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lvarez and Padron say community education will be a main focus as the county begins to recover. As of late June, 45,763 Cicero residents have received at least one COVID vaccine and 33,047 residents are fully vaccinated, according to the CCDPH. It is unclear whether the vaccines administered through the Cicero Department of Health are reflected in this data. Alvarez predicted that much of the summer will be spent connecting people to vaccines and providing health education, but as immunity builds, other types of resources will be needed. “We've all been impacted by COVID-19 this year, and some of us in more dramatic ways than others... We just have to keep talking about the loss, and now look for the hope. [COVID] might have caused some to lose their job or created food insecurity, now we’ll focus on how we can help connect to those resources, said Padron. Jimenez said that health navigators with Family Focus have started going door to door to help register residents for vaccines and also help with DACA renewals and citizenship services. For Jimenez, human connection has been key to convincing people to get vaccinated. “Our job has definitely been to educate and to promote facts. In the Latino community sometimes we have that distrust towards the government, or [people] were scared because they were undocumented and thought that they couldn't get vaccinated,” said Jimenez. “When they meet the health navigators, when they talk to them, get to see their personality and their passion.... It has
definitely helped people change their minds.” Funding for the health navigators program expired at the end of June. However, Jimenez said that they are heavily involved with the community and aid residents in any way possible. “Health navigators are so amazing… they're very involved in the community and whether or not they're in the program, they're always volunteering, they're always there, and I can say for sure that if they’re not health navigators we will definitely see them again.” For Giloth, having a trustworthy organization was key to getting workers vaccinated. “We thought that involving a group that already had a reputation for fighting for worker justice would be
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more trusted than then other institutions, governmental or nonprofits that workers weren't familiar with,” said Giltoh. Securing employer cooperation was another lesson learned by the organization. Giloth said he also would have liked to have seen more effort from the union representing Bimbo workers to secure vaccines. “There's a narrative out there that workers are hesitant to get the vaccination… but really, workers are just really practical. They're working twelvehour shifts… and they’re also getting points deducted for absences,” said Giloth. “So we wanted to take away all the practical obstacles, we wanted to put the vaccines in the flow where workers already are.” ¬
This piece is part of a collaboration that includes the Institute for Nonprofit News, The Beacon/KCUR 89.3; Bridge Michigan/Side Effects Public Media; Cicero Independiente/ South Side Weekly; Detour Detroit/Planet Detroit/Tostada Magazine; Evanston RoundTable/Growing Community Media; Madison365/Wausau Pilot & Review; and MinnPost/Sahan Journal. The project was made possible by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation with additional support from INN's Amplify News Project and the Solutions Journalism Network. Abel Rodríguez is a contributing reporter for Cicero Independiente. He covers environmental injustice and police accountability. This is his first piece for the Weekly.
(L TO R) ERIKA SAUCEDO, CATALINA PRADO AND YESENIA MATA ARE PART OF THE HEALTH NAVIGATORS PROGRAM WITH FAMILY FOCUS. THEY STAND OUTSIDE GROCERY STORES WHERE THEY DISTRIBUTE PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT AND HELP REGISTER RESIDENTS FOR COVID VACCINES OUTSIDE EL PORVENIR GROCERY STORE IN CICERO, IL, ON WEDNESDAY, MAY 5TH, 2021. PHOTO BY ABEL RODRIGUEZ