Covid-19 Community Outeach

Bayne LLC was selected by DC Health to support the District’s efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19 through grassroots outreach and education to residents in the District that are not reached through traditional communication channels or may be unwilling to respond to messages from the government because of cultural, language or historical barriers. The project consists of two programs, the credible messenger outreach program, and the vaccine hesitancy study.

The credible messenger program utilizes community-based organizations (CBOs) to share educational materials and messages to targeted communities. Our current focus includes the African American, Latin-X and African immigrant communities. As part of this project, Bayne works directly with agency officials to develop messaging and themes which are then used by the CBOs as part of their outreach efforts. Bayne effectively serves as a liaison between the CBOs and DC Health to ensure that the grantees efforts and activities are inline with the intent of the agency.

The vaccine hesitancy study qualitatively explored potential barriers in relation to the uptake of COVID-19 vaccines among key populations in the greater Washington, D.C. area. This work informed programmatic efforts to promote COVID-19 vaccine awareness, access, and utilization. This program focused on groups that may be at particularly higher risk of exposure to and acquisition of COVID-19 such as: communities of color, healthcare workers, essential workers, and the elderly.