Community Health Champions
Community Health Champions are volunteers who receive regular updates on health and wellbeing in a variety of formats. They share this information within their communities to help improve awareness and support healthier lives.
Becoming a Community Health Champion gives you the chance to make a positive impact, gain knowledge, feel empowered, and more.
Sign up to be Community Health Champion in Newham
Katie's Story
Katie became a Community Health Champion at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic because she wanted to help her community access accurate health information during a time of uncertainty.
Working closely with Newham's Public Health team, Katie played an important role in sharing reliable information, listening to residents' concerns, and helping people make informed decisions about their health. Through activities such as her weekly Green Couch event, information sessions and community outreach, she has continued to support local people beyond the pandemic.
For Katie, one of the greatest strengths of the Community Health Champions programme is the trust built between Champions, residents and professionals. She is particularly proud that Newham's approach became recognised nationally, with other areas learning from the model developed locally.
"Knowing that I have helped someone make an informed decision about their health or provided reassurance in a time of uncertainty is deeply fulfilling."
Katie also highlights the importance of ensuring that Deaf, Disabled and seldom-heard communities are fully included in health communications, a lesson that continues to shape community engagement today.
Community Health Champion since 2020.
Community Health Champions in Newham
The Community Health Champions network builds on COVID-19 Health Champions network. It empowers Newham residents to remain up to date on information about things to do with health and wellbeing that matter to them. We currently provide information on cost of living (Cost of Living Champions), general health information (Community Health Champions), screening (Breast Screening Champions) & autism (Autism Champions).
To learn more about Community Health Champion programmes in Newham and how to sign up, check the boxes below.
Cost of Living Champions
If you’d like to play a key part in helping your family, friends, colleagues and community know where support is available, please do sign up. You’ll get regular updates on cost of living support, helping to get information out to support people when they need and want it.
Autism Champions
Do you want to help us build an autism friendly community? We want to build a community of autism champions in Newham, to spread the word and get Newham talking Autism. Would you like to get involved in helping us in your spare time and when you are out and about in the community? This may involve sharing flyers or posters at your local store, letting friends, family, neighbours or local people know about events happening in your area. If you are interested in being an autism champ we would like to hear from you. Please email Autism.Commissioning@newham.gov.uk to register your interest in becoming an autism champion.
Breast Screening Champions
We are proud to have recruited 18 local Breast Screening Champions who are helping to raise awareness of breast screening across Newham. Our champions share important information in ways that work best for their communities, including coffee mornings, conversations with neighbours and family members, community events, faith settings, and formal presentations.
Following the overwhelmingly positive feedback from our current champions, we will soon be recruiting a second cohort of Breast Screening Champions.
As a Breast Screening Champion, you will:
- Attend a 2-hour in-person training session.
- Have 4 to 6 conversations with community members in any format that works for you.
- Share your experiences, learning, and achievements with the project team.
Champions will receive training, resources, key information about breast screening, and access to ongoing support through drop-in sessions.
Recruitment for our next cohort will open soon.
2025 Highlights
Six Essential Seminars
As part of the Community Health Champions programme, Newham Public Health worked in partnership with the Race Equality Forum to deliver a series of six online health seminars exploring the links between health and race.
The seminars covered key topics affecting our communities, including mental health, eating for health, moving for health, women’s cancer awareness, men’s cancer awareness, and heart health. Each session featured expert speakers who shared accessible information, highlighted inequalities, and signposted to local support and services.
The live seminar series has now concluded, but recordings and resources from all sessions are available to access online. These materials can be shared and revisited to support learning, conversation, and action within families and communities.
Covid-19 Health and Wellbeing Champions
The Newham Covid-19 Health Champions programme was running May 2020 - end of 2021 with over 500 residents participating. Through grassroots efforts and collaborative engagement, Covid-19 Health Champions have played a pivotal role in disseminating vital health information, promoting vaccine uptake, and supporting vulnerable residents.
The evaluation report highlights their significant contributions in fostering resilience and unity within the community amidst the ongoing crisis, underscoring the importance of local empowerment in public health initiatives