Thomas Breen photo
City Health Director Bond (right) getting vaccinated in late December.
The city Health Department has teed up two new initiatives that — pending state and federal approval — would make it easier for local communities of color to get vaccinated against Covid-19.
During Monday night’s full Board of Alders meeting, which was held online via Zoom and YouTube, local legislators unanimously signed off on city requests to apply for and accept grant money to fund those health equity and education programs.
One of those programs would be funded by an estimated $508,000 Covid-19 Vaccine Equity grant from the state Department of Public Health.
In documents submitted to the Board of Alders and in a phone interview with the Independent Monday night, city Health Director Maritza Bond said that this grant money will be used to fund door-to-door vaccine canvassing efforts between May 1 and Aug. 31.
Community organizers in Fair Haven have undertaken that very door-knocking model of neighbor-to-neighbor outreach through the Vaccinate Fair Haven campaign. (Pictured below.)
Nydia Jimenez and Ellieben Acosta-Harris (right) canvassing in March for Vaccinate Fair Haven.
Bond said that this grant — which is “noncompetitive” and, therefore, will definitely be awarded to the city once her department completes the application — would allow the city to work with a variety of partners to get out the word about to local Black and Hispanic communities about the importance of getting vaccinated. She said the city is prepared to work with Fair Haven Community Health Care, Cornell Scott Hill Health Center, Junta for Progressive Action, and URU The Right to Be, Inc., among other partners, to undertake the canvassing and outreach effort.
“To address the COVID-19 vaccine inequities by a grassroots movement of community engagement,” Bond wrote to the alders in a summary of the main goals of this grant-funded initiative.
She and city Health Programs Director Brooke Logan further described this effort’s goals as to “maintain and expand community partnerships to achieve high penetration through door-to-door canvassing, out-bound calling and mobile vaccine clinic outreach”; to “hire staff to assist with Vaccine Equity work”; and to “develop platforms and networks for vaccination education and awareness, including but not limited to paid advertising, media, language bank services and trusted messenger forums.”
Health Literacy Campaigned Planned For “Highly Competitive” Grant
Zoom
Monday night’s virtual Board of Alders meeting.
The alders also unanimously approved on Monday night the city’s request to apply for and accept a grant from the United States Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH) and the Office of Minority Health (OMH) to implement “evidence-based health literacy strategies that are culturally appropriate to enhance Covid-19 testing, contact tracing and other Covid-19 mitigation measures.”
Bond said that this grant would be worth $4 million. And, unlike the noncompetitive state grant for health equity, this federal grant is “highly competitive.” The city plans to submit its application in the coming days, and expects to find out if will be getting any money through this grant by July 1.
If the city’s application is successful, then the city would build out a “Covid-19 health literacy campaign” over the next two years, Bond said.
In a summary written for the Board of Alders, she said that this grant proposal will “focus on residents from neighborhoods that have had disproportionate impacts as indicated by Covid-19 infections, hospitalizations, deaths, and economic impacts. To this end, a Covid-19 Health Literacy Campaign with culturally tailored strategies and messaging will be implemented and direct outreach to community members will be conducted.
“The focus of the outreach will be to link community members to medical and social services care, as well as economic development opportunities. To achieve these goals, the New Haven Health Department will work with several non-profit community partners.”
Later in that aldermanic submission, Bond described the planned “health literacy strategies” as including “targeted marketing campaigns that reach Black, indigenous, people of color in Covid-19 hotspots.”
And she told the Independent Monday night that the grant would fund the creation of a community advisory board focused on getting the word out in multiple languages across the city about the importance of getting vaccinated, wearing masks, and other pandemic-era public health matters.