Success at a Glance

One of YMCA of Greater Boston‘s successful youth leadership programs trains teenagers to be influential community messengers about health and well-being, such as the importance of vaccinations. In the spring of 2023, as part of their training, 8 youth members learned how the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine works by building physical models of the molecule out of materials like shredded paper and modeling clay. Later, the teenagers were able to share their newfound knowledge directly with community members...

Latino community-based organization PASOs has successfully teamed up with like-minded groups to provide greater health access to Latino communities in South Carolina. The program has a longstanding partnership with the University of South Carolina's Arnold School of Public Health and operates out of its university campus headquarters in Columbia. Starting in the fall of 2022, as part of its flu and COVID-19 vaccine outreach in low-income Hispanic communities, PASOs began collaborating with PRISM...

As a successful funding organization committed to improving health access for the uninsured and underinsured, Illinois Association of Free and Charitable Clinics (IAFCC) helps foster strategic partnerships to better serve its community.  In the spring of 2023, IAFCC spearheaded the collaboration between two Chicago-based clinics CommunityHealth and Mobile Care Chicago to provide COVID-19 and flu vaccines to both adults and children. Mobile Care is a mobile clinic that works mostly with Chicago...

As part of Anchorage-based Spirit of Youth’s programming for young adults, Alaska Teen Media Institute (ATMI) helped journalists-in-training to produce a new radio program around the topic of COVID-19. Titled “Alaska ‘Bout It,” the show aired twice a month in 2021-2022 on University of Alaska Anchorage’s radio station 88.1 FM, allowing youth producers from ATMI to reach a new audience with the latest COVID-19 vaccine information. For each show, producers interviewed community members, including...

To engage its audience and help overcome COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in 2022, Virginia-based Tidewater Arts Outreach (TAO) sponsored an arts competition and exhibit called “Knowledge is an Art Form.”One of the participating artists was both immunocompromised and vaccine hesitant, and her piece, titled “Conversational, Not Confrontational” explored both sides of her personal situation. When TAO installed the first exhibition in August 2022, they discovered that the piece resonated strongly with...

To help educate and empower kids in New York City around COVID-19 vaccination, arts organization Sing for Hope wrote and produced “Don’t Throw Away Your Shot,” an original musical that addresses the topic of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and confidence. Written for a young audience under the age of 13, the musical takes place in a school cafeteria where two students, the school janitor, and an adult lunch worker share their personal vaccine-related stories. In 2022, Sing for Hope performed the...

To highlight the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on African-American communities in the Southeast, Atlanta-based Out of Hand Theater produced a narrative film in 2022 that helped bring culturally relevant artistic engagements, public health messaging and public health leaders to vaccination events in Georgia. The film, titled “Comfort,” features a family coping with loss during the pandemic and was released during the summer of 2022. One screening took place as part of a community health fair...

To provide a creative outlet for healing during the COVID-19 pandemic, Migrant Clinicians Network (MCN) worked with Latino communities in three rural Northern California counties and encouraged them to document their own lives during the pandemic with photos. In partnership with PhotoVoice in June 2022, MCN taught participants basic photography skills and hosted companion discussion groups to provide a safe place for open conversations. In one of their adult groups, participants often discussed...

Kids in the Spotlight, Inc. (KITS) is a specialized Southern-California arts education program focused on empowering youth in foster care by teaching them how to tell their stories through film. In 2022, KITS’s Script-to-Screen program funded the production of public service announcements (PSAs) about the pandemic, created, directed, and produced by youth creators. As part of the production process, participants engaged in listening sessions around COVID-19 and vaccine hesitancy. As a result...