Advocacy Team
Protect Chicago Plus Vaccine Program; AL Town Hall Recordings Posted
February 23, 2021
Today, we’d like to share important news about accessing the Covid-19 vaccine, especially for at-risk Black and brown communities in Chicago. For those of you in Illinois, many of you are aware that the State of Illinois and the City of Chicago have separate vaccine rollout plans. Recently, Access Living held two virtual town halls where we had guests from the State and the City share about the plans. If you missed it, we have saved the recordings on our website. Click here for the first town hall, which focused on presentations. Click here for the second town hall, which focused on answering questions. Keep in mind, the vaccine plans will evolve as more supply comes in.
Second, we’d like to highlight the Chicago Community Vulnerability Index (CCVI). The CCVI is an effort to determine which Chicago neighborhoods have been most affected by Covid-19, and that continue to be at high risk. Risk factors include not only infections and deaths from Covid-19, but also workforce mobility, racial demographics, and disability. A positive about the CCVI is that it aims to address Covid-19 risk and vaccine access for multiply marginalized communities, including people with disabilities. See more about the CCVI at this link.
Based on the CCVI, the City of Chicago is rolling out a program called Protect Chicago Plus, which aims to get the Covid-19 vaccine to the fifteen most at-risk communities in the City. On a rolling basis, the City will make Covid-19 vaccines available to ALL the residents in those fifteen neighborhoods, who are age 18 or older. This includes the residents who have disabilities. Protect Chicago Plus is a way of increasing vaccine access to Black and brown communities that are most at risk.
This program includes the zip codes: 60636, 60609, 60632, 60623, 60629, 60621, 60628, 60632, 60620, 60644, 60639, 60617. That is, the neighborhoods initially targeted are West Englewood, Gage Park, North Lawndale, Chicago Lawn, Englewood, Roseland, Archer Heights, Washington Heights, Austin, Montclare, South Deering, Belmont Cragin, Humboldt Park, Little Village, and Back of the Yards.
Protect Chicago Plus communities will be activated in phases over the next six to eight weeks. Each neighborhood campaign is expected to last eight weeks. The vaccine sign up and shot clinics are being managed by local community organizations. The preliminary schedule is:
- Belmont Cragin (early February) ACTIVE NOW
- Little Village, Gage Park, North Lawndale (mid-February) ACTIVE NOW
- Montclare, Englewood, West Englewood (mid to late February) ACTIVE NOW
- Austin, Back of the Yards, Archer Heights (early March)
- Roseland, Washington Heights, South Deering (mid-March)
- Humboldt Park, Chicago Lawn (late March)
The City is also looking for volunteers to help reach out to residents in these neighborhoods. To volunteer, sign up at this link.
English and Spanish Toolkits: Protect Chicago Plus also has community outreach toolkits in English and Spanish. Scroll down to the bottom of the page at this link.
Please share this important information with fellow community members. Thank you for your advocacy.