Clothes to Keep You Warm, Vaccines to Keep You Healthy

Brighton Park Neighborhood Council (BPNC) provides services for unhoused residents in Chicago, including coat and clothing drives during the city’s bitterly cold winters. BPNC operates in the southwest Chicago neighborhood Brighton Park, primarily among a Latinx and immigrant community. And for Carmen, a BPNC health promoter, dispelling incorrect notions about ineligibility and unsafe vaccines has become second nature. For a clothing drive in October 2020, Carmen invited a man living on the street, helping to ease his misunderstanding that he could not be vaccinated as an undocumented person. The man recruited others to attend the event, and they all received clothing, new jackets, and vaccinations. Health promoters like Carmen are essential in BPNC’s work reaching vulnerable populations. Now that Covid-19 outreach has become more integrated in their everyday work, BPNC was able to add an additional health promoter to be their primary lead for Covid-19 with CDC Foundation funding.