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Community Champions

A visitor gives a talk and leaves. A Champion is still there next month, when someone finally decides to ask.

Why Champions matter more than staff

A Stepin staff member visiting a community is a visitor. A Community Champion lives there. She is at the market on Tuesday, at church on Sunday, at the naming ceremony and the funeral. When she says something about a lump, it carries weight that no outsider’s presentation can match — and she is still there next month when someone finally decides to ask.

This is also the only way the model scales affordably. Stepin cannot put paid staff in every community in the Western Region. It can train, support and supervise champions who are already there.

What a Community Champion does

  • Delivers cancer education sessions in her own community, using Stepin materials
  • Answers everyday questions and corrects the myths that circulate locally
  • Points people towards qualified care, and helps them understand what to expect
  • Keeps simple records of sessions and people reached
  • Feeds back what communities are actually asking and worrying about
  • Supports Stepin outreach events when they come to the area

What a Champion never does

Champions do not diagnose, do not examine, do not give medical advice and do not recommend treatment. The boundary is firm and it protects everyone — the champion, the community and Stepin. A champion’s job is to inform and to connect, never to clinically assess.

Who we are looking for

  • People rooted in their community, who others already turn to
  • Able to speak the local language comfortably — Fante, Twi, Nzema or English
  • Reliable, and able to commit for at least a year
  • Comfortable talking about the body without embarrassment
  • Willing to complete training and accept supervision

No formal health qualification is required. Market leaders, teachers, seamstresses, hairdressers, church and mosque women’s leaders, community health volunteers and survivors have all made outstanding champions elsewhere.

Training and support

  • Initial training in cancer basics, warning signs, screening and referral
  • Facilitation skills and how to handle difficult questions
  • Safeguarding, confidentiality and the limits of the role
  • Materials in the languages you will use
  • Ongoing supervision, refreshers and a network of other champions

The first Community Champion training cohort is scheduled for July 2027 in the published programme calendar, with recruitment opening earlier.

Register your interest

Champion recruitment opens ahead of the July 2027 training cohort. Tell us now and we will contact you when the intake opens for your area.