Project Description

A USC UCEDD-led Community-Partnered Consortium of CBOs, academic partners, faith-based organizations, regional centers, disability rights and advocacy organizations, county and state public health departments, and healthcare organizations will be established to increase access to a wide range of public health services and supports for people with disabilities and their families in Los Angeles County.  

The Consortium’s activities include:  

1) the development, provision, and dissemination of culturally affirmative and linguistically accessible information to educate under-resourced communities and to promote behavioral change relative to COVID-19 vaccine confidence and utilization;  

• Listening session with 22 racially and ethnically diverse self-advocates on their experience during the COVID-19 pandemic and their vaccine confidence.
• Participating in a South Los Angeles County initiative (Black Vax) to infuse content on the needs and challenges of people with IDD in the African American community.

2) planning LA County-wide inter-sector and multi-agency coordinated programs to increase access and assistance for receiving COVID-19 and other vaccines and boosters for people with disabilities, their families, and the professionals who serve them, including mobile vaccination programs;  

• Organizing networking meetings between IDD organizations such as SCDD with Charles Drew University(CDU)/Kedren mobile medicine team, many members of which are MDs/MPH. These connections channel the resources that CDU/Kedren team has in programming serving the IDD population.
• Holding planning meetings with California and Los Angeles County Departments of Public Health to educate them on the need for accommodations in compliance with ADA.

3) recruitment and training of members of under-represented racial and ethnic groups as public health professionals competent in community-partnered approaches to programs and services; 

• Designing a curriculum for a MPH practicum opportunity for USC graduate students. (Department of Population and Public Health Sciences) to enter the field of public health serving underrepresented groups. These USC students will be BIPOC and international students from low-middle income countries. 

4) development, provision and linkages to health and wellness programs and activities that address social isolation and social determinants of health, and other activities that support the public health and wellbeing of people with disabilities and their families, with a focus on under-resourced, racially and ethnically diverse communities of Los Angeles County.  

• Facilitating vaccinations and boosters for homebound medically fragile or behaviorally challenged individuals with IDD and their families through CDU/Kedren mobile medicine program in collaboration with local regional centers.

Additional Information

Collaborators: South Central Prevention Coalition (SCPC)

Project Duration: 2022-2023

Funding: ACL-Biden-Harris Public Health Grant 

Presentation Poster: Racial and Ethnic Inequalities Related to COVID-19 in the IDD Community in California: Historical Public Data Analysis