Over the last few months, CommuniVax has developed a number of tools to help communities develop more equitable COVID-19 vaccination efforts. Learn more about these resources!
The CommuniVax Coalition, a national alliance of social scientists, public health experts, and community advocates is strengthening national and local COVID-19 vaccination efforts in the United States by putting communities of color at the center of those endeavors. (Funding for CommuniVax is provided by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, with additional support from The Rockefeller Foundation.) I am pleased to represent RESOLVE in this effort as a member of the CommuniVax Coalition's national working group. Over the last few months, CommuniVax has developed a number of tools to help communities develop more equitable COVID-19 vaccination efforts.
We recently published a new CommuniVax Implementation Toolkit, which is designed to help state and local jurisdictions set health equity efforts in motion rapidly, starting with a COVID-19 vaccination campaign that delivers systemic benefits to communities of color. The toolkit outlines what actions to take, how to develop an equitable strategy, where to seek financial support, and which partners to involve. The goal of the toolkit is to help local residents and groups lead their elected representatives to move from supporting debilitating health and social harms to enabling an equity-in-recovery movement. This toolkit maps out how to co-produce the planning and implementation of community revitalization, create a successful equity funding strategy, and strengthen sustainable change through partnerships across sectors.
Earlier this year, we published Equity in Vaccination: A Plan to Work with Communities of Color Toward COVID-19 Recovery and Beyond, a report outlining five guiding principles for equitable, effective COVID-19 vaccination, paired with specific actions to help ensure hard-hit communities of color derive systemic social and economic benefits. The report also includes an Action Checklist for Ensuring Equity In and Through COVID-19 Vaccination that condensed the larger findings into sample actions that local jurisdictions could use to deliver systemic benefits of COVID-19 vaccination to communities of color. The checklist offers samples of short-term and long-term actions that are attainable goals for groups working to create a more equitable and effective COVID-19 vaccination and public health delivery system.
We have also hosted a number of webinars to help highlight opportunities and strategies to support equitable community-driven efforts to support COVID-19 vaccination. For example, in April we held a webinar on Community-Centric Public Health Practice: COVID-19 Vaccination and Beyond, which examines the steps health departments can take to achieve health equity. Taking a social determinants of health lens, the conversation addresses equitable and optimal levels of health outcomes for all, starting with COVID-19 vaccination. In May we held a webinar on Working with Faith-based and Community-based Organizations for a More Equitable COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign, which considers how faith-based and community-based organizations can help make COVID-19 vaccination more equitable, and through these efforts, strengthen the communities in which they are rooted. Panelists showcased unique, effective initiatives and activities ongoing in different areas across the country so other communities can learn from their experiences and achieve their own versions of success. Dr. Tasnuva Khan, Director of RESOLVE's Faith & Vaccines initiative, shared insights from her work.
Finally, we have developed a series of educational videos that cover topics such as COVID-19 vaccine safety, vaccine hesitancy, and race, racism, and medicine. I was pleased to provide a short video focused on public engagement.
Please check out these resources and share them with those who may find them useful!
Beth Weaver
RESOLVE
June 1, 2021
At RESOLVE, we’re here to tackle the toughest global challenges. The ones nobody else wants to touch. Where people are in conflict and planet problems are stuck. We’re here to unstick them. It’s not easy. It takes grit and ingenuity. And finding and working with the right partners. But we’re not called RESOLVE for nothing.
