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...

When the Community Music School of Springfield (CMSS) sensed its community was growing tired of routine vaccination information campaigns, they decided to do something new. The non-profit arts school in Western Massachusetts tried a combination it knew best: arts and community building. In July 2022, CMSS hosted “Chalk for Change,” a community festival that featured dozens of artists creating chalk drawings, different genres of music, dance, and kids’ activities alongside health services...

As part of its efforts to support rural communities in the Cuyama Valley of California, Blue Sky Sustainable Living Center launched “Superbloom,” a community theatre production about COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and the importance of neighborly connections in divisive times. Starting in January 2022, 35 Cuyama residents of all ages participated in the project as paid co-creators through workshops in script writing, set building and general story-telling. The months-long project culminated with...

The Yellow House art gallery in Jacksonville, Florida is a unique civic space committed to connecting art with community building through partnerships and outreach. For one community member, the Yellow House gallery was also his lifeline. In 2022, he started making regular visits to the gallery’s Community Cart which offers free fresh produce, books, art supplies, messages of encouragement, hygiene products, plants and other items. In August 2022, the man stopped by the Yellow House on the same...

Sisters in Birth is a Jackson-based pregnancy and birth clinic committed to keeping moms and babies alive and healthy in Mississippi, a state with one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the U.S. To help reduce sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and COVID-19 infections in moms and their babies, Sisters in Birth launched a new partnership in the spring of 2023 with the Mississippi Department of Child Protection and UnitedHealthcare. Thanks to the collaboration, Sisters in Birth organized...

Human services organization Pillsbury United Communities prides itself on successfully building community trust and relationships to support medically underserved populations in the Minneapolis metropolitan region. In 2022, thanks to a robust Community Health Worker program and standout individuals sharing factual information about COVID-19 and flu vaccines, immunization rates rose in three metro communities. One senior community member from the Brian Coyle Center in Cedar-Riverside shared that...

To help promote the importance of COVID-19 vaccines, New Orleans-based addiction treatment provider Odyssey House Louisiana enlisted the help of “Debbie with a D,” a local drag queen celebrity and vocal supporter of public health. “Debbie with a D,” who holds a master’s degree in public health, first gained notoriety as a trusted health advocate when she helped provide more than 10,000 HIV self-testing kits to the New Orleans’ LGBTQ+ community in the months leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic...

In the agricultural region of western Missouri, the seasonal fruit harvests create opportunities to deliver quality healthcare to rural communities. During the peach and apple picking months in the summer and fall, Lexington-based HCC Network partners with Migrant Farmworkers Assistance Fund (MFAF) in Kansas City to provide vaccination education and access to the seasonal farm worker community. From August to October 2023, MFAF organized regular vaccine outreach at one orchard, where HCC Network...

In supporting underserved Hispanic communities in Southern California,  Latino Health Access (LHA) has used its highly successful Vaccine Ambassador Program to help inform and empower community members. Through this program, LHA trains participants as Promotores de Salud (Health Promoters) who engage with their communities to share accurate information about COVID-19 and flu vaccines. From December 2022 to January 2024, LHA leveraged its community partnerships to train 6 different groups...

To better serve its community of indigenous elders, the International Association for Indigenous Aging (IA²) developed impactful culturally tailored health outreach programs around vaccine education.  Historically, indigenous community engagement has been rooted in the tradition of talking circles, safe discussion spaces where every participant has a chance to contribute. IA² drew on this traditional concept and adapted it for the digital realm, inviting individuals from its Facebook community...