Practice Title: Building community partnerships to enhance COVID-19 vaccine equity in communities across LA County
Department: Los Angeles County Department of Public Health
Size: Medium (Population of 50,000-499,999 people)
State: California
Summary of Practice:
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LACDPH) is charged with protecting the health and well-being of over 10 million residents in the largest county and one of the most ethnically and economically diverse counties in the United States. When COVID-19 vaccine became available, ensuring equitable distribution and access across the County became one of LACDPH’s highest priorities.
In March 2021, staff supported by CDC’s Public Health Emergency Preparedness cooperative agreement and others assigned to COVID-19 response launched a community partnership to improve vaccination coverage in hard-to-reach and disproportionately affected communities. The project team mobilized and strengthened partnerships with Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), community clinics, pharmacies, cities, Supervisorial District field offices, other community partners, and the Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) Los Angeles. Cities that fall within the lowest quartiles of the California Healthy Places Index (HPI) and had the highest rates of COVID-19 were prioritized for support. Initially 25 communities were chosen across LA’s five Supervisorial Districts in consultation with the Supervisorial Board Office. Targeted neighborhoods included Altadena, Lancaster, Palmdale, San Gabriel, Bellflower, Paramount, Hawaiian Gardens, San Pedro, Wilmington, East Hollywood, North Hollywood, Pacoima, San Fernando, Van Nuys, Compton, Florence/Firestone, MacArthur Park/Westlake, Koreatown, West Athens, Azusa, Bell, Chinatown, El Monte, La Puente, and Montebello.
The goal was to improve COVID-19 vaccine coverage in these areas by providing community partners with tailored support to implement community-based vaccine clinics. An additional goal was to build sustainable and lasting partnerships in communities that extend beyond vaccination efforts. Community partnership-based vaccine clinics have distinct advantages to reaching under-resourced and hard-to-reach communities compared to mass vaccination sites. Many of the partners already had built-in trust with the community, existing relationships, services, and resources ready to be mobilized and used for the clinics. The objectives of the project were to identify high-need areas, recruit willing community and vaccinating partners, and support the planning and implementation of vaccine clinics for the partnerships identified in area and Supervisorial District.
To accomplish this, the project team developed a toolkit and other resources to support ongoing community-based vaccination partnerships and provided tailored support for existing and brand-new partners to implement COVID-19 vaccination clinics. Support varied between partners but most often included: identification of sites where vaccine pop-up events could take place; connecting partners to be able to use select sites; site visits and planning; facilitating communication with partners; coordination of logistics, including equipment and general supplies; providing signage; and assistance with staffing – clinical and non-clinical volunteers through Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) Los Angeles. This tailored support was intended to help community organizations become comfortable and confident in running off-site vaccine clinics. Once they were able to continue independently, we pared down our role and transitioned to partnerships in other areas. Over 8 months, the team supported partnerships between 38 community entities with 21 vaccination providers. Through these partnerships, over 28,000 COVID vaccines were administered across 164 individual vaccination sites.
Building community partnerships to enhance COVID-19 vaccine equity in communities across LA County
Category
Preparedness, Planning, Outcomes, and Measurement