Vaccine Navigation program partnership success!
The Vaccine Navigation program ensures greater equity and access to COVID-19 vaccines by those disproportionately affected by COVID. The focus is on populations that have lower vaccination rates which tend to include racial and ethnic minorities, people with greater social vulnerability, less medical access, immigrants, and those with transportation limitations.
Community Health Workers, or Vaccine Navigators, from the Fairfax County Health Department are available 7 days a week to deploy into the community and utilize motivational interviewing techniques to resolve ambivalence and connect community members to vaccine opportunities. The work the navigators do is not possible without partnerships with places of worship, non-profit and community-based organizations, businesses, as well as residential and commercial properties. In fact, a formal relationship between Medical Care for Children Partnership Foundation (MCCP) and the Vaccine Navigation program was recently solidified after months of working together to provide Fairfax County residents with medical care and access to COVID-19 vaccinations.
MCCP made it possible for the navigators to connect with their clients by accompanying them into the neighborhoods they routinely visit to provide services. This partnership has been tremendously helpful to both MCCP and the Vaccine Navigation program and has contributed to the navigators supporting more than 18,000 Fairfax County residents since the program’s inception in June 2021.