1Day Sooner
2093 Philadelphia Pike
Claymont, DE
United States
Founded in April of 2020, 1Day Sooner was born in the COVID-19 pandemic to represent volunteers who wanted to rapidly accelerate the deployment of the most effective COVID-19 vaccines possible. Out of the work to vaccinate the hardest to reach populations has grown the plan for a citywide event in Boston with the hopes that it will engage a community-driven approach towards meeting hesitant individuals where they are, while laying the groundwork for a one-time federal holiday to celebrate frontline workers.
The Boston Vaccine Day is being overseen by 1Day Sooner and will use a two-stage model that includes centering on building awareness and collaboration designed to help increase access to and decisions about getting vaccinated and focusing on the implementation of the Boston Vaccine Day programming. To implement the work, a Boston Steering committee which is comprised of local community leaders, organizers, event planners, and community health workers, the majority of whom are people of color. A sample of key Boston organizational partners includes: Massachusetts Health Council, AE Events, Saturday Church Boston, Harvard Neighborhood Health Center, and the Haitian American Medical Association. National partners additionally include organizations such as The Emily Stillman Foundation, The John Brockington Foundation, Voices for Vaccines, and National Foundation of Infections Disease.
The event will be held at Franklin Park Playstead. The decision to choose this location was made through a combination of partnering with community leaders, calculating social vulnerability index, and examining current vaccination rates collected by the City of Boston. Franklin Park is also centrally located between multiple Black/African American communities. A broad range of social media and traditional media (news and radio) are being planned and will be implemented.
The event itself will feature live music, family games, food, and a series of vendors from local black-owned businesses. In addition to this, the event will include a “health walk” which will allow for local health providers, community health centers, and other health educators to provide health information, connection community members to care, and provide on-site preventive and screening services, such as blood pressure screenings.
This is unique and time sensitive opportunity for CareQuest Institute to respond to the current state of the pandemic, live into our values around equity in supporting efforts to meet marginalized communities where they are at, and contribute to the broader health of Boston. Additionally, there is a unique opportunity for CareQuest Institute to connect event participants with needed oral health information and needed supplies.
The budget for this proposal is $25,000. All of the funding vaccine day event costs. Of note is that 1Day Sooner has additionally received a strong indication of funding from other sources in the amount of $75,000.
The total organizational budget for the 1Day Sooner is $1,297,000, which makes this grant about 2% of the organizational budget.