited to join the coalition and receive training on how to create social media messages, infographics, and other outreach material branded for their schools.
Social Media Graphic Posts for College Students
From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services We Can Do This campaign.
MDH vaccine ambassador videos feature students enrolled at Minnesota colleges and universities sharing their experiences and insights into getting vaccinated against COVID-19:
COVID-19 Vaccination Information for Native Americans
From the Association of American Indian Physicians (AAIP).
Vaccine outreach toolkits for students or staff:
- American College Health Association: Campus COVID-19 Toolkit
  This toolkit will help you create a student ambassador program to promote healthy behaviors using positive reinforcement. It includes a student ambassador planning guide as well as social media graphics, signs, and posters.
- We Can Do This: College Students Toolkit
  This U.S. Department of Health and Human Services toolkit includes social media messages, vaccine FAQs, sample test messages for students in multiple languages, posters, flyers, and more.

Resources for vaccine education

Helping people understand the value of COVID-19 vaccines for themselves and their community is one of the best ways to normalize vaccination in your community, increase vaccine uptake, and avoid outbreaks on your campus. Developing this understanding and changing behaviors doesn't happen all at once but takes place over time.

Use the resources below to find information that responds to questions being asked in your community about COVID-19 vaccine. Basic, accurate information about the vaccines can help people who have waited to get vaccinated understand how they're helping themselves and their community by getting a shot.

Keep in mind that many students prefer to receive information rather than be told what to do. Think about how to incentivize people to learn about COVID-19 vaccine.

About COVID-19 Vaccine
Includes information on who should get vaccinated, basic facts about COVID-19 vaccines, boosters, how to find vaccine locations, and more.
CDC: Myths and Facts about COVID-19 Vaccines
Offers accurate COVID-19 vaccine information in response to common myths and rumors.
U.S. Surgeon General: Health Misinformation: Explore Toolkits & Resources
Includes basic tips for responding to questions and misinformation. Tips include listening, empathizing, pointing to credible sources, avoiding public shaming, using inclusive language.

MDH vaccine 101 training

Slide deck and training tips available by request to share basic vaccine information in a webinar-setting and can be customized to your community's needs.

Here's what you need to know about the training

One of the most important ways to protect yourself from COVID-19 is by getting vaccinated. Many people, no matter where they come from, live, or work, have questions about the vaccine. The Vaccine 101 Training slide deck was created to help answer some of the most common questions and be a starting place for conversation about the vaccine.

This training was created to:

Train people to start conversations about the COVID-19 vaccine and its importance.
Provide information to members of the higher education community who want to learn more about the COVID-19 vaccine in general.

Intended audience

People looking for a synthesis of basic, accurate COVID-19 vaccine facts for themselves or to share with others.
People with varying levels of experience interested in facilitating conversations about COVID-19 vaccines.

Tips for presenters

We strongly encourage you to take advantage of the Vaccine 101 Presenter Tips. It includes simple suggestions for using the slide deck and for tailoring the presentation for different audiences.

To request a copy of training materials

If you would like to use the Vaccine 101 Training PowerPoint and tips for presenters, please email the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) at Health.HigherEd.Covid19@state.mn.us to request copies.

Start working now with your marketing, communications, web and social media staff on the most effective ways to let your campus community know when and where the clinic will take place.
Consider whether there are groups within your campus community who have a greater need to get vaccinated. Are there groups of students who are more likely to be unvaccinated, are at higher risk of severe disease, are frequently exposed to misinformation about vaccines, have historically experienced barriers when trying to access health care? Consider them your target groups. Invest time and energy into figuring out how to motivate them to attend the clinic.
Ask student groups, campus life staff, faculty, and trusted messengers for input on effective messaging and to help promote vaccine at their meetings, classes, and through their social media.
Choose two or three vaccine messages that resonate with your targeted audience and may compel them to get vaccinated. Use those messages to promote your clinic on platforms they frequent (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, student newsletter).

Connect with trusted messengers- people in your school community that are respected by the group(s) you want to show up at your clinic. Trusted leaders could be student leaders, residential life staff, counselors, coaches, athletic trainers, bargaining unit leaders, faculty, or anyone members of your targeted audience seek out during challenging times.
Trusted messengers can help promote the clinic by hosting listening sessions with members of your target group a few days before the clinic and generally acting as ambassadors for your clinic.
Provide trusted messengers with information they need to promote the clinic to students they connect with. Get their input on the best ways to reach your audience. If there is a specific group you are targeting with this vaccine clinic, start reaching out to their trusted messengers during your initial planning to use their insight and expertise.
Partner with businesses, clinics, churches, social service agencies, or others in your school community. They might be interested in helping with outreach, staffing, or otherwise supporting the clinic.

Provide and promote incentives. Common vaccine incentives include gift cards for a campus bookstore or specific school merch, bus passes, food at the clinic, and IAC offers free "I got My COVID-19 Vaccine" stickers or buttons. Ask members of your target group what would incentivize them to show up at the clinic.
Schedule the clinic on days when more people are likely to be on campus.
Hold your clinic in conjunction with another popular event. Schools have increased clinic attendance by holding their clinic next to a Career Fair and in areas with lots of foot traffic.
Have people at the clinic to answer questions about the vaccine. Accurate, easy to understand information can help people make informed decisions about getting vaccinated. Have clinic staff review vaccine basics at About COVID-19 Vaccine. Walk clinic staff through the MDH Vaccine 101 Training.

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