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UCI Public Health partnered with the Orange County Health Care Agency (OCHCA) and the Orange County Health Equity COVID-19 Community-Academic Partnership to offer a Health Equity Contact Tracing Workshop. The Workshop trained public health practitioners, students, community leaders, and residents to do contact tracing for COVID-19.
This Workshop was designed with a fundamental focus on health equity. It integrated community knowledge about the impacts of the pandemic on and pandemic mitigation strategies for low-income communities of color with established models of manual contact tracing and presents the latest knowledge about COVID-19 spread and mitigation.
The Workshop was designed as a series and was delivered through popular education methods in a hybrid format of asynchronous online content, live online group-based discussions, and role-playing sessions. The workshop was available free to the public and runs July 20 – August 21, 2020.
OBJECTIVES
The Workshop aimed for participants to…
We are currently evaluating the Workshop and are focusing on disseminating best practices that emerged from the implementation of the workshop.
For any inquiries, please contact Dr. Alana LeBrón (alebron@uci.edu) or Dr. Daniel Parker (dparker1@hs.uci.edu).
Contract tracers, sometimes known as “disease detectives,” are trained to detect likely secondary cases among close contacts of already identified (“index”) cases. Contact tracing is crucial for disrupting transmission to the point that social distancing measures can be relaxed responsibly. It is expected that thousands of contact tracers will be needed to help reduce the spread of COVID-19, as well as other infectious diseases. In places like Orange County, where communities are incredibly socio-culturally diverse, it is crucial to implement and practice contact tracing in a culturally-appropriate manner through a health equity lens.
The Workshop aimed to support the wide range of community leaders and residents, students, and public health practitioners whose work is needed across the full spectrum of pandemic mitigation, elimination, and equitable recovery. This includes those working to educate the broader public about evolving information about COVID-19; identify and notify individuals who have been exposed to the virus; support low-income communities of color disparately affected by COVID-19 in mitigating their exposures, quarantining, isolating, and recovering from the pandemic; and organizing community members for a recovery that builds community power and resilience to future pandemics and disasters.
The Workshop series entailed approximately 25 hours of content delivered over the course of 20 sequenced activities between July 20 – August 21, 2020. The first activity was a Virtual Community Forum on Monday, July 20, from 3:30 – 5:00 pm Pacific time, followed by online introductory readings for participants to complete in their own time. Beginning July 27, 2020, participants should have expected to dedicate approximately 2 hours per week in their own time engaging online readings, recorded lectures, and online reflection and evaluation worksheets; and between 2-6 hours per week in scheduled virtual sessions that include a combination of lecture, discussion, and role play. UCI Public Health provided registered participants a link to select a schedule for the sequenced virtual sessions. Multiple schedules were offered to accommodate the greatest variety of needs.
You can sign up for notifications about future cohorts.
Alana LeBron, Ph.D., M.S., Assistant Professor Program in Public Health
Community Engagement Director
Daniel Parker, Ph.D., Assistant Professor Program in Public Health
Project Director
In partnership with the Orange County Health Equity COVID-19 Community-Academic Partnership and
Huong (Theresa) Duong, Ph.D. Student
Valeria Elahy, Ph.D. Student
Samantha Garcia, Ph.D. Student
Miryha Gould Runnerstrom, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Teaching, UCI Program in Public Health
Brittany Morey, Ph.D., MPH, Assistant Professor, UCI Program in Public Health
Abby Reyes, J.D., Director, UCI Community Resilience Projects
Sharon V Robert, M.A., Director of Administration & Strategic Planning, UCI Program in Public Health
Ivy Torres, M.A., Ph.D. Student
Karen Valladares, Ph.D. Student
Kameko Washburn, Ph.D. Student
Salvador Zarate, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Anthropology, UCI School of Social Science
Registration for the Workshop series has closed.
The Workshop was open to anyone.
Those who do not have a public health background should consider taking an introductory workshop to Public Health. The CDC offers a Public Health 101 Series for free online.
There was no cost to the public to register for this Workshop.
