Baltimore Healthy Start (BHS) is among the community-based organizations to receive $100,000 in funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to support local efforts to improve access to the COVID-19 vaccine among those disproportionately affected by COVID-19, and to increase vaccine uptake by expanding COVID-19 vaccine programs. The funding was made available by the American Rescue Plan and the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act.
The Baltimore Healthy Start Vaccine Equity and Access Project is designed to address racial and socio-economic disparities in COVID-19 vaccination rates, as demonstrated by the lower vaccination rates among the highly vulnerable population of the BHS Project Area. The project objectives are to:
- Deploy trained BHS community health workers in door-to-door residential outreach and business district outreach in the project area to provide information, answer questions, and schedule residents for vaccinations;
- Train non-BHS community members to be vaccine ambassadors through equipping them with knowledge and materials to address their neighbors’ concerns and questions about the COVID-19 vaccine, and resources to aid them in scheduling neighbors for vaccinations;
- Utilize social media and radio ads to provide correct information and dispel myths surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine, and to publicize upcoming community vaccination clinics;
- Provide additional vaccination opportunities by holding vaccination clinics at the BHS Neighborhood Healthy Start Center;
- Facilitate completion of vaccinations arranged, at both the Healthy Start Center and other sites, by offering transportation assistance to project area residents to and from their vaccination appointments.
Although the main outreach strategies (door-to-door residential and business district canvassing) will reach all residents equally, through BHS’s relationships with its clients and community partners, the outreach strategy will make special effort to engage the following groups:
- Pregnant and breastfeeding women, and their family members and their support networks, including male partners who have very low vaccination rates and could transmit to vulnerable family members;
- Teenagers, who have very low vaccination rates and could transmit to vulnerable family members;
- Older residents living in multi-generational households;
- Residents living with chronic health conditions, such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
The project was developed by Lashelle Stewart and Maxine Reed-Vance of Baltimore Healthy Start, and the grant proposal was written by Peter Schafer.