Pittsburgh Community Vaccine Collaborative

The Community Vaccine Collaborative (CVC) is an innovative community-academic partnership centered on mitigating the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black and Latinx communities, from increasing participation in vaccine trials to promoting vaccine uptake, and, more distally, improving trustworthiness of research and health care among minoritized communities. The CVC was co-developed with four community organizations in Allegheny County (Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh, the Neighborhood Resilience Project, UrbanKind Institute and Casa San Jose) as well as researchers from Pitt to address disparities in vaccine acceptance and uptake among marginalized and minoritized communities.

Core to the CVC is connection to Community Health Deputies (CHDs), trained community health workers recruited by the Neighborhood Resilience Project to provide accurate information about COVID-19. Sustained involvement of minoritized communities is needed to ensure that research and health care delivery systems address equity and increase trustworthiness. Our longer-term vision is to use the approaches developed in this integrated program to sustain local community networks and facilitate vaccine uptake among individuals in southwestern Pennsylvania, increase their active participation in clinical trials, and support equitable vaccine delivery in community and clinic-based settings by nurturing trustworthiness of the vaccines themselves, health care and research.