The City of Toronto VaxTO Campaign, which helps connect residents with COVID-19 vaccination information and resources, has expanded its outreach to include a call centre and multilingual web microsites as well as social and digital advertising.
Residents can now connect to vaccination information in the language of their choice through one of 12 translated City microsites. Language options are aligned to the Sprint Strategy 2.0 neighbourhoods and include French, Chinese (simplified), Chinese (traditional), Farsi (Persian), Portuguese, Spanish, Urdu, Vietnamese, Bengali, Italian, Tamil and Tagalog.
VaxTO is also expanding multilingual social and digital advertising efforts across popular social platforms WeChat, Reddit, Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram.
A VaxTO call centre is launching today to begin outreach to individuals residing in areas with lower vaccination rates to help them book their first and second dose vaccine appointments. Staff at the call centre will be proactively calling up to 4,100 residents per week as well as working with the Vaccine Engagement Teams to help remove barriers, with a focus on Northwest Toronto and seniors across the city.
Since its launch, the VaxTO campaign has called more than 1 million phone numbers across the city to share vaccine and town hall information. It has connected 6,519 people to the provincial vaccine appointment booking line, reached over 2 million Torontonians through targeted digital ads and received more than 16,000 messages to the text line, which offers 14 language options and a postal code lookup to provide residents with a list of their nearest City-run vaccination clinics and pharmacies. Six telephone town halls have been hosted, five of which were ward-specific, to address local concerns and issues.
The next telephone town hall takes place tonight at 6 p.m. for residents in Scarborough-Guildwood with Councillor Paul Ainslie, as well as representatives from Toronto Public Health and local vaccine engagement teams. Residents can sign up for the telephone town hall by texting “VACCINE” to 1-833-750-0888 or by listening via webstream at toronto.ca/vaccinetownhall.
Quotes:
“There is a positive and energetic momentum in the city right now around COVID-19 vaccinations and it’s something we can’t afford to lose. The multilingual VaxTO campaign has been highly effective at answering residents’ questions about the vaccine and helping them find their way to vaccine appointments. As we face the new Delta variant, it’s more important than ever to continue our efforts of removing all barriers to vaccination, which includes expansion of our multilingual functionalities and the addition of a call centre focusing outreach on the most vulnerable areas in our city.”
– Mayor John Tory
“Build every bridge and break down every barrier to vaccination – that’s been our approach since Day One. Through the VaxTO call centre and multilingual microsites, we’ll be making direct connections with Torontonians in the languages they speak, and providing information and support to help people book their vaccination appointments. This is all part of our commitment to reaching every resident, in every corner of our city, and ensuring that everyone is able to get fully vaccinated.”
– Councillor Joe Cressy (Spadina-Fort York), Chair of the Toronto Board of Health
Toronto is home to more than 2.9 million people whose diversity and experiences make this great city Canada’s leading economic engine and one of the world’s most diverse and livable cities. As the fourth largest city in North America, Toronto is a global leader in technology, finance, film, music, culture and innovation, and consistently places at the top of international rankings due to investments championed by its government, residents and businesses. For more information visit the City’s website or follow us on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.