covid chats

 

COVID Chats is a site supported by Alameda County Health Care Services Agency. 

Our hope is to inform young people, like ourselves, about COVID-19 and encourage them to take action towards making themselves and our communities healthier.

Interested in submitting to our website?

In partnership with the following organizations

SPOTLIGHT COLLECTION

REACH observed Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) on November 2nd. This is a traditional Mexican holiday observed on November 1st and 2nd to welcome back the souls of deceased relatives for a brief reunion involving food, drink, and celebration. The COVID Chats team built an altar to remember those who died as a result of COVID. Around the world, 6,639,961 people died from COVID, with the US recording the highest death toll. 

 

Each participant also brought a picture of a family member, friend or someone they knew  who passed away due to old age, illness, or other causes. The group brought flowers, candles, chocolates, pumpkins, and pan de muerto. Skulls, vases, and paper cut-outs were used to decorate the altar. Yellow marigolds, known as “the flower of the dead”, and other fragrant flowers are often used to communicate to the spirits the richness of the offering.

 

This event included a lot of traditional dances from different groups, health stations offering COVID testing, crafts section with bracelet making, and more. This celebration was very important as it helped people reconnect with their past loved ones and celebrate with their community. 

 

Written by Iteoluwa “Tutu”

Our Summer Health and Wellness Fair was hosted on August 10, 2022. The goal behind the fair was to promote COVID Chats, encourage community members to get tested and/or vaccinated, connect to community resources, and to support our community partners that are also working to raise awareness around COVID. 

We featured vaccines, boosters, COVID testing, music, a food distribution, games and prizes. It was hosted at Ashland Reach Youth Center, and was planned by the Youth COVID Communication Team (YCC). The YCC team had been planning the health fair months prior, from everything up to the prizes that were given away during the raffle. 

There were many of our community organizations present at the fair such as Umoja Health, Safe Passages, Youth Uprising and Cheryl Youth Ministries. With the Summer Health and Wellness Fair, we were able to get many new eyes on our website, support Youth Uprising in increasing their participants in their Why I Got Vaxxed Campaign, and collaborate with many organizations to spread awareness and resources around health. 

 

Written by Alexa

Cianna Wiliams was a Youth Content Curator (YCC) in the REACH Youth COVID Communications team. She was part of the team that developed this website, which is an engaging COVID site geared toward young people to inspire and inform them of safety and healthy COVID-19 behaviors and protocols. Prior to being a YCC, Cianna worked as an intern at Youth Radio in downtown Oakland. In her role, she was involved in graphic design and working with kids. Cianna is highly motivated and always willing to lend a helping hand.

As a YCC, Cianna was responsible for website design and content development, which included creating and/or finding infographics, articles, and memes. She states she enjoyed working alongside her teammates Jacob, Tutu, and Trinity in an engaging space.

“Working as a YCC has greatly improved my skill in relating with people from different backgrounds and cultures, this is my most valuable experience in Alameda County’” she chimed. “YCC was an opportunity to meet new people and learn from one another.”

To Cianna, COVID Chat is a platform by and for youth to spread awareness on COVID-19 in her community. She believes that as a team, the myths and false stories that surround COVID-19 can be defeated. She wants to help youth, especially in Alameda County, to understand the benefits of the vaccine. By advocating for the vaccine and creating public awareness, COVID-19 can be minimized in our community. Due to the broad range of negative impacts of COVID-19 on minority and vulnerable groups, spreading accurate information about COVID is a major pursuit for Cianna.

Written by Iteoluwa “Tutu”

Photographed: Cianna Williams

Yeimy Torres Martinez was the nominated winner of a creativity contest titled Mask On hosted by Alameda  County. She brought in her artistic ideas by constructing a cloth face mask.

The contest took place a year ago when COVID cases were at a peak. She was a freshman when she entered and won, and is now a sophomore in high school. She explained how COVID has impacted her life and the different ways that it was very unexpected and challenging. Yeimy explained how COVID-19 was a huge challenge in her life because her extracurricular activities were impacted due to the shut down.

She is involved with a health program internship, a boxing class, and track and even through COVID-19 she received so much support from her community that she wanted to make change and spread leadership and positivity. 

Yeimy’s message behind the mask is to spread awareness and keep people safe and protected by COVID-19.  For creating the mask she used  cloth threading and wire banded that she had sewed into the mask for the attachment around the ear. Yeimy’s favorite part of her mask was her choice of pattern design. She said it reminded her of marble; a very unique color of faded black and white patterns. Yeimy’s outcome in entering the mask design contest was to have people stay safe and smart and accept the challenges of COVID-19  with positivity and guidance. 

Written by Cianna Williams

Photographed: Elizabeth wearing Yeimy Torres Martinez’s mask

 

My Health-Activity Book is an activity book designed for children under the age of 12. It is created by the youth content curators from the REACH Youth COVID Communications team.

Each content curator worked on two pages of the activity book. They created their own unique activities in the form of word searches, a crossword, word scramble, etc. All you need to do is print out the activity pages and you have the book. We have also included the answer key in case you want to check whether you got the activities right! 

The goal of this activity book is to spread awareness and increase understanding of COVID-19 in youth through a fun and interactive activity. 

featured content

What does the COVID-19 Vaccine Do?

Tik Toks by Cheryl Ward Ministries

Cheryl Ward Ministries has created Tik Tok videos around various topics. Check them out!

I

Learn the Facts About COVID-19

CherylWardMinistries (@cherylwardministries1) | TikTok

Photographed by Quentin Torres.

covid chats PODCAST

Check out our podcast!

The interns in the Youth COVID Communications team have put together a podcast to share their opinion on a few public health topics. Listen to what our youth interns have to say!

All thoughts and opinion are of REACH members; not public health officials.

 

Episode 1 : Mental Health in the Pandemic

by Daemon, Jacob, and Tutu

ANNOUNCEMENTS

INterested in Submitting to our site?

If you are a youth (ages 11-25) or find youth content and think it belongs here, SUBMIT IT TO US!

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Any content submitted must be created by youth (11-25) or chosen by youth.

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Content must have accurate information. The source retrieved from must be reliable. Websites that end in: .gov, .org, .edu highly suggested. Must contain the latest news.

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Provide credit for any information obtained. Name the source by providing a name, if available, or a link to where you found the information/ content.

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Content should be interesting/ exciting/ engaging. Content should also be diverse; representing a range of people and perspectives.

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Content created should use language, images, music, etc. that appeal to our audience (youth).

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No cuss words or negativity aimed content will be allowed.

For full guidelines