Protecting prevention: The BLKHLTH Vaccine Equity Initiative
The BLKHLTH Vaccine Equity Initiative addressed barriers to COVID-19 vaccine education and services among Black Georgians. While devastating cuts to public health halted its promising progress, initial findings pointed to Black Georgians’ desire for reliable and accessible preventive health resources delivered by trusted community-based organizations.
Vaccinations are one of the most effective, evidence-based interventions for preventing and mitigating the spread of diseases. Unfortunately many Georgians — particularly those from marginalized groups like Black populations— face financial, cultural, structural, and administrative barriers to accessing vaccines and other preventive health services. These hurdles include the underinvestment in Georgia’s public health infrastructure , care deserts and health professional shortage areas across the state, and Georgia’s Medicaid coverage gap. The COVID-19 pandemic further exposed long-standing racial inequities in access to vital preventive health education, resources, and services.
In response, BLKHLTH launched its Vaccine Equity Initiative, a culturally-responsive, community-based campaign designed to increase vaccine awareness, confidence, and coverage among Black Georgians. Through listening sessions and mobile vaccination clinics, the initiative sought to provide disadvantaged communities with reliable information and the opportunity to get vaccinated.
In March 2025, the federal administration withdrew $11 billion in direct federal support to state and local public health, thereby dismantling critical public health systems and programs nationwide. These devastating cuts stripped state and local public health departments of their resources and staff including the Georgia Department of Public Health, the sole funder of BLKHLTH’s Vaccine Equity Initiative. BLKHLTH was on track to reach 5,000 Black Georgians with vital vaccine education, navigation support, and mobile clinics in communities like Metro Atlanta, Savannah, Valdosta, and Athens. But just as the program was gaining momentum after completing its Phase I community listening sessions, funding was halted.
In February 2025, BLKHLTH held virtual and in-person listening sessions with Black Georgians located in urban and rural communities who shared their experiences, concerns, and hopes around making confident, informed vaccination decisions. Participants desired accurate, reliable, and up-to-date information from trusted voices like Black-led and managed community-based organizations. They were also interested in health information being disseminated in familiar, community-based settings such as churches and senior centers. Many said that the fear of severe COVID-19 was a strong motivator to seek out the vaccine. However, they described barriers that impeded access, such as low vaccine supply, transportation and financial constraints, lack of awareness, misinformation and disinformation in the media, and untrustworthiness of changing government sources.
When funding was halted, the next phases of the program were never completed. These efforts included developing culturally-responsive educational materials, setting up mobile vaccine clinics across the state, and onboarding community health workers as trusted messengers.
The BLKHLTH Vaccine Equity Initiative revealed a clear demand among Black Georgians for community-rooted, preventive health services supported by strong public health infrastructure and trusted messengers. This work is far from finished. Black communities deserve expanded access to vaccines and other preventive health services, not funding cuts!
Here’s how you can take action:
Stay up-to-date. Information and resources related to COVID-19 vaccines and other vaccines are available through the Georgia Department of Public Health.
Call your representatives. Demand that we keep our critical public health infrastructure, workforce, and research fully-funded.
Talk to your people. Raise awareness about threats to public health to your friends, family, and neighbors. Misinformation thrives in silence.
Share your story. Have you or your community been affected by cuts to public health services? Speak out.
