Los Angeles County COVID-19 Vaccinations

Issue

For ten years, North Star Alliances has worked closely with L.A. Care Health Plan - the nation’s largest publicly operated health plan serving more than 2.4 million members. As a trusted, long-term partner, NSA has led numerous community outreach and engagement efforts on their behalf, all of which are centered around L.A. Care Health Plan’s mission - to provide access to quality health care, resources and services to Los Angeles County's vulnerable and low-income residents and to support the safety net required to achieve that purpose.

In 2021 L.A. Care Health Plan approached North Star Alliances to spearhead an urgent project - an outreach and engagement initiative that aimed to educate hard-to-reach LA County African American and Hispanic communities about the importance of getting the COVID-19 vaccine, and ultimately increase vaccination rates in those areas. At this time the Omicron variant, a far more transmissible variant of COVID-19, was just beginning to pose a threat to Angelenos and the local healthcare system. Time was of the essence to get the word out and get as many people vaccinated as possible.

Solution

In response, NSA quickly developed a comprehensive outreach strategy for the work ahead, and immediately began executing. Tactics included:

• Identifying hard-to-reach communities across Los Angeles County in areas such as South LA and the Antelope Valley, utilizing statewide and local vaccination data.
• Developing a robust list of target locations for on-the-ground community engagement, many of which were churches (including 1^st AME Church), colleges, and schools in African American and Hispanic communities
• Developing high-level partnerships with community and public health stakeholders to coordinate community outreach efforts.
  Partnerships included: State of California Department of Public Health, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, the “Vaccinate All 58” Campaign, Los Angeles Unified School District, Los Angeles Community College District, and various local school districts in LA County
• Leading grassroots and digital outreach efforts that included targeted social media advertisements, calls, emails, and the dissemination of flyers - all of which was done in close coordination with partners.
• Organizing and managing approximately 40 local “pop up” events in hard-to-reach communities where attendees could enjoy music and food while also receiving their COVID-19 vaccine.

Results

NSA is proud to report that after our community outreach and engagement, over 2,000 Angelenos from target, hard-to-reach communities were vaccinated. 

‍