In the days before any vaccines received an emergency use authorization, UW Health was already working on plans to reach the local Latinx community. They prioritized Latinx individuals within those early eligible populations and crafted straight-forward, direct messages about the safety and the effectiveness of the vaccines. But they knew from the beginning that was not going to be enough.

Vaccines need to be offered in clinics and locations that are known and trusted within the community, not just larger hospitals and clinics. Early on, UW Health operationalized a smaller clinic serving many of their Latinx patients to administer the vaccine. They worked with community groups such as the Latino Health Council of Dane County, the Wisconsin Latino Chamber of Commerce and Centro Hispano of Dane County to schedule vaccination days at this well-known and trusted clinic for the Latinx community. Just as important as location is having a trusted messenger. In addition to partnerships with Latinx community groups, they worked with one of UW Health’s Latinx primary care physicians to deliver multimedia messages to the community in Spanish.

This multi-layered approach to vaccine messaging and outreach has produced positive results. Dane County had one of the nation’s highest rates of vaccination in the Latinx community, in part because UW Health grounded their campaign firmly in the community.