Key Partners: Local ADRCs, faith-based organizations, primary care providers, Louisiana 211

Louisiana is using the CDC COVID data tracker to identify areas to target for a door knocking campaign.  A specific page developed by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has a social vulnerability index (SVI) interactive map which provides information at the census tract level on four themes of the overall SVI as seen in the image here– socioeconomic status; household composition and disability; minority status and language; and housing type and transportation.  Using these data, they are able to identify where in their state to target additional resources for outreach.  

As a first step, Louisiana is targeting areas with a low housing and transportation score to help individuals with rides to vaccination sites.  Using the “Legend”, they can turn off all indicators except for vulnerability due to housing/transportation to see those regions where populations are without a vehicle and no or low access to public transportation.  This is where the door knockers will focus their first rounds of visits, as they can easily arrange transportation for any groups that are located in common housing or others that lack transportation. This human-to-human contact is vital to reach seniors and other underserved populations and arrange resources to ensure barriers are addressed. 

After identifying areas with low vaccination rates and high SVI scores, they will send out teams to confirm areas of greatest need.  ADRC program monitors will travel to the identified census tracts and discuss the residential areas with the local ADRCs. They will then go out with volunteers door to door.  Volunteers will have information and FAQs (provided by LA 211) about the vaccine to hand out as well as be able to set up appointments for people willing to get the vaccine.

To address vaccine hesitancy they intend to learn from the initial engagement with the identified communities, and also plan to partner with faith-based community leaders and local health clinics and providers.