“Parents lined up Wednesday morning along Aurora Central High School’s east parking lot to receive free groceries and other staples at the school’s fall market, part of a series of drives at APS schools in partnership with Aurora Interfaith Community Services.
To the side of carts of produce, the Tri-County Health Department had a booth where employees were distributing free COVID-19 tests and an information sheet about vaccines for kids. Before 10 a.m., all the tests had been taken.
Since the pandemic began, the department has been working with APS to make sure community members have accurate information about the COVID-19 vaccine and know where they can get tested or vaccinated. That work has been strengthened this semester with a grant the district received from the Institute for Educational Leadership in partnership with Kaiser Permanente and the National Association of School Nurses.
The grant is from the institute’s Champions for School Health Vaccination Challenge and focuses on increasing COVID-19 vaccine confidence and improving vaccine equity, according to the organization’s website.
B Lewis, a community schools impact manager at APS, said that in 2020 the district realized that there was a lot of misinformation circulating about the vaccine, and decided to partner with Tri-County to make sure it was consistently delivering accurate and reliable information to students and their families.”
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Photo by PHILIP B. POSTON/Sentinel Colorado