Effort to close vaccine gap gets cash influx
In Bay Area, Latinos make up fewer than 15% of the vaccinated
“We literally have people who call us up, and they do tell us the frustrations about how they’re not able to get the vaccine.” — Hugo Morale, executive director
The Latino Community Foundation is investing $2 million in grassroots community organizations in the Bay Area and Central Valley to combat vaccination disparities in California, where Latino residents make up 56% of COVID-19 cases but just 20% of those vaccinated.
“We need to see the numbers change. We’re seeing that growing momentum and that interest, and we need to go full force,” said Masha Chernyak, senior vice president of programs and brand strategy at the foundation.
The money will be distributed among 19 organizations, including a nonprofit that is training staffers who accompany San Mateo County farmworkers from registration through vaccination, and a Central Valley community radio station broadcasting first-person accounts from residents who had COVID-19 about the importance of masks, hand-washing and, soon, vaccinations, in Spanish and Mixtec, an indigenous language.
The grants of $25,000 to $100,000 from the San Franciscobased foundation have a particular focus on supporting organizations with existing community ties that can do vaccine outreach and answer any questions people have about the safety and efficacy of the shots, Chernyak said.
“There’s so much misinformation, there’s so much just toxic nonsense on the internet, we need to combat that misinformation with facts,” she said. “Make the facts just as sexy and relatable for the community.”
To do that, the foundation filmed its own ads promoting vaccines and created a network of promotoras, traditional community outreach workers, armed with laptops who can go door to door in the North Bay registering residents in Latino communities for vaccine appointments. In the Bay Area, Latinos range from 11% of people at least
partially vaccinated in Alameda County to almost 15% in Contra Costa County.
The San Mateo County nonprofit, Ayudando Latinos a Sonar, is also focusing on promotoras who can help Latino farmworkers at high risk for contracting COVID-19 because they work in an essential industry and often live in crowded housing conditions.
The promotoras are the first to greet farmworkers at vaccination sites, and accompany them through the sign-in process up until the moment there’s a shot in their arm, said Executive Director Belinda Hernandez Arriaga.
Hernandez Arriaga said her staffers have all been vaccinated so they can share firsthand experiences, and having those promotoras on-site helps ease concerns.
“Some (residents) are coming ready to go, others are a little bit hesitant but they’re coming because they want to be safe but they just need a bit more information,” she said.
Personal testimonials are also a key part of the strategy at Radio Bilingue, a Spanish-language community radio station based in Fresno that also broadcasts a weekly hour of music and information in Mixtec. The station has been sharing information about coronavirus testing clinics and how listeners can protect themselves from the virus, as well as stories from callers who have had COVID-19 or who want to get the vaccine, said Executive Director Hugo Morales.
“We literally have people who call us up, and they do tell us the frustrations about how they’re not able to get the vaccine,” Morales said.
As more people get vaccinated, Morales said, the station hopes to get more testimonials from farmworkers and Latinos about their experiences to help promote the inoculations.
In the meantime, supply remains one of the biggest barriers in the Bay Area, Hernandez Arriaga said. Her nonprofit worked with San Mateo County to register farmworkers, who often lack computer and internet access, over the phone. They’ve already helped vaccinate about 900 people and have a waitlist for more.
“Our essential farmworker community has really suffered,” she said “I think people underestimate how much they want to protect themselves.”