Community-and faith-based workforces and organizations have long proven critical to overcoming racial and ethnic disparities in health – and most recently, in support of COVID-19 vaccine distribution efforts across the U.S. These workforces and organizations are the foundation of effective, human-centered community health systems -- systems with financial, operational, and programmatic infrastructures led by community members – and are key to advancing health equity and strengthening trust in science-based institutions throughout the nation. Hosted by the CommuniVax Coalition and the Vaccine Equity Cooperative, this webinar will demonstrate how building socially valued and sustainably resourced community health systems will help advance national health equity.
During this 60-minute webinar experts will highlight:
- Best practices and lessons learned from the COVID-19 responses in three communities in California, Maryland and Illinois
- The important role hyper local community workforces and organizations play in building a community-health system that will help achieve health equity
- The types of resources needed to achieve community health sustainability during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond
REGISTER
Moderator:
- Sasha White, PhD, CommuniVax Expert Working Group Member and VEC Advisory Committee Member
Panelists:
- Dr. Stephen Thomas, PhD, CommuniVax Local Team Co-PI and Professor of Health Policy and Management & Director of the Maryland Center for Health Equity, University of Maryland School of Public Health
- Ysabel Duron, CommuniVax Expert Working Group Member and President & Executive Director, The Latino Cancer Institute
- Devonta Boston, Founder and CEO of TGI Movement, Chicagoland Vaccine Partnership
CommuniVax is a national coalition of social scientists, public health experts, and community advocates who seek to strengthen national and local COVID-19 vaccination efforts in the United States by putting communities of color at the center. The coalition is also supporting communities in exercising their agency over their own health and wellness, during this pandemic and going forward. CommuniVax is led by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School of Public Health and by the Department of Anthropology at Texas State University. The coalition recently launched its second phase - deepening its work in three local community and public health systems - with support from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
The Vaccine Equity Cooperative is a collaboration of organizations focused on strengthening resources, policy and funding in support of community-based and public health organizations and workforces - both in their immediate local pandemic response efforts and in the longer-term building of crisis-resilient, equitable systems of health.
