Last week, in the midst of a pandemic, Texas faced an unprecedented winter storm. Millions were left without power or water; for those who had water, it was often unsanitary. Our own team sought solutions to keep us safe and warm, which we compiled here. We saw local organizations leverage GivePulse to fundraise hundreds of thousands of dollars to feed vulnerable members of their community, and collaborated with the City to help with warming centers and shelters. We continue to work with churches and local authorities to ensure everyone has access to showers, safe drinking water, and laundry services. If we can help with any immediate needs, please let us know at warm@givepulse.com.
As we turn the corner, with warmer weather signaling safety to those in our home state, we know that COVID-19 remains a challenge to be overcome. In these challenging times, we have continued to be inspired by the speed and efficacy with which the scientific community stepped up to develop vaccines that will allow our communities to begin moving toward normalcy. As vaccine rollout progresses across the country, our team at GivePulse have been collaborating with health authorities and institutions to coordinate volunteers and facilitate the safe, secure, and accessible distribution of vaccines. These efforts are central to our mission of empowering social good.
This post highlights a few of the institutions and partners we’re working with to facilitate vaccine distribution, from our home City of Austin to organizations and institutions across the country.
If you have any questions about whether GivePulse can support your vaccination efforts, please contact us at covid@givepulse.com or schedule a call with one of our success managers.
Austin: Vaccine Distribution in Our Home City
In the aftermath of an unprecedented winter storm, the City of Austin is continuing to recruit qualified individuals to serve as patient representatives and administer vaccines for their COVID-19 response. The initiative, dubbed “United Against COVID” by Austin Public Health (APH), will be imperative to the city’s operations as they find, train, and manage the thousands of volunteers required to build immunity against COVID-19.
“We never imagined we’d be faced with a once-in-a-generation winter storm during a global pandemic, but we’re glad we can play a part to keep our hometown and other communities safe, whether that’s by supporting warming shelters, showering facilities, water disbursement sites or facilitating vaccine distribution.”
The United Against COVID initiative will also center on the recruitment of volunteers to their appropriate Points of Dispensing. Points of Dispensing (PODs) serve as community locations for the distribution of medical countermeasures such as vaccines, antibiotics, and more. The City of Austin will create a virtual hub for local PODs from which they can manage different locations at the same time, displaying vacancies for volunteers in locations near them. From this hub, APH will also coordinate communication and reporting to ensure that health administrators can seamlessly control, audit and access data to distribute the vaccine throughout the community.
Once they have found the appropriate POD for their location, volunteers can submit their availability and qualifications, along with any other information required by APH to ensure safe and effective vaccine distribution. APH will review these applications to screen potential volunteers and offer qualified applicants access to volunteer opportunities. With this designated group pre-selected, administrators for the PODs can easily message out any immediate needs via email, SMS, or SNS. This ensures that, should more volunteers be required for any situation, administrators have a list of available and qualified individuals at their fingertips.
Working With Partners Across the Nation
GivePulse is proud to be working alongside our hometown’s leadership for United Against COVID. We are taking our learnings in Austin, TX to activate other cities, states, institutions, organizations and public health authorities to get folks vaccinated.
For organizations, institutions, cities and municipalities who would like to collaborate with us, let us know how we can launch vaccination appointments, symptom checking, patient statuses, volunteer signups, community fundraising and more. Email covid@givepulse.com for more information or to set up your public health portal.
Join us on March 31 at 2pm CT for our Vaccinations and Public Health webinar. Register here. To learn more about how GivePulse can help you make a difference in your community, schedule a call.