In our research, our project explored the uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine within the Hartford community and aimed to discover the main reasons for vaccine hesitancy in the community. Our project was a collaboration with Hispanic Health Council and the Liberal Arts Action Lab. To conduct our research, we worked with local community health workers to better understand the COVID-19 situation in