Local organizations step up as President denies, deflects, and dissembles on COVID-19

NEIGHBORHOOD FAMILY PRACTICE, AREA CHURCHES WORK TO EXPAND COVID-19 EDUCATION & TESTING TO BLACK AND BROWN COMMUNITIES

By R. T. Andrews

Neighborhood Family Practice Community Health
Center, on Franklin Blvd. in Cleveland's Detroit-
Shoreway neighborhood, one of seven NFP centers.

With President Donald Trump desperately trying force an economic recovery by browbeating federal health officials, threatening to withhold federal funding for school districts that do not re-open in normal fashion, and lying daily to the American people about the extent of the crisis and his administration’s half-hearted, disjointed, and ineffective responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, the black and brown people who are proving to be at higher risk can take some comfort in the knowledge that some of the community organizations that serve them are taking matters into their own hands.

COLOR OF HEALTH INITIATIVE

Last month the Greater Cleveland Congregations (GCC) launched a community-based campaign to test thousands across Cleveland and Cuyahoga County to contain the spread of COVID-19, with an emphasis on African American populations and other at-risk groups.

The campaign, known as the Color of Health Initiative, has recruited 18 congregations that will serve as sites for free testing through a partnership with the Cuyahoga County Board of Health and MetroHealth Systems. The Initiative is being co-chaired by GCC members and Cleveland pastors, Rev. Jawanza Karriem Colvin, Olivet Institutional Baptist Church; Rev. Ronald Maxwell, Affinity Missionary Baptist Church; and Rev. James Quincy, Lee Road Baptist Church.

Public health research and experts have pointed out the disproportionate impact COVID-19 has had on the poor and communities of color, exposing the inequities and injustices that GCC has been building power to correct since its founding. "There is an intersecting point between where race, poverty and this virus meet and it is ground zero for the worst of this pandemic," says Rev. Colvin. "We aim to meet it head-on."

HEALTH NETWORK ON WESTSIDE

Similar work is underway by the Neighborhood Family Practice (NFP), which has been providing outreach and education about the virus and expanding COVID-19 testing capabilities to minority populations via partnerships with other organizations.

NFP  is a community medical practice providing primary care, women’s health and midwifery services, behavioral health, dental and case management appointments to more than 19,000 patients annually at its combined locations. It has a network of seven community health centers — six on the city’s west side, and another in Lakewood — serving a diverse population of more than 19,000 patients annually.

“There are serious barriers to accessing COVID-19 testing among the African American/Black, Hispanic/Latino and refugee populations. It is our obligation as a federally qualified community health center to create systems that are equitable and accessible to all Clevelanders,” says Jean Polster, RN, MS, NFP’s president and CEO.

Polster’s comments echo findings by the Greater Cleveland Congregations organization. GCC members visited 46 drug stores operated by CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens within Cleveland city limits and found only two operating COVID-19 testing sites.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, long-standing systemic health and social inequities have put some members of racial and ethnic minority groups at increased risk of getting COVID-19 or experiencing severe illness, regardless of age. Among some racial and ethnic minority groups, including non-Hispanic black persons, Hispanics and Latinos, evidence points to higher rates of hospitalization or death from COVID-19 than among non-Hispanic white persons. As of June 12, 2020, age-adjusted hospitalization rates are highest among non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native and non-Hispanic black persons, followed by Hispanic or Latino persons.

“For the past several weeks, NFP has been offering testing — at no cost to those tested — at our West 117^th Community Health Center. To date, we’ve conducted more than 500 tests,” says Polster. “We recently added testing capabilities at our Detroit Shoreway location as well and hope to expand testing to other locations in the near future.”

AWARENESS AND EDUCATION CAMPAIGNS

In addition to testing, NFP is reaching out to leaders of other community organizations, starting with those serving the Hispanic/Latino community, with the goal of working together to help reduce COVID-19 related illness and death in that population. NFP is inviting organization leaders to participate in a video conference (to be conducted at 11 am on Wednesday, July 15) in which information on health guidance, testing and more will be shared.

NFP is also launching a COVID-19 awareness and education advertising campaign that will target African American/Black, Hispanic/Latino, refugee and white low income households (less than $50,000), as well as populations with existing chronic health conditions including diabetes, hypertension and obesity. Ads will run on networks targeting these populations like BET, OWN, TBS, VH1, Galavision, Telemundo, Discovery Spanish, ESPN Deportes, and more. Non-skippable ads will also run on other platforms including Xbox, Roku, Kindle Fire and PlayStation, along with other platforms to reach those who don’t watch traditional television, but instead stream it on their iPads and mobile devices.

“The campaign will use a combination of video on television and smart phones, with messaging focused around community outreach, education on testing awareness and testing locations,” says Polster. “As we see COVID-19 cases continue to rise, it’s more important than ever that we do all we can to get information out and make testing available to these at-risk and underserved populations in our community.”

Meanwhile, GCC is also conducting a community-wide survey of its member congregations and the surrounding communities as research for organizing people to ensure public and private resources are directed toward the individuals and families most adversely affected by the virus and the socio-economic impact on households. "Much of the world has demonstrated that the resources and expertise exist to not simply slow the virus, but suppress it," says Rev. Maxwell. "We must act together now to ensure that those resources are brought to bear within communities facing the greatest threat." 

