{"id":32593,"date":"2021-03-09T11:47:04","date_gmt":"2021-03-09T19:47:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=32593"},"modified":"2021-03-09T11:47:04","modified_gmt":"2021-03-09T19:47:04","slug":"promotoras-bring-doses-of-hope-to-hard-hit-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=32593","title":{"rendered":"\u2018PROMOTORAS\u2019 BRING \u201cDOSES OF HOPE\u201d TO HARD-HIT COMMUNITIES"},"content":{"rendered":"
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by\u00a0Mark Hedin<\/a><\/span>\u00a0|\u00a0Mar 8, 2021<\/span>\u00a0|\u00a0COVID-19<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Promotoras working for a network of 16 community organizations led by the East Los Angeles Women\u2019s Center have reached out to hundreds of thousands of people with personal protective equipment, information and referrals to help them stay safe amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The network will reach out to help people anywhere in their communities. For more information on promotoras\u2019 work, check out this video presentation:\u00a0https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Kzkob6cg1so&t=7s<\/a>.\u00a0Photo courtesy East Los Angeles Women\u2019s Center<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Also available in\u00a0Spanish<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Chinese<\/a>.<\/p>\n

LA County Aims To Close Equity Gaps in COVID Care<\/em><\/p>\n

By Mark Hedin, Ethnic Media Services<\/strong><\/p>\n

Los Angeles County is working to close equity gaps in COVID-19 vaccine distribution in hard-hit communities, relying on community health workers known as promotoras, new mobile vaccination clinics, and vaccine sites run by a network of community organizations, among other measures.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is hope on the horizon,\u201d said Board of Supervisors Chair Hilda L. Solis at a March 4 county-sponsored telebriefing, pointing to a steady decrease in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths.<\/p>\n

But while more than 2.2 million people have received at least one dose of the vaccine, \u201cwe have a lot of work to do to make sure that our most vulnerable in our communities are receiving their doses of hope,\u201d Solis emphasized.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn East L.A. cities in my district, where infection rates run to 20%, only 11.4% of residents have been vaccinated \u2013 whereas in Bel Air, it\u2019s 34.3% of eligible residents. This is one of the lowest vaccination rates in our county, right here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though African American and Latinx communities have had higher rates of infections and deaths in the pandemic, their vaccination rates \u201cremain dangerously low\u201d \u2013 28.9% and 34.3% respectively \u2014 \u201csignificantly lower than their white and Asian American counterparts,\u201d Solis noted.<\/p>\n

Among its responses, the county has invested $30 million in \u201cpromotoras,\u201d a community health worker initiative, to help and encourage people to get their vaccinations as they become eligible to do so and as supplies permit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a network of residents, people that we know and we trust, who live in our communities,\u201d Solis said of its 900-plus full- or part-time workers.<\/p>\n