El Centro reaching out to Latino community about coronavirus vaccines

El Centro De Servicios Sociales hosted a discussion March 15 on Zoom to discuss how the novel coronavirus pandemic has affected the Latino community and efforts to increase access to vaccinations.

“We want to talk to the leadership about some of the trends we’re seeing in the Latino community in regards to how the pandemic hit the Latino community,” said Victor Leandry, executive director of El Centro, 2800 Pearl Ave. in Lorain.

Leandry said COVID-19 devastated the Latino community due to a high rate of underlying health conditions and lack of health insurance.

He also expressed concern that the Latino community would fall behind in vaccinations.

Picnics and festivals already are planned, and Leandry said he is worried about the virus spreading at those gatherings.

El Centro has created its own COVID-19 response team.

The team has partnered with the Elyria YWCA and the Mental Health, Addiction and Recovery Services Board of Lorain County to connect youth and parents with engagement classes to navigate online learning, senior programming and assistance with transportation, health insurance and securing food.

Over the last year, El Centro has seen an increase in calls to its bilingual crisis hotline.

Catherine Woskobnick, director of community health for Mercy Health, said its parish nursing program is part of a network of 94 churches and congregations in Lorain County.

Four churches in the area are distributing COVID-19 vaccines, Woskobnick said.

“We are trusting the sacred space of the churches is where people want to go,” she said. “… We want to give the vaccine in places where people worship and praise God.”

Dave Covell, Lorain County Public Health commissioner, said he’s hoping a majority of the community will have received vaccinations by the time the next wave hits.

“Hopefully, by sometime in late April, everyone will have an opportunity to get vaccinated,” Covell said. “And by the end of May, everyone in Lorain County will have an opportunity to actually get a vaccine.”

He said he believes the summer months may be similar to life pre-COVID-19.

Covell said experts were questioning how to reach residents in South Lorain, especially those who are Spanish speaking.

Although there are bilingual nurses at every vaccination pod, Covell said it’s difficult to manage with 1,000 vaccinations.

There is expected to be a series of vaccination pods in Spanish, he said.

Kat Bray, health education specialist for Lorain County Public Health, said there are measures to keep information accessible through pamphlets in English and Spanish.

“We heard it loud and clear that we need to increase accessibility to COVID-19 pods,” Bray said.

Looking to the future, El Centro is dedicated to giving the Latino community accessibility to the vaccine and information about COVID-19.

“Our community needs to understand, that nationally, they are falling behind, and here in Lorain, we are not going to allow that,” Leandry said. “We are here to support this minority group and communities.

“We need them to call on us and ask for help, and will get them scheduled to get a vaccine.”