Strengthening Immunity Within Community: A Tale of Co-Creation

In the world of translation, access to information is king. It’s why we exist. It’s why we do what we do.

Sometimes, access to information can help people improve their quality of life, make more appropriate purchases, and make informed decisions. Every once in a while, there comes an initiative that’s bigger than just translation, an initiative that is not just about access, but rather about community, connection, and resonance.

This is the story of an initiative that was not just about translation but about impact. In July of 2023, after months of working closely with multiple CALD communities, LEXIGO launched the “Strengthening immunity within community” initiative, a healthcare promotion initiative, co-created with input from over 10 CALD communities. The initiative serves as an essential platform for conveying critical in-language information about COVID-19 to various communities across Australia. The goal of the initiative is to ensure that crucial information regarding vaccination, protection, treatment, safety and support reaches every corner of society.

Aside from access to the information for the communities we sought to serve, there was also ensuring that it resonated with them too. Over several months, LEXIGO worked closely with all the target communities to craft the message and the information in a way that speaks to them. We facilitated co-creation sessions with every single community, drawing upon extensive research conducted within each community to inform the sessions and ensure that we got the best outcome possible.

Community members with lived experiences in each group played a pivotal role in the co-creation process, helping us make sure that the messaging directly addressed the unique needs and concerns of each community. We also worked with community ambassadors to extract invaluable insights into the community’s experiences throughout the pandemic and how these experiences influenced their perception of COVID-19.

The primary goal of the initiative is to bridge communication barriers and facilitate dialogue between individuals who predominantly communicate in their native languages and their family members, friends, carers and English-speaking community members. By connecting with members of each community, we were able to craft messaging that helps initiate these conversations between community members, as well as provides essential information in-language for them to make informed decisions.

Our founder and CEO, Mark Saba, highlighted the importance of crafting messaging that resonates with communities in a way that reflects their everyday lives and experiences.

“We are proud to partner with the Department of Health and Aged Care on this vital initiative. We know that 21% of Australians use a language other than English at home, which means almost a quarter of Australians are often overlooked when it comes to accessing reliable healthcare information and services. Even flawless English speakers often connect more deeply with content in their native or second language, allowing key messages to truly resonate.”

The distinctive approach of co-creating the initiative with communities helped LEXIGO avoid the potential confusion and misunderstandings that can arise from merely translating content intended for English speakers. Through extensive research to understand the characteristics, context, priorities and perspectives of these key cultural groups, we were able to create tailored content, social media strategies and traditional media strategies for each unique cultural and linguistic group.

With that research and the co-creation sessions, we were able to craft carefully designed headlines and calls to action that resonate with each community. A QR code system implemented on all campaign materials redirects individuals to a landing page that can be read in their preferred language, including access to information in English, to promote cross-cultural communication.

LEXIGO’s Head of Client Strategy, Tony Lee, emphasised the importance of this project in providing essential information to people from different communities.

“By tailoring each element of the initiative to the community we are engaging, we’re able to deliver health messages in a way that really resonates with community members.”

The initiative information disseminated across all the target communities through community leaders and organisations. LEXIGO is also connected with community members for feedback to ensure the messaging remains relevant and impactful for the duration of the initiative. So far, approximately 800,000 people have been reached across all the targeted cultural groups Australia-wide.

It is incredibly important to ensure that critical information isn’t just translated for distribution, but for understanding and impact as well. We hope that this approach will become the standard for communicating with CALD communities across Australia.