COVID-19, Collaborative Health, and Communities of Color

This blog post is by Ari O’Donovan, Boost’s diversity outreach manager.

Meet Ari O’Donovan, Boost's diversity outreach manager. Ari oversees all of our programming specific to Black, Latinx, and immigrant communities.

In our communities, we are each other’s keeper. And since vaccines provide community immunity and protection, they are a shared responsibility. As the diversity outreach manager at Boost, I'm passionate about strengthening communities from within and improving community health. That's why I am committed to Boost’s mission to build community strength through protecting individuals, our loved ones, and those who cannot be vaccinated.

The same foundational principle of community protection must also be applied to ending racism, understanding communities of color, and promoting long-lasting change. When one group of people in a community is being treated inequitably, it is the problem and the concern of the whole community.

Systemic racism has long since been a part of American history, and has grave impacts on community health. The COVID-19 pandemic proves yet again how structural racism harms Black Americans. African-Americans are dying at about 2.4 times the rate of white Americans during the pandemic.

The Black Lives Matter movement is a passionate response to the centuries-old scourge of racial injustices on American society, and deserves the attention of the medical community.

Boost Oregon recognizes the need for change and health advocacy, and stands with Black communities. Failure to address and protect the concerns of Black Americans is not only a disservice to those community members, but it harms society as a whole.

The Black community has specific characteristics, needs, concerns, and fears. Rather than take on a one-size-fits-all attitude towards public health and its continued improvement, we believe the only way to encourage sustainable and purposeful change is to understand each community.

At Boost, we aim to meet our community where they are, seek to understand individual lived-experiences, lift each other up, and lend our voices to those who can’t be heard.

As a voice for Boost and an advocate for the local Black community, I’ll be bringing my voice to the Boost blog to share how Boost is collaborating with communities of color — and how we’re bringing our programming to these communities. Stay tuned for more posts, and please reach out if you have any questions.

Learn more

• Meet Ari O’Donovan, Boost’s diversity outreach manager.

• Register for a virtual Community Workshop to learn about vaccine safety.

• Follow Boost on Instagram.