Northern Ontario First Nation encourages youth vaccination with video contest
CBC
A northeastern Ontario First Nation has turned to humour to encourage young Indigenous people to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
Sagamok Anishnawbek First Nation, located west of Greater Sudbury, received a $25,000 grant from the Public Health Agency of Canada to host a video competition to encourage young people to get fully vaccinated.
"One of the things we're seeing with respect to the demographics is there is a bit of a skew towards younger people, in particular younger males that aren't getting vaccinated with as high a frequency as some other demographics," said Sean Cassidy, Sagamok Anishnawbek's communications coordinator.
"And there's not many better ways to target people under the age of 30 than with TikTok or YouTube, because that's what they relate to."
Cassidy has credited Nicole Eshkakogan, Sagamok Anishnawbek's director of community wellness, with the idea to turn to young storytellers to reach their peers on social media.
"I think what we've seen across Indigenous Canada and the United States is that COVID-19 has produced an opportunity to bring back our culture and our way of knowing," Eshkakogan said. "I have never seen so many Indigenous artists from our grassroots up to our professionals really taking the lead on keeping our people safe and helping us to choose fun over frustration when it comes to the health impacts of COVID-19 within our communities."
Cassidy said they received video submissions from as far as Alberta.
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