Protecting Worker Health Through COVID-19 Webinars
The ask: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) needed to find a way to keep Worker Training Program (WTP) grantees up to date on best practices, challenges, and issues related to protecting workers who may be at risk of exposure to COVID-19.
The solution: In late March 2020, MDB launched a webinar series that delivered trainings to help workers protect themselves, their families, and their communities. The series initially took place three times a week. During Monday webinars, grantees discussed work challenges and lessons learned. Wednesday webinars focused on technical topics related to COVID-19. On Fridays, participants discussed new information about COVID-19 and its implications for worker health and safety.
As the pandemic unfolded, webinars shifted to an intermittent schedule based on grantee and stakeholder interest.
For each webinar, MDB manages logistics and facilitates discussion. Our subject matter experts present COVID-19 worker training tools that we develop, helping grantees to become more informed and better positioned to adapt each tool to their target audience.
Notable outcomes: MDB has supported more than 700 COVID-19 webinars, reaching more than 8,800 people. We record the presentations and post them on the NIEHS COVID-19 Webinars and Presentations webpage.
