On 6 November 2018, RHDAustralia welcomes the first set of Champions to attend a workshop at Menzies School of Health Research in Darwin. The workshop, entitled 'Ambassador Orientation Program - Designing the Program from the Ground Up' is the inaugural meeting of the Champions and involves eight champions from the Northern Territory. The orientation and program development workshop is structured to allow attendees to design a program that suits them, and one that they will own.

The ‘Ambassador program’ is the term RHDAustralia uses for the program but towards the end of the day, participants find this term to be inappropriate and ‘champions’ is suggested to replace the term 'ambassador'. This is the birth of the program now called Champions4change – sharing, caring and inspiring. The Champions spent the day sharing stories, yarns and thoughts on education. The workshop generates discussions on caring about community, families and self and inspiring others to make a difference.

We hear from a staff member involved in the Fred Hollows Foundation Ambassador program. She describes the role of different ambassadors within the Fred Hollows foundation and how they have clear job descriptions, and varying roles as ambassadors. Some are volunteers and others have a contracted time allocation to Fred Hollows publicity events, others are called champions, and have experience as a recipient of Fred Hollows eye health and treatment. She highlights the necessity for clear expectations to be established for the ambassadors at the Fred Hollows Foundation. She shows a video with ambassadors/champions participating in events to highlight the power of patient stories.

We also hea from Veronica McClintic, the Elder in residence from Flinders University. Veronica briefly describes her life story, and how her experiences has always gravitated back to health. She is clear in the messages she finds most important when engaging Aboriginal people:

Bringing knowledge with us, to inform future generations
Use of interpreter services
Culturally safe practice
Need to acknowledge the social determinants of health, including crowded conditions and underrepresentation
Keeping an open mind to people’s differences
Blame is not helpful
Importance of self-care
Look for support and strong people
Use traditional healers to complement western medicine
Be proud, believe in yourself, always be learning

Veronica suggests ambassadors/champions should be well supported with mentors and training in communication skills and resilience tools.

Karl Briscoe, CEO of NATSIHWA is kind enough to join us as well. Karl gives an overview of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce in Australia, and the role played by NATSIHWA.

We watch a DVD on the Aboriginal Mental health ambassador program to give the champions a look and feel how ambassador programs can be run. Discussions identify attributes of ambassadors, and the potential to turn bad experiences into positive inspiration ones.

We really wanted the program to be developed from the bottom up. The first thing we look at is what attributes the group find important in a RHDA Champion. These attributes can be used to define the roles of the champions, they can also be used for professional development and some things that the champions can aspire to be.

Champions identify the following attributes::

Being motivated
Their heart needs to be in it
Being visible
Being able to inspire
Being passionate and compassionate
Being able to walk alongside other professionals
Being able to empower others
Advocating
Promoting healthy lifestyles
Being good listeners
Being non-judgmental
Ability to be forward thinking
Being role Models
Making people feel welcome and happy
Ability to influence others
Ablility to describe ARF and RHD in simple terms that community can understand using lingo such as heart scans (Translator/interpreter)
Being likeable and having a good attitude
Keeping up to date with facts and figures
Being able to identify at risk people and communities
Being able to educate staff
Being approachable
Having leadership qualities
Loving people
Willing to undertake community engagement
Identifying relevant resources
Mobilising support people from community
Knowing patient and people you work with and community
Taking part in regular visits
Having situational awareness

Resource requirements. This section of the program looks at what resources the champions will need to be able to do their job. The following are identified by the champions and considered important to the champions to perform their roles as champions.

Letter from RHDA to CEO’s to seek support from their workplace
A Job Description
A Toolkit or Dilly Bag; content to include simple educational resources
Links to websites-educational sessions
DVD on tips for media presentations,
Self -care strategies and links to healers,
Community engagement tips,
Ideas on physical activities for groups.
Cultural awareness and providing cross- cultural education tips and accessing interpreters.
Simple fact sheets on visiting specialists, having tests eg echos and going to surgery (make a DVD on surgery).
USB with presentations from toolkit
Facebook page
Business cards (not sure of message on these)
Talking story books
Posters
Interactive story boards especially for playgroups, preschool and schools.
Simple pamphlets
IPAD – with activities and resources already uploaded and linked to RHDA.
Games Journey for IPAD.
Resources to be able to show and explain – tactile things
Lanyards
Resources for hospitals
Support from RHDA staff
Wrist bands, stickers, caps and posters for children
Flyers
Evaluation sheets
Tshirts
Advertising banner

Activities. This section of the workshop focuses on what the program may look like:

Having an annual camp for kids and carers
Designing shirts with logo – for identification and message delivery
Regular networking with all RHDA Champions
Meeting face-to-face yearly
Setting up a group email
Regular contact and support from RHDA staff
To be managed by RHDA
Developing carers package
Integrating culture into messages and program
Education on changing the minds of individuals families and communities – open people’s minds and hearts to RHD

Community engagement. This section focuses in on who the champions feel are important to talk to. The champions feel they need support from Elders especially at the community level where they may require Elders to help with community engagement.

Other groups that will be important in their program are:

Schools and teachers, including Clontarf’s
Men’s health - camps with footy sport and youth groups, mens groups
Stars women’s health
Social media – Radio, TV, twitter and facebook
Playgroups
Community groups
Stands at festivals such as NAIDOC and careers expos (ambassador led stalls)
Ante Natal groups
Mums and bubs groups
Nurses in clinics and schools (especially new ones)
Elders

Other important conversations on the program include:

Not promising what you cannot deliver
Believing in yourself -life is about learning
Keep learning
Love yourself and be empowered
Always be proud of your Aboriginality
Always be strong don’t take things personally we cannot fix everything

RHDAustralia since 2009