GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — It’s no secret that figuring out how to navigate the process of getting vaccinated can be a challenging task for many.
Now throw in additional challenges such as language barriers, technology and transportation, and some groups in Northeast Wisconsin are put at a greater disadvantage.
For Casa Alba Melanie, a local nonprofit, their purpose is to provide a place of trust for Hispanic families to become part of the community.
Elizabeth Kostichka is the Vaccine Hispanic Coordinator for the organization and is actively working to help educate area Latino and Hispanic families about the vaccination process.
“Obviously, number one is the language barrier, second with technology because some of these appointments you have to schedule them online. They go on the website and sometimes these websites are in English,” Kostichka said.
She has also reached out to the Latino families in rural communities where for many of these individuals transportation is one of their biggest challenges.
“They don’t have transportation. The vaccines are usually in Green Bay or in the cities. We are trying to collaborate with the employers and the health care system to see if they can provide the vaccine on site so they don’t have to travel. That’d be easier for them,” Kostichka said.
Kostichka has been actively collaborating with hospital systems and other organizations to help figure out a way that the Latino population does not get left behind.
“Collaborating with the hospital systems. We are collaborating with Aurora, Bellin, Prevea. Also with any public clinic and Brown County Department Heath. We are all connected, we are all trying to reach out to the Hispanic community one way or the other. Also reaching out into the rural communities. The farms there where there’s a lot of Hispanic community working,” Kostichka said.
And as vaccine rollouts continue to expand for more groups, Kostichka says she has been receiving even more calls recently on help on how to get vaccinated.
“There’s a lot of Hispanic populations working in the food industry, processing in the dairy or restaurants locally so yeah definitely in the last two weeks there has been a lot of calls to schedule their appointments,” Kostichka said.
She also said one thing many in the Latino/Hispanic community face is fear.
Fear of not having health insurance and for some being undocumented.
Kostichka wants to raise awareness that for those looking to get vaccinated you are not required to show documented status or health insurance if you don’t have any.
She says it’s also important to remind them that even if they don’t have insurance, the cost to be vaccinated is free.
She also said while she continues to work with other agencies in Northeast Wisconsin, the conversations so far have been very eye-opening and understanding saying she’s excited to continue these efforts in order to make sure no groups get left behind.
To help make it easier, the brown county health department says its rolled out an Equity Plan that can address some of the hurdles.
"Those tactics include having response of operations, and committee engagement, transportation access, economic access, language access, registration access and on-site access and accommodations," said Anna Destree, Brown County Health Deptartment Public Health Officer.
Destree says it's important for people to know that these transportation resources, language resources are available at all the sites.
