Vaccinating Our Communities

When it was announced by the Food and Drug Administration that vaccines were approved for use by the general public against the COVID-19 virus, systems were put in place to attempt to roll out access to the vaccination. Unfortunately, problems with registration systems and efforts by many individuals to circumvent the priority lists created a lack of access to the vaccine for our frontline workers, our seniors and our communities of color. Thankfully, those communities could depend on organizations such as St. John’s Well Child and Family Center, who worked diligently day and night to ensure that their vaccines were going to the right communities.

Quickly, LCS and St. John’s began to partner up and host dual food distributions and community vaccinations, allowing for families to

get the food assistance they needed while also being able to receive the vaccine free of charge.

LCS and St. John’s kicked off this new partnership by co-hosting the “Labor of Love” food distribution and vaccination event at The LA Fed, where people waited for hours to ensure that they were able to get the vaccine. We had such a huge demand for the vaccinations that St John’s made appointments for the following week for those who could not be helped that day. These events were a huge success and requests came in from throughout Southern California for LCS and St. John’s to co-host similar events in their neighborhoods, such as South Los Angeles, East Los Angeles and many more communities where it was needed.

In 2021, St. John's opened 26 vaccination sites and launched the largest vaccination campaign by a community health center in the country. To date, St. John’s has administered over 275,000 doses and counting with 94% of those vaccinated being lowincome people of color.

With the dedicated staff at St. John’s, we have been able to serve as a life net for so many families throughout Southern California and we look forward to continuing to work with one another.