JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — FEMA started community outreach Wednesday to get the word out about the federally supported vaccine site at Gateway Mall and its two satellite sites.
The Community Outreach Crosswalk Team, as called by FEMA, set up in front of the Family Dollar on Kings Road around 1:30 p.m. They handed out flyers with Gateway's address and hours and talked to just about everyone who walked in the door.
The team stayed until about 4:30 p.m.
The plan, according to a FEMA spokesperson, is to reach out to faith-based groups and businesses in the area within a one to two-mile radius of Gateway and its two satellite sites. The spokesperson said they want to provide awareness and education about the vaccine in our community by going into communities.
The outreach team is not sure how long they will canvas for, but said the canvassing was not started due to the initially low turnouts at the sites.
The FEMA representative said it was part of an existing plan.
Monica Watkins lives in the area and said she is not eligible for the shot yet, but is going to pass along the information to friends and family members that she Wednesday.
“I think that it's a good thing so many people don’t watch what they need to watch on tv so they’re missing out on things and they don’t have people helping them and informing them of what’s going on, so I think it's a good thing," Watkins said.
Gateway gave a little more than 2,200 shots compared to a number as low as 840 last week. The site opened last Wednesday. Until the site got the Johnson and Johnson doses Sunday, Gateway could administer 2,000 per day. the satellite sites could each do 500 doses per day. Now, with the added Johnson and Johnson doses, Gateway can give 3,000 per day.
A spokesperson for the state credits the increase in the number of people coming to the sites to the state's outreach program that started a few days before the Gateway site opened. The program includes canvassers knocking on doors, and canvassers working with faith-based leaders to help register people for vaccine appointments.
The state is hiring 300 additional personnel to help specifically with outreach in Jacksonville. Three-hundred additional personnel will also be deployed to Tampa, Orlando and Miami to help with outreach in each of those cities, 1,200 additional state employees total.
The state's spokesperson said this is in an effort to bring vaccine access to underserved areas and let people know that resources are available to them.
Gateway's satellite sites move every seven to 10 days. The satellite sites that are now located at the Hammond Senior Center and the Normandy Community Center will move to the Carver Center located at 777 Fifth Avenue South in Jacksonville Beach and the Oceanway Community Center located at 12215 Sago Avenue West in Jacksonville March 14. The sites will be in those locations until March 23.