Success at a Glance

Mariana Gonzales is a community health worker (CHW) and public health professional working with the Southeast Arizona Health Education Center’s (SEAHEC) Vacunas para Todos ("Vaccines for all") project. Gonzales spends several afternoons each week at the Casa Alitas shelter in Tucson, Arizona, to provide COVID-19 education and additional support to newly arrived migrant families, connecting them with services and care. For instance, in late 2021, Gonzales provided information and support to a...

The New Age Services Corporation (NASC) achieved an increase in COVID-19 vaccinations in their Chicago area communities by leveraging partnerships near and far. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) chapter nearly 700 miles away in Atlanta helped connect organizations for a COVID-19 vaccination clinic in Chicago’s West Side in March of 2022. Even City of East Point, Georgia Councilmember, Karen Rene got involved and introduced NASC to the NAACP chapter on the...

Student community health workers (CHWs) powered the work of the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) last summer by partnering with local organizations to host a health event at their local park in New Britain, Connecticut. The YWCA Youth Community Health Workers provided a mobile vaccination station, complete with services to help with housing insecurity, domestic violence, and drug abuse. Fourteen individuals were vaccinated during the event, and 250 back-to-school supply kits and gift...

At Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency (WMCAA), the work revolves around connecting community members to resources that support their physical, mental, and financial health. For example, WMCAA holds a recurring event at the Inkster Housing Commission at which their staff provides accurate information about COVID-19 to residents. Also, at the local Saunders Memorial A.M.E. Church, the WMCAA mobile health unit distributed informational fliers to help community members navigate questions or...

 Barn quilts are bright, familiar sights in rural parts of the United States, and the Vermillion Cultural Association (VCA) recently took barn quilt-making to new heights in a traveling health education effort. Barn Quilt Project: South Dakota Strong in collaboration with Creative Care LLC drew on the cultural history of quilt-making among both indigenous and European settler communities. “The Barn Quilt Project connected familiar quilt traditions with stories of resilience throughout the COVID...

If there’s one way to get a child’s attention, it’s probably superheroes...and a dinosaur! At least that was the approach United Way of Coastal Fairfield County, Connecticut, took to make vaccine clinics more inviting for children. Adult staff dressed in superhero costumes, and the chief executive officer greeted children in an inflatable Tyrannosaurus Rex costume to help spread the word about vaccinations. During the Omicron surge, one clinic provided over 200 vaccinations.

By integrating essential social services with their COVID-19 outreach, the Leadership Council for Healthy Communities (LCHC) Vaccine Equity and Inclusion Initiative Team saw abundant success in their Washington, DC community. Through partnerships with the Virtual Health Ministry and Choose Health Life program, residents were referred to vaccination and testing opportunities along with mental health, substance abuse, domestic violence, and other services. The team also identified and trained...

From a community survey, the Eastside Community Network (ECN) learned that many people felt their community lacked quality providers. So ECN sprang into action, and hosted its first health fair in Detroit in November 2021, aiming to connect community members with healthcare insurance companies that offer access to credentialed providers in the community.

The Corner Health Center offers health care and supportive services for young people transitioning to adulthood in Ypsilanti, Michigan. During a Juneteenth celebration, the Center hosted a talk by a well-known pediatrician who spoke about health in communities of color, persuading skeptical friends, families, and young people to be vaccinated. One mother attending the talk appreciated the presentation, but shared with staff that she felt defeated in trying to convince her hesitant family to be...

At the Muslim American Foundation Event “Awoowe, COVID, and I,” the Somali Health Board surveyed several families about their understanding of COVID-19 and the vaccines. While many raised concerns and misconceptions, one parent’s story stood out in particular. They shared how a friend of a friend was vaccinated while pregnant and then had a miscarriage. For this reason, the parent and her family members decided not to vaccinate themselves or their children, believing they would become infertile...

Doriandra Smith is a problem solver. As the program manager for Whiteaker Community Council in Eugene, Oregon, she was given the task to see a COVID-19 street mural project to fruition. After eight months of developing a pilot program with the city and an arduous artist selection process, the plan was approved and assigned dates. The project then encountered multiple roadblocks, including a conflicting World Athletics Championship, paint shortages, vandalism, and protests. Smith jumped in to...

A design award and vaccinations were just a few of the results of the University of Alabama Department of Art & Art History’s efforts to bridge the arts and health to vaccinate Alabamans. Design professor Jonathan Cumberland’s “vaccine confidence” posters, which won a national award from Graphic Design USA, highlighted community-oriented messages like “Protect Sunday Pot Luck” and “Hurry, Let Children Play Again” with evocative imagery and brilliant colors. “This project helped to make new...

Inspired by the colorful poster of a teen boy holding an oversized vaccine syringe under the heading “Be a community hero!,” a curious young man entered the Spy Hop Productions digital media arts center in Salt Lake City, Utah, to look around. The center was hosting a block party and offering the public an opportunity to engage with the newly launched, student-led Vax2theMax 2.0. This campaign included creative posters, a “Pathogens” video game, and screening of a public service announcement...

The exhibit, “Return to Normal? COVID Diaries from Local Youth,” was created by two artists with the input of local high school and college students, and organized by St. Paul, Minnesota-based Springboard for the Arts. The students created diary-style artworks in multiple mediums inspired by interviews with local healthcare workers exploring the pandemic’s emotional toll. “It was humanizing because we all look up to healthcare workers and even though they were strong, they struggled through the...

