Publication date: Jun 30, 2025

To investigate how task forces, networks, and community agencies engaged with faith-based, and ethnoracial communities to improve vaccine confidence and uptake of COVID-19 vaccines, and to understand the perceived enablers and barriers to the implementation of vaccine confidence and uptake in the Peel Region and Toronto, Ontario. Between June 2023 and March 2024, we conducted ten online focus groups with three task forces and six community agencies. We conducted four interviews with representatives from two task forces and one network. We used thematic analysis to explore respondents’ perceptions and experiences. The data revealed that trust operated at interpersonal and organizational levels, which are mutually reinforcing. At the interpersonal level, members of the task forces, network, and ambassadors from community agencies drew on relationships with members of minoritized communities by addressing community concerns on their terms and using in-person, online, regular contact, and active listening approaches. At the organizational level, trust was facilitated through conducting outreach (i. e., vaccine promotion) at trusted and familiar locations (e. g., faith-based organizations). COVID-related information was better received from community representatives who were already known and trusted among community members. Common outreach strategies included door-to-door outreach; informational videos and sessions; mass awareness-raising campaigns; townhalls; and ethnic media and social media. Community leaders play an instrumental role in establishing and sustaining trust in vaccine promotion among community members. Trust established among community leaders and ambassadors enabled vaccine promotion efforts among minoritized communities. These findings may help to further strengthen community engagement for future public health emergency responses.

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