Vaccine Outreach Grant Concludes
In 2021, SWACH was awarded a $1 million grant from the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) to lead the Mobilizing Culturally Appropriate Community-Based Workforce to Increase COVID-19 Vaccine Access Project (MCAW). The MCAW project funded several cohorts of Community-Based Workers to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate outreach, education, and access to COVID-19 vaccines. The project also aimed to increase vaccination rates in Southwest Washington. We were grateful to work with seven remarkable community partners during this project, including:
Clark County Fire and Rescue
Lutheran Community Services Northwest
Sea Mar CSNW
Share Vancouver
Southwest Washington Equity Coalition (SWEC)
Washington Gorge Action Program (WAGAP)
Youth and Family Link
The CBWs in this cohort built trust in our communities through engagement activities, including door-to-door outreach, standalone vaccine pop-up events, coordination with existing community events to include vaccination clinics, and sponsored Facebook posts promoting the vaccine and vaccination events.
The MCAW project was successful in reaching a large number of people through engagement activities and helping individuals access the vaccine. 87,758 people were reached through the combined digital and in-person outreach efforts. Through the project, 1,451 vaccines were administered (375 were initial doses, and 1,076 were booster doses).
Through this project, SWACH recruited, trained, and provided professional development to 18 CBWs. Without this funding, this cohort would not have existed.
“This grant brought together parts of the community that had not previously worked together,” said Corie Dow, Executive Director of Youth and Family Link. “Although the communities represented by the work of the grant all had some systems of support in place and community programs, most of the programs really worked on their own. The CHWs doing the work of this grant not only connected as individuals but also brought together entities that were not previously connected and/or supporting one another.”
“Before receiving funding, I was able to help 50 Vietnamese people get vaccinated against COVID-19 as a volunteer. However, after receiving funding, I have been working as a Community-Based Worker, and I was able to help hundreds of people get vaccinated,” said one of the CBWs from the MCAW cohort. “The funding also allowed me to attain the training, which…provided me with more knowledge, education, and information about the vaccine I didn’t have before. These factors helped me expand my outreach effort, offering the incentive program support to people who were hesitant or unable to get vaccinated.”
CBWs provided feedback that when impactful programs like this end, it has the potential to affect community trust negatively. SWACH relayed this information to HRSA and hopes that we will be able to find sustainable solutions that will continue to build on the relationships and confidence this project created.
SWACH will continue to look for funding and programmatic opportunities that serve and uplift the communities most impacted by the social determinants of health. We are grateful for our partners in this project; their dedication and expertise helped us address the barriers to wellness surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine.
