UMKC Community Development, COVID-19, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Vaccinations

Our Healthy KC Eastside!

Our Healthy KC Eastside” (OHKCE) is a large-scale, community-based partnership addressing vaccine hesitance and health inequities in vulnerable portions of Jackson County, Mo.

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Our Healthy KC Eastside is partnering with more than 60 neighborhood associations, churches, businesses, and youth organizations to promote COVID-19 vaccination and health screening events with their peers.

"People will leave these events and share information with their friends and families. So, it's exponential the influence they have. And by the time the second event – for the follow up vaccine – happens in their neighborhood, the number of people touched by this information is going to multiply" Says Dina Newman, Director of UMKC's Center for neighborhood and sector lead for neighborhood outreach with OHKCE.

The OHKCE project is funded through Jackson County's $5 million allocation of its federal CARES Act COVID-fighting money to UMKC to promote vaccinations and other health services.

Our Healthy KC Eastside is led by Jannette Berkley-Patton, Ph.D., a UMKC professor who also heads the UMKC Health Equity Institute and Community Health Research Group.