Nearly 2,000 people viewed a COVID-19 film “My Community/Mi Comunidad” created by a Latino filmmaker at the Museo de las Americas’ Cultural First Friday event in July 2022. The film featured the voices of local Latino artists who shared their experiences with the COVID-19 vaccine. Volunteers distributed flyers and surveys to interested visitors, and 81% of respondents answered that they were likely to receive the COVID-19 vaccine or booster after seeing the film.  Funding for this effort is made...

When a member of the COVID-19 outreach team for the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based Latino Community Center contacted a single mother of four about the COVID-19 vaccine, the mother was extremely resistant. Not only did she ignore their voicemail messages, she actually hung up on a team member who called her a week later. Although they didn’t know it, the Center's “COVID-Champions” had been successful in planting the seed of change. Eventually, the mother called back with questions – what were the...

Doris Toure had her first COVID-19 vaccine months before the doubts began to creep in, and soon she became skeptical about whether or not she would need a second dose. That is, until she met Vanessa Jackson, a community health advocate with Jefferson Health Foundation - New Jersey at a Vaccine Equity Event held in a Camden laundromat. While discussing Toure’s uncertainty, Jackson explained the reasons why the second dose was important. “Ms. Toure was kind and listened to the data I shared with...

Throughout their COVID-19 vaccination efforts, Arts Alliance Illinois has relied on the voices of trusted community members. Some of these voices have been heard in conversation at a Carbondale, Illinois barbershop, where Black men of all ages often gather. As part of the Arts Alliance project, a local artist painted a mural on the side of the barbershop’s building, commemorating the many generations of men who have found their community at the barbershop. Inspired by their surroundings...

As a “healing community” of people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS working to end AIDS and homelessness, Housing Works, Inc. continued to serve their community throughout the pandemic. As part of a slate of COVID-19 community testing events, vaccination clinics, telehealth services, and more, Housing Works, Inc. also conducted a survey to better understand clients’ reasons for declining or putting off the COVID-19 vaccine. The survey results helped outreach teams to build trust with clients...

As communities across the nation and world struggled to adjust to the pandemic, some also had the added challenge of facing anti-Asian racism. In response, Asian Media Access debuted their dance drama “Resonance” in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The drama’s narrative mirrored the composer’s experience over the course of the pandemic, using dances and traditional body movements to illustrate the complex journey through learning about the existence of COVID-19, recognizing the disaster, feeling angry...

This original music video features dynamic animated characters performing an original hip hop song encouraging people to ignore misinformation and get vaccinated for COVID-19. One of seven animated videos, this piece features the voice of Grammy®-winning rapper and Hip Hop Public Health Advisory Board member Darryl DMC McDaniels of Run-DMC, who worked alongside award-winning producer Artie Green and singer-songwriter Gerry Gunn.  Funding for this effort is made possible through a subaward from...

Studio Two Three’s Stronger Together project was designed in response to a critical health equity gap in Richmond, Virginia. Understanding the community’s pandemic fatigue, Kate Fowler, the director of partnerships and development, alongside primary partners at Richmond Public Schools, created and launched a series of community field days in which participants ran races and played games. One thousand “Stronger Together: Get Vaccinated” tote bags and t-shirts were distributed, along with a...

The Utah Health Policy Project (UHPP) delivers healthcare solutions for underserved Utahns. Throughout the pandemic, UHPP dispatched various Health Access Assisters to attend local events and reach residents with accurate information about COVID-19. At one event, these Assisters helped initially reluctant families get vaccinated while learning about health, insurance coverage, and school and family resources. An Assister found "D" in line at their re-entry fair providing support for those...

Dad’s Garage Theatre Company, a non-profit in Atlanta, Georgia, has a passion for Improvisational comedy. The team threw their creative energies into helping their community get vaccinated for COVID-19. Throughout the spring and summer of 2022, the group put on hour-long vaccine themed improv shows. Four actors and a musician created the first half of the show by playing improvised scenes based on live suggestions from the audience, while working in information about the importance of COVID-19...

The La Familia food distribution extravaganza in South Hayward, California distributed boxes of food and information about COVID-19 vaccines and testing to 500 people in a single day. At this event, COVID-19 vaccinations were given to 94 community residents, most of whom were Latinx day laborers receiving their first doses. La Familia attributes its success to establishing trust with community residents by meeting their basic human needs, and providing accurate information about COVID-19 and the...

In early 2022, radio personality DJ Big Boi of Panama City, Florida, station 99.3 posted a message on Facebook about contracting COVID-19: “Mild symptoms! Very mild. Thank God for the shots!!!! I’ll be broadcast from home this week.” LEAD Coalition of Bay County, Inc. saw an opportunity and asked Big Boi to put his testimony on a billboard in the city. He agreed, and his message – “Thanks to the COVID Vaccine I survived COVID!” – was the beginning of a series of collaborations with LEAD to...

Public Health Solutions (PHS) began delivering COVID-19 Vaccine Ambassador training during the pandemic, featuring clear descriptions and demonstrations of how COVID-19 spreads. “Our training provided a good springboard on how to engage vaccine hesitancy with Jamaica Queens community members,” said Morales, a PHS member. One vaccine ambassador trainee evolved from spreading misinformation about nefarious government strategies to becoming a community vaccine advocate.