Promoting Health Literacy Among Adult ELLs Virtually During COVID-19

The adult English language learner (ELL) population is often overlooked in health literacy discussions, which can result in perpetuating low health literacy and unfamiliarity with and low access to community resources. Health literacy interventions can reduce the impacts of social determinants of health. We examine the experience of a virtual health literacy educational course, Health in the English Language, for ELLs at Alaska Literacy Program (ALP), an Anchorage nonprofit. Our class was designed to help students navigate interactions with health care services, including medical care, pharmacy, health insurance, and nutrition resources. After 2 years of in-person teaching by university undergraduates, COVID-19 required a pivot to virtual instruction in Zoom in the summer of 2020. Instructors describe lessons learned and adjusting to student needs, community-building and personal connections, and the complexities of the topic of health literacy. ALP collaboration with university students continues to be a successful partnership to build health literacy capacity. Adoption of virtual instruction during COVID demonstrated the role that partnerships between nonprofits and university students can play to benefit all partners in the collaboration.