Thread by @alikhan28

As @Eugenia_South underscores, #HealthEquity isn’t hard, but it does take intentional work to overcome the inequitable inertia of the status quo.

This weekend in Chicago, our @OakStreetHealth team vaccinated 2000 Latinx people in Belmont-Cragin. Here's how we made it work. 🧵

Our first event launched #ProtectChicago Plus, @ChiPublicHealth + @chicagosmayor's bold strategy to get vaccines into the 15 communities hit hardest by #COVID19.

For months, we'd partnered w local CBOs (@NWSHC @gilbert36ward + others) on testing + more. We'd built trust. 2/

Our partners - trusted messengers who know their communities - told us what to seek: a safe, central location for all to congregate, + one that the community trusts. @ChiPubSchools + @SteinmetzCPHS provided that home - one w walkability + great parking (no easy feat here!). 3/

At @OakStreetHealth, we brought the know-how learned in real time, from vaccinating over 25,000 Chicagoans since Jan 4.

We knew a Web site wasn't going to cut it. To sign up our community, we needed multi-channel action - Web, text, phone + shoe leather. Our partners agreed. 4/

So, after texting, calling and knocking on doors, in partnership w our amazing CBOs, we filled all 2000 spots in just under 36h. We also audited the list multiple times a day to ensure those from outside the 60639 hadn't snuck in (hard to do when vaccine hunter groups abound!) 5/

Staffing was next. Thx to @IMPACT4HC, the Racial Equity RRT + CDPH, we were swarmed w 100s of volunteers from Oak Street, @RushMedical, @pccwellness, @UChiPritzker, @KelloggSchool + many more.

The hunger to serve + convene, to gather, is real (h/t @priyaparker). We love it. 6/

Most telling, though: despite pulling this together in 9 days, it was amazingly easy to do this.

Community demand was real. We increased the % of ppl vaccinated in the 60639 by 3% in just under 36h.

We're back at it this weekend, ready for more. 7/

https://twitter.com/helenegayle/status/1361658373226303488?s=10

Intentional, deliberate work is needed to do it right.

Brown people want this vaccine.

Brown + Black communities want to come together safely.

We owe it to each other, then, to do the legwork to find those ready to be vaccinated fast + those still wanting to move slow. 8/

The scar tissue of structural racism and structural policy violence isn't undone in a day.

But when the right teams come together w intentionality, intensity and ingenuity, we can start to move mountains.

Thanks to everyone who made that real this weekend. See y'all soon. 9/

PS: We @OakStreetHealth do this work in community engagement daily as part of our #primarycare model. We'll keep going long after this pandemic ends.

But we think we have much to teach from what we've done here. Public private partnerships are saving lives.

Let's go. 10/

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