Groundwork Elizabeth is leading this project, in which up to 2,700 youth ages 12 to 16 years old will take the COVID-19 vaccine, representing 20% of the youth population in the City of Elizabeth. In partnership with Trinitas Regional Mediical Center as the vaccine point of dispensing, the Housing Authority for the City of Elizabeth, the Elizabeth and Union County health departments, the Gateway Family YMCA and the Shaping Elizabeth community coalition, Groundwork Elizabeth and its youth-led, Youth Vaccination Task Force are developing a campaign to educate youth about the benefits of the vaccine and coordinating vaccination events focused on 12 to 16-year-olds. The Youth Vaccination Task Force members are launching #taketheshotnj, a social media campaign focused on providing information to their peers, and encouraging those who take the vaccine to share their stories and experiences through social media to build interest among Elizabeth’s youth population. Through Groundwork Elizabeth’s commitment to collaboration and partnership, this program could create a model for providing youth and their families with reliable information and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.

Groundwork Elizabeth 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.