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