Door-to-door vaccine outreach finds success in Lafayette's Latino community

The Greater Lowell Health Alliance offered COVID-19 vaccines using a “block party” model where community members enjoy free food, music, activities, and even childcare, while also having access to information about vaccines in multiple languages as well as the ability to actually get vaccinated. This model reduced barriers for immigrants, refugees, and other people who don’t speak English fluently, as well as caregivers who can’t attend vaccine appointments due to their caregiving responsibilities. The relaxed environment, where loved ones can support each other, increased comfort with getting the vaccine.

Toronto’s Vaccine Engagement Teams Grant has awarded $5.5 million to community organizations in 140 neighborhoods to hire and train local ambassadors for vaccine outreach. Because the ambassadors share a lived experience with the communities, they can effectively identify the barriers people face. The on-the-ground effort includes sharing information, advocating for community needs, and helping people access services. The outreach focuses on people often overlooked by government services, such as unhoused people and people who do not speak English or have precarious immigration status.

Building trust, engaging in personal conversations, and providing services that reduce barriers to getting vaccinated have helped increase the COVID-19 vaccination rates in some Cleveland neighborhoods. Posting information in local businesses and apartment building allows people to access information in private. Community health workers also meet people where they are in order to build relationships and gain their trust. Many community groups and health workers offer services that reduce common barriers to getting vaccinated, like transportation, child care, and wage replacement for taking time off.

To increase vaccination rates among Reno’s Latino/a population, organizers conducted outreach with congregants at a local church that offers Spanish-language masses. Confidence in clinic locations and feeling safe due to immigration status presented as the biggest obstacles keeping people from getting vaccinated, so organizers used the church to hold pop-up clinics. The initial outreach helped build trust and gave organizers a chance to provide information and answer questions. Hundreds turned out for each clinic and the vaccination rate among the surrounding Latino/a community increased from 22% to 41%.

The Shelby County Voter Alliance, who was used to using publicly available information to run get-out-the-vote and voter registration drives, pivoted to door-knocking to increase vaccination rates. Using a grant from Civic Nation’s Made to Save initiative, SCVA went to people’s homes to answer questions about vaccines and let them know about community vaccination pop-ups. They worked with local churches and set up at a Juneteenth celebration, where vaccines were offered. While canvassing, volunteers use a “research-based script” from Made to Save that especially helps them talk with “hesitant people.”

Comprehensive COVID-19 vaccination strategies helped some Native American Nations achieve high vaccination rates. Tribal sovereignty gave Nations the flexibility to create their own methods of distributing the vaccine and allowed officials to distribute doses to hard-to-reach areas – even by dog sled in Alaska. They could prioritize who to vaccinate and diversify how vaccines were offered – from private appointments to mass-vaccination events – to ensure broad accessibility. Medical professionals, tribal leaders, and Native youth used social media to share information and encourage people to get vaccinated.

As a result of locals writing to their political representatives, the Nigerian government began a borehole intervention project to provide more than 2,000 residents with clean, easily accessible water. The project also provided a generator to address the village’s lack of power supply and residents pay N20 ($0.02) to access the borehole, which covers the cost of running the generator.

Hundreds of thousands of indigenous people in remote regions of the Amazon have been vaccinated for COVID-19 in part thanks to programs that send indigenous vaccinators with non-mRNA vaccines to remote villages. There, they meet with community leaders and work to gain the community’s trust before vaccinating those who are willing. Non-mRNA vaccines are used due to the refrigeration needed for mRNA doses, but they also make it easier to address misconceptions associated with the new and unfamiliar mRNA technology.

The island of Malta fully vaccinated 90% of the population over the age of 12 against COVID-19 relatively quickly. They quickly vaccinated the most vulnerable in the population, including the elderly and healthcare workers and sent mobile clinics to where the population was. This, along with an effective media campaign that answered questions and dispelled misinformation, was particularly important in getting people, especially young people, vaccinated. A nationwide culture of trust in doctors was very important in the vaccination success.

The COVID Ambassador program trains people to listen, be empathetic, and acknowledge people’s COVID-19 vaccine concerns. Ambassadors’ training includes substantial practice talking to people who are resistant to getting vaccinated and they receive ongoing support at bi-monthly meetings, which has increased their confidence and led to more conversations with community members hesitant to get vaccinated. Like other community health worker programs, the ambassador program’s ability to be successful relies on the idea that people trust information from their peers more than from the government.