CUMAC is leading this initiative, in which up to 500 vulnerable Passaic County residents age 12 and older will take the COVID-19 vaccine at community-based vaccination events. With a particular focus on Paterson, Passaic City and the surrounding communities, CUMAC is partnering with the New Jersey Department of Health, the Passaic County Health Department and Atlantic Health System to share information about the vaccines with residents. In addition, CUMAC is leveraging the trust of the 1200 families it serves each month to coordinate pop-up vaccination events at its on-site marketplace. Through the CUMAC’s commitment to collaboration and partnership, this program could create a model for providing equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.

CUMAC and its partners are among the nonprofits and service providers that have come together as the Moving New Jersey Forward Learning Collaborative to share accomplishments and lessons learned from this work with each other, with New Jersey Health Initiatives and the state, to benefit every community. Ensuring more equitable access to the COVID-19 vaccine originally connected these thought leaders as the New Jersey Vaccination Learning Network for over a year. In March 2022, the network renamed itself the Moving NJ Forward Learning Collaborative to better represent the partners’ systems-level thinking and commitment to applying the lessons from the past two years to unlock the doors to opportunity that marginalized communities face. Learn more about the collaborative’s expanded focus.