SEAHEC: Vacunas para todos

The Nogales based non-profit – Southeast Arizona Health Education Center, SEAHEC – was one of 71 grantees nationwide to receive CDC Foundation funding to address vaccine hesitancy. SEAHEC’s project, entitled VACUNAS PARA TODOS, supports COVID education for migrants and their sponsor families in key destination cities throughout the U.S.

Through this grant, SEAHEC is utilizing community health workers (CHWs) at Casa Alitas shelter to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate education and support to migrants and their sponsor families. These workers address vaccine hesitancy and help connect migrants to a health center or health department in their destination community where a “health care home” can be established. SEAHEC is working with a network of Area Health Education Centers (AHECs) around the U.S. in destination communities for migrants, in order to provide necessary vaccine follow up and health care continuity. These communities include: Brooklyn/Queens/Long Island AHEC; Mid Rio Grande Border AHEC; Capitol AHEC and Miami/Dade AHEC.

SEAHEC and Alitas are utilizing their partnerships with the Pima County Health Department, the authority agency providing vaccines, and the Arizona Community Health Workers Association (AzCHOW), the agency that trains community health workers, to provide culturally appropriate materials and delivery methods. SEAHEC and project partners are disseminating COVID-19 educational materials in the prevalent languages, including Spanish, Portuguese, and Haitian Creole, enabling other migrant-serving sites around the country to benefit from the effort of this project. Materials and messages specifically address needs, doubts, and desires of the migrant population.

SEAHEC is part of a larger CDC Foundation learning community of funded partners across the nation, allowing partners to share their expertise, resources, knowledge and build best practices. The CDC Foundation’s health equity vision is vibrant, healthy, resilient and prosperous communities where everyone can live their healthiest lives and contribute to the well-being of their families and community. SEAHEC is being funded to support effective community outreach centered on communities of Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) in order to share accurate, culturally appropriate information about the COVID-19 and influenza vaccines and to link adults to vaccine services.

“In support of that vision of health equity, it is an honor and a privilege for our small and mighty SEAHEC to be a part of this larger effort, working with the most vulnerable families in our region – border and migrant communities – to help people be safe and healthy, while they pursue their family’s wellbeing,” says Gail Emrick, SEAHEC’s Executive Director.

For more information on this project, please contact Gail Emrick at: gemrick@seahec.org

Funding for this effort is made possible through a subaward from the CDC Foundation and is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) financial assistance award totaling $25,660,048 with 100 percent funding from CDC/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement by, CDC/HHS or the U.S. Government.