The Opportunity

The Challenge

The Solution

The Outcome

December 2020

• Ichor researchers identified the main drivers of health inequity, mistrust, misinformation, and city-based social determinants of health (SDOH) such as insurance coverage, median household income, access to broadband, access to personal vehicles or transportation, and more.
• The GIS team then analyzed the SDOH indicators to pinpoint where access was the primary barrier and identified gaps in the client’s vaccination locations.

January 2021

• Ichor drove internal company alignment by creating teams of multidisciplinary community engagement leads in each market.

• We identified the most trusted and influential voices—local leaders, health providers, activists, grassroots organizations, and religious institutions—and engaged them to understand community and culturally-specific pain points.  

February-April 2021

• Ichor hosted community dialogues focused on seniors and Black and Latinx communities to understand their specific challenges, establish trusted messengers, and bolster relationships with the local organizations and religious institutions that serve them.  
• Using data and qualitative insights, we prioritized neighborhoods in which we could make the largest impact and activated vaccination locations and pop-ups.
• We developed community-specific, long-term engagement plans and refined the client’s messaging to address hesitancy and misinformation.
• Ichor led internal company strategy sessions to kick-start the implementation of the community engagement plans and then created “activation trackers” to allow the client to continue its engagement by identifying resources and opportunities for partnership. 

May-June 2021

• Ichor debuted adjustments to the client’s national vaccination distribution strategy, allowing for greater access and reduced hesitancy for the most vulnerable communities.  

• We created a framework for internal corporate alignment across lines of business (including retail, social responsibility, testing, and inside counsel) that enabled faster and more effective activation.

• With our help, the client engaged over 100 stakeholders, formed partnerships with communities beyond vaccine equity, and mined existing partnerships for best practices and impact. 

• GIS mapping identified gaps in proximity to vaccination sites and lack of transportation within Black and immigrant neighborhoods – the source of community backlash. 

   

• On-the-ground insights identified sources of mistrust. 

   

• Community dialogues allowed the client to hear directly from activists and the local chapter of a national advocacy organization concerned with gaps in access, and facilitated collaboration among stakeholders.   

   

• The client launched joint vaccination pop-up events with community leaders, reaching underserved Black and immigrant communities in easily accessible locations.