Background: In October 2020, Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) established the National COVID-19 Resiliency Network (NCRN) as part of the National Infrastructure for Mitigating the Impact of COVID-19 within Racial and Ethnic Minority Communities (NIMIC) Initiative. NIMIC is a three-year (2020-2023) cooperative agreement between the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health and MSM to coordinate a strategic network of national, state, territorial, tribal and local organizations to deliver culturally and linguistically appropriate COVID-19 –related resources to communities disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.

Methods: NCRN’s objectives include identifying and engaging disproportionately impacted communities; nurturing existing and develop new partnerships; disseminating culturally and linguistically appropriate information; leveraging technology to connect communities to resources, monitoring and evaluating outcomes and impact, and applying comprehensive dissemination methods. NCRN integrates research, community engagement, technology and communications strategy to accomplish these objectives.

Results: Partners include community-based organizations, academic institutions, health care facilities, clinician networks, hospital systems, faith-based organizations, and federal agencies. 227 organizations are subscribed to NCRN to be informed when new COVID-19 related information and resources become available. 256 organizations have joined the NCRN Regional Community Coalition (RCC), with 186 attendees attending the first convening. There were 5,986 users of the digital tool between October 12, 2020 – March 15, 2021.

Conclusion: NCRN is conducting formative research to understand the informational and service needs of communities and tailor a health communication campaign using commercial marketing strategies for them. The aim of the campaign is to help drive equitable promotion and delivery and uptake of COVID-19 testing, COVID-19 vaccination, and recommended health behaviors.

Background: In a rapidly evolving pandemic, development of targeted messaging that is user-centered, responsive, and evidence-based is crucial. Most behavior change methodologies, including social marketing, rely on formative research, to understand knowledge, barriers, facilitators, and current practices prior to developing an intervention. When time is of the essence, a more agile, user-centered approach is needed to consider psychosocial factors influencing decision-making and to engage and build on community member’s knowledge, trust, and experience. Persona-building is a valuable tool considering user’s goals/aspirations, current behaviors, barriers, communications preferences. This case study, from the National COVID-19 Resiliency Network (NCRN), will highlight how the persona building exercise, included in the CBPM training of community leaders, elicited important insights that mirrored findings from ongoing formative research with the Hispanic/Latinx community.

Methods: A six-week virtual capacity building course was provided to community leaders. Course participants identified a behavioral focus related to COVID-19 vaccine uptake, selected an audience segment, and leveraged their community insights, experience, and expertise to inform an audience persona.

Results: Findings from the persona building exercise and independent focus groups with the Hispanic/Latinx community showed similar themes emerge related to vaccine development mistrust, government engagement, access issues, language concerns, rampant misinformation through social networks/media, and preferences for communication channels and spokespersons for information needs.

Conclusions: Using a collaborative, rapid, persona-building approach is an effective method for the generation of audience insights and triangulation of multiple sources of qualitative audience research for the development and design of communication-based strategies for COVID-19 vaccine uptake.