The Power of Partnership: NYCEAL Collaborations With Health Agencies and Mobile Vaccination Vans.
Larson, Rita; Hussain, Sarah; Chau, Michelle M; Jones, Andrew; Vangeepuram, Nita; Madden, Devin; Berhane, Timnit; Shuman, Saskia; Islam, Nadia; Trinh-Shevrin, Chau
Why this matters
Community health workers are the part of a vaccination van program that builds the trust. The New York Community Engagement Alliance worked with health agencies and hundreds of community health workers to deliver vaccine education and support uptake among low-income and limited-English-proficient communities.
Abstract
New York City experienced a high COVID-19 burden and striking disparities among racial and ethnic minoritized groups. The New York Community Engagement Alliance Against COVID-19 Disparities (NYCEAL) collaborated with health agencies and clinical providers to increase and facilitate COVID-19 vaccinations across New York City. NYCEAL partners and their network of hundreds of community health workers delivered vaccine education, fostered community trust, and supported vaccine uptake among low-income, limited‒English-proficient, and racial and ethnic minoritized communities. With funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the objective of NYCEAL was to reduce COVID-19 disparities by increasing vaccine uptake and promoting trust in science. (Am J Public Health. 2024;114(S1):S92-S95. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2023.307455).