The Workshop was designed to increase the knowledge, skills, and understanding of a variety of people whose work is needed across the full spectrum of epidemic mitigation and equitable recovery. This needed work includes those working to educate the broader public about evolving information about COVID-19; identify and notify individuals who have been exposed to the virus; support low-income communities of color disparately affected by COVID-19 in mitigating their exposures, quarantining, isolating, and recovering from the pandemic; and organizing community members for a recovery that builds community power and resilience to future pandemics and disasters. Becoming a contact tracer is one of these key roles.
The Workshop series included sequenced online readings and recorded lectures as well as topically clustered, live online facilitated discussion groups and role-playing sessions together with other Workshop participants. Upon successful completion of the Workshop series, UCI Public Health issued a certificate of completion. Certificates of completion were only issued to Workshop participants who satisfactorily completed both the asynchronous online modules and synchronous live online sessions.
Successfully completing the Workshop series may improve your eligibility to serve as a contact tracer. If you are interested in becoming a contact tracer, you are encouraged to present the certificate of completion to prospective agency employers as part of your application. However, the certificate of completion does not guarantee employment as a contact tracer. UCI Public Health will update registered Workshop participants as more information becomes available from Orange County organizations and agencies regarding emerging contact tracer hiring programs.
The Workshop series was offered in a hybrid format. Hybrid format means that you will do some of the learning on your own via sequenced online readings and recorded lectures and some of the learning through topically clustered, live online facilitated discussion groups and role-playing sessions together with other Workshop participants. The live online activities took place between July 20 – August 21, 2020, in 1-2 hour sessions, 1-3 times per week. UCI Public Health only provided a certificate of completion for registered participants who successfully complete the hybrid format of the Workshop series.
The Workshop series took place between July 20 – August 21, 2020. Participants were emailed a link to select a schedule to participate in topically clustered, live online facilitated discussion groups and role-playing sessions. Multiple schedules were offered to accommodate the greatest variety of needs.
Persons who registered to access the sequenced online readings and recorded lectures only, without working towards a certificate of completion, began to gain access to these online materials starting July 27, 2020. The online materials were progressively released and remained available to participants for eight weeks.
Yes. The Workshop series included not only online readings and recorded lectures but also topically clustered, live online facilitated discussion groups and role-playing sessions together with other Workshop participants. In light of the interactive component between faculty and students, we limited the number of registered participants.
UCI Public Health was committed to ensuring that this Workshop series remained accessible to community residents and leaders within the areas hardest hit by the pandemic in Orange County, California. We experienced high demand. As such, UCI Public Health contacted by email those who submitted a registration form but were placed on a waitlist for a future cohort. UCI Public Health is actively monitoring demand to assess the need to offer additional cohorts in the near term.
Yes, the Workshop was offered to Spanish speakers. The Workshop series included sequenced online readings and recorded lectures as well as topically clustered, live online facilitated discussion groups and role-playing sessions together with other Workshop participants. The online readings and recorded lectures were available in Spanish. Some discussion sections were conducted in Spanish.
This Workshop series was offered through the Program in Public Health, in collaboration with the Orange County Health Care Agency and the Orange County Health Equity COVID-19 Community-Academic Partnership. This workshop did not have any units associated with it so it will not count toward any other program with required degree units.
Yes. The Workshop series included sequenced online readings and recorded lectures as well as topically clustered, live online facilitated discussion groups and role-playing sessions together with other Workshop participants. Upon successful completion of the Workshop series, UCI Public Health issued a certificate of completion. Certificates of completion were issued to registered Workshop participants who successfully completed both the asynchronous online modules and synchronous live online sessions.
Community advocates and academic leaders formed the Orange County Health Equity COVID-19 Community-Academic Partnership in May 2020. The Partnership seeks a comprehensive public health equity approach to eliminating the COVID-19 pandemic that involves preventing exposure to SARS-CoV-2 in the first place; testing for COVID-19; treatment; manual contact tracing; supporting the conditions needed to quarantine, isolate and meet caregiving and occupational responsibilities; building immunity across the population; and a recovery that builds community power. The Partnership draws participation from community-based health equity organizations, coalitions, and university faculty, staff, and students from a range of disciplines. The Partnership is collaborating with UCI Public Health and OCHCA in the Health Equity Contact Tracing Workshop. Read more about the Partnership here.
