Public Health Department now accepting proposals to fund community-led coalitions for vaccination and post-COVID recovery and resilience work
India Post News Service
OAKLAND, CA: Alameda County has released a request for proposals to encourage community-led coalitions to provide comprehensive community engagement and Vaccination Point of Distribution (POD) Customer/Client support services. For both of these tasks, the goal is to increase equitable access to the COVID-19 vaccine and to begin laying the groundwork for post-pandemic community recovery.
The selected coalitions will work in partnership with Alameda County Health Care Services Agency’s Public Health Department to reach unvaccinated Alameda County residents with strategies at neighborhood and census tract levels.
“The challenge of COVID will stay with us for a while yet, especially in our hardest hit communities. Our next phase of the response calls for continued deep work and investments in the community. We are looking for partners within the community to help us expand vaccine access and support community resilience now and for the future,” said Colleen Chawla, the Director of the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency (HCSA).
The County plans to award up to $10 million to coalitions to provide comprehensive outreach and engagement as well as Vaccination POD customer/client support services. The County also plans to award up to $2 million to single organizations for community engagement services only.
The coalition model creates opportunity for small and large organizations to work together to support hyper local and culturally competent community-led vaccination services. The initiative will lay the groundwork for post-pandemic recovery and resilience work by cementing neighborhood- and population-based partnerships. Grants will support this work for 23 months with an option to extend, contingent on the funding availability.
“Community partnership is key to our continued efforts and success,” Said Kimi Watkins-Tartt, HCSA’s Public Health Director. “Through this RFP, we plan to work with the community in both proven and
innovative ways, and are making the funding available with as much flexibility as possible. Our public health challenges will evolve as they have throughout the pandemic and we want to provide funding to meet those changing needs at the community level,” she added.
Organizations across Alameda County, especially in the areas hardest hit by the pandemic, are encouraged to apply by building coalitions or joint ventures to provide comprehensive outreach and engagement as well as providing on-site support at vaccination sites. Coalitions will be paired with vaccinators as needed and as appropriate. Individual organizations may also apply for funding to provide only the community outreach and engagement services.
As the County looks to the next two years of its COVID-19 prevention and mitigation strategy, it seeks community expertise to help engage communities disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. Populations hardest hit by COVID-19 include Black, African American, Latino/a/x, Native American, and Pacific Islander communities, especially those living in in the underserved areas of: East Oakland, City of Fremont, Fruitvale/San Antonio, South Hayward, Unincorporated Ashland/Cherryland, and West Oakland.
The County is seeking to partner with coalitions serving residents living in the prioritized zip code areas, people experiencing housing insecurity/unsheltered/homelessness, and undocumented and indigenous immigrants or refugees, households with limited English proficiency, households with low digital access or literacy, day laborers, disconnected and/or transitional age youth, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, and non-Binary people, people who are formerly incarcerated, and survivors of trauma and violence, including intimate partner violence.
“We are grateful to our community partners who helped augment our public health response through contact tracing, outreach and engagement, testing, food and isolation supports, and vaccinations for County residents,” said Supervisor Wilma Chan, Chair of the Board’s Health Committee and All-In Committee. “Now is the moment to continue our focus on our most-impacted communities and to support a culture of resilience for challenges that lie ahead.”
The RFP was released on June 2. A virtual bidder’s conference will be held June 9. Responses are due July 7 by 2pm. Award notifications will be released on July 30. Contracts will run August 1, 2021 to June 30, 2023 with an option to renew, contingent upon available funding.
Note: All dates subject to change. For more information on the Request for Proposal, please contact Laniana Lewaseni (Laniana.Lewaseni@acgov.org). The RFP and other information can be found at https://gsa.acgov.org/do-business-with-us/contracting-opportunities/current-bid/?bidid=2375
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