Trusted Teen CommUNITY

Summary

In 2025, Unity Consortium committed to advancing vaccine confidence among adolescents by scaling a youth-led, community-based Teen CommUNITY Leaders (TCL) model in underserved regions of the United States. This commitment addresses alarming disparities in adolescent vaccine coverage and trust, especially in rural and Southern communities where HPV, flu, and COVID-19 vaccination rates are well below national goals of 80% coverage rates.
Through its partnership with Voices for Vaccines (VFV) , Unity will train and deploy 10,000 TCLs, paired with trained adult mentors from VFV’s national network, to deliver accurate, culturally relevant vaccine information to community members through in-person events and online messaging. Unity will leverage existing vaccine provider partners to refer young people to youth-friendly vaccine providers in their communities. Unity’s initiative offers a replicable model to drive vaccine uptake and combat misinformation.

Approach

Unity Consortium will partner with Voices for Vaccines (VFV) and their established national network of Adult Vaccine Ambassadors to develop a network of 10,000 trained Teen CommUNITY Leaders (TCLs) to combat disinformation and support young people in getting vaccinated.
Unity Consortium will layer training and education on vaccine knowledge with adult mentorship and communications support. The training curriculum, designed by Unity, will be implemented in a series of webinars featuring Unity member subject area experts. In addition to vaccine education, the webinars will focus on countering vaccine hesitancy through immunization awareness and community engagement. Content will include the importance of immunization for maintaining life-long health and community/cultural humility training to reflect diverse population experiences. Training will focus on identifying and developing relationships with community partners to strengthen outreach efforts.
TCLs will next be trained on using digital and in-person platforms to share credible vaccine information, respond to community concerns and questions, foster community engagement, and support access to vaccination. TCLs will engage in community education, with each TCL participating in two community events annually and sharing once per month with their online networks. These activities will be supported through an online portal with a turnkey communications toolkit (e.g. social media templates, blogs, infographics) . TCLs will work closely with their local adult mentor to support these activities and ensure sustained engagement and impact.
TCL education will include direction on available vaccination services in their communities. Unity will leverage existing vaccine provider partners with local community presence, including AIM (Local Public Health) , APhA (Pharmacists) , NCICP (Immunization Coalitions) , NASN (School Nurses) , and SAHM (Adolescent Health Physicians) . TCLs will be able to locate local vaccinators with online rosters of community health providers/clinics; pharmacy locations offering adolescent vaccines; school nurse directories; immunization events; and adolescent medicine providers in their communities.

Action Plan

YEAR ONE:
Q1/2: PREPARATION – Partner with Voices for Vaccines ambassadors and adult mentors to identify and select TCLs within their community, based on Unity guidance and criteria.
Unity to develop with subject area experts educational and training multi-course curriculum for adult mentors and TCLs, including topics of adolescent preventive health/vaccines, parent/teen research insights, community engagement, adolescent communication strategies, and messaging.
Develop tools for TCL outreach activities, including community engagement planning documents, presentations, social media templates, blogs, and infographics. Develop monitoring and reporting metrics, tools, reporting and analysis.
Plan requirements and structure of an online relationship hub for adult mentors and TCLs. Functions may include: enrollment, multi-node communications and connectivity, training materials and resources, honoraria/award fulfillment, participant/community surveys, and continuous monitoring and data collection.
Q2: EDUCATION INITIATION – Conduct initial online educational and training sessions (3) for TCLs and adult mentors. Initiate outreach to establish partnerships with local organizations based on Unity partner connections and introductions and begin community engagement planning.
MEASUREMENT – Initiate TCL program tracking for impact assessment using vaccine uptake data (pre/post) , engagement metrics, and community feedback surveys. Unity to monitor monthly, using an established feedback loop, and provide guidance to mentors/TCLs.
Q3/4: IMPLEMENTATION – Initiate community engagement per TCL plans, including social media messaging, integration into existing platforms, and presentations at community educational events.
MEASUREMENT – Assess first year performance, identify areas for expansion/improvement, and evolve the program.
CERTIFICATION – Provide certificates of accomplishment to mentors and TCLs at one-year program completion.
YEAR TWO:
Continue educational and training webinars and TCL program implementation and assessment. Monitor, report, assess, and enhance the program. Identify new adult mentors and TCLs. Scale program with new partners and plan for future partners to expand reach/impact.

Background

The CDC’s National Immunization Survey (NIS) -Teen survey reveals notable differences in vaccine coverage among adolescents aged 13-17 by vaccine and demographic subpopulations. In 2023, HPV vaccination rates were stagnant at 61%, flu at 48% and COVID-19 at 18%; all far below the Healthy People 2030 goal of 80%.
Several sociodemographic factors impact vaccination coverage. Regional and community differences affect trust in vaccine information. Teens in the South and Midwest have lower trust levels in vaccine sources compared to the Northeast and West, and rural/suburban teens have the lowest trust in public health and government agencies (Unity Consortium, 2024) .

Furthermore, uninsured adolescents have lower vaccination rates than those privately insured, despite the fact that vaccines are available to young people with no out-of-pocket costs. The Vaccine for Children program covers Medicaid, Alaska/Native Americans, under-/uninsured <19 years; the Affordable Care Act requires coverage of all CDC-recommended vaccines. Evidence shows that as social media networks expanded, so did the proliferation of anti-vaccine messages and vaccine hesitancy among adolescents (Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, 2024) . Despite these trends, the most trusted sources of information for adolescents are family, peers, schools, family doctors, and other medical professionals (Cadeddu, 2021) . Recent lessons on best practices about vaccine education were derived from the COVID-19 pandemic. Supportive evidence for trusted messenger programs has been observed in rural (Reichelt et al, 2023) , Indigenous (Tutt et al, 2022) , and other minority communities with students and young people. Concise and integrated peer health education designed to address mistrust and knowledge deficiencies can be effective in improving the uptake of adolescent vaccines (Pasek, 2021) . These programs illustrate the importance of understanding local norms, information needs, resources, and the role of known individuals within communities to deliver credible, accurate vaccine information.[commitment-title title='Progress Update'] [commitment-title title='Partnership Opportunities'] Unity Consortium seeks funding, community engagement partners, communications and media expertise, and adolescent preventive health and immunization advocacy to enhance the program's impact, reach, and sustainability. Unity seeks implementation partners with 1) an existing community health education/advocacy program employing adolescent communication strategies, 2) a proven track record with significant regional/national reach, 3) local healthcare advisors, experts, and/or leaders to mentor TCL's, and 4) implementation capacity.,Unity Consortium is a non-profit organization that unites diverse stakeholders across public and private sectors with a shared commitment: protecting adolescents and young adults from vaccine-preventable diseases to support lifelong health. Unity includes immunization experts, public health leaders, healthcare professionals, researchers, advocacy groups, and industry partners who develop evidence-based, national strategies around adolescent immunization. A core strength is the intentional inclusion of adolescent and young adult voices in decision-making. Unity is action-oriented, youth-informed, and dedicated to making adolescent immunization a priority. Unity offers this expertise in adolescent preventive health and vaccines; access to science-based, engaging and easy to understand vaccine resources; mentorship for youth advocates; and collaboration opportunities with Unity's esteemed members who lead adolescent health and vaccine organizations. The TTC program is a turnkey offering including education, training, communication resources, and tools that can be implemented in local communities to support adolescent preventive health and address vaccine mis/disinformation.