The survey will enable persons across the city and county to provide first-person feedback on their experience with the virus and its implications on their social stability and financial well-being. GCC plans to utilize this information to identify strategies and action steps that will serve as effective tools to support affected individuals and families who may be subject to financial and social disruption due to exposure to COVID-19.

In addition, the survey will provide important on-the-

Rev. James Quincy
Lee Road Baptist Church

ground data that will be used in meetings with state and local public officials to improve the COVID-19 response in public policy, public health and public dollars. "Our community is in dire need of support to overcome the negative economic, emotional and physical effects of COVID-19," says Rev. Quincy. "We are working to deliver critical support."

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CVS, Rite Aid Walgreens shun COVID testing where it is most needed

GCC calls out CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens over COVID test sites

46 Cleveland stores visited; only two offer testing

By R. T. Andrews

While the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc with the nation’s health, economy, and ways of life, it is also illustrating many of the underlying and enduring ways in which systemic racism operates in America.

Greater Cleveland Congregations, the largest community power organization in Northeast Ohio, yesterday called out the country’s three biggest pharmacy chains — CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens — on their failure to provide broader COVID-19 testing within the city of Cleveland. 

In a news release, GCC reported that its members visited local neighborhood drugstores to assess the availability of COVID-19 testing within their communities. According to their survey, only two of 46 drug stores visited offered testing for the virus.

"We visited ten Rite Aid stores in Greater Cleveland and discovered it is offering only one testing site within the city of Cleveland while offering several testing sites in suburbs surrounding Cleveland," says DeAnna DeForest, member of Elizabeth Baptist Church. GCC visited nine Walgreens stores in Cleveland and surrounding suburbs and found it only offered testing in one store within Cleveland.

"We visited 27 CVS sites in the Greater Cleveland area and were dismayed to have discovered that while CVS offers testing in several suburbs, it is not offering any testing site within the Cleveland city limits," says DeForest.

Color of Health Initiative

GCC recently announced its Color of Health Initiative, which has recruited 17 congregations as sites for free testing through Cuyahoga County. The initiative will bring testing into less affluent urban neighborhoods in a focused and sustained effort. 

"We are pleased with our efforts but realize that if testing is going to be effective, we must increase both capacity and availability," says Rev. James Quincy of Lee Road Baptist Church. "It is an affront that these stores have made testing readily available in the suburbs, but not in the city, where the virus is having a devastating and deadly impact."

"This is the definition of structural racism – bias built into the systems and institutions of our society to the detriment of particular racial groups," says Rev. Ronald Maxwell of Affinity Missionary Baptist Church in Cleveland. "These structures have too long resulted in the loss of life, whether from inequality within our justice system, toxic environmental conditions, the lack of access to healthy foods or, in this case, available health care."

 GCC is asking CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens to meet with GCC and do the following to create access for people living in urban areas to accessible and available testing:

• Increase testing sites in urban neighborhoods that are predominantly Black, Brown and lower income.

• Give $5M to Cuyahoga County to pay for more tests until there is a vaccine

• Hand out free PPE (personal protective equipment) to people that come into the store for testing

"The presence of these stores within our communities is appreciated and testifies to the fact they find value within our communities," says Rev. Jawanza Karriem Colvin of Olivet Institutional Baptist Church in Cleveland. "This crisis offers an excellent opportunity to demonstrate that they equally value the lives of individuals living in our communities."

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Struggle to create county Crisis Diversion Centers draws closer to goal

Greater Cleveland Congregations nears success in drive to create diversion centers

The mental health centers that were a key demand of the community’s progressive leaders during the intense political battle over the financing of renovations to Quicken Loans Arena seem closer to being born following the Criminal Justice Action mass meeting orchestrated by Greater Cleveland Congregations this past Thursday at Olivet Institutional Baptist Church.

Over one thousand GCC members from dozens of area congregations across the county packed Olivet’s sanctuary, located in the heart of Cleveland’s Fairfax neighborhood, for updates and action on what has largely been an under the radar struggle over the past three years to secure the necessary political and financial support to reimagine and reform the county’s broken justice system.

The assembly heard from their leaders, celebrated their power, received testimony from mothers of two young men whose lives might have been saved by a more enlightened justice system, approved a roadmap to create two new crisis diversion centers, and at the end, received endorsements and pledges from community health leaders and key public officials to make the centers a reality.

Citizens and experts agree that crisis diversion centers would keep people out of jail who don’t belong there, and also save lives and money. But public policies don’t get implemented just because they make sense, even where government is progressive. And moving the public apparatus of a defensive, decentralized, dollar-strained and often dysfunctional county government is no easy task.

GCC’s efforts in 2017 to secure the crisis centers were joined and supported by noteworthy allies, including the SEIU, AFSCME, and ATU labor unions, along the Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus, were insufficient to galvanize the community into addressing the issue at that time.

On Thursday, as the coalition of forces, including key public officials in the criminal justice and health systems who have since come aboard, appears on the brink of establishing the centers, GCC paused to acknowledge its early allies in the struggle.

It is now clear that the initial rebuff by the array of private and public interests against creating the centers was not the end of the discussion. Seated front and center on stage were the present and former presiding and administrative judges of the county court system, the county prosecutor, and the chief of staff for the county executive. The public systems they represent are all now at the table, working to make the diversion centers a reality.

[This post will be updated momentarily. Thank you for your patience.]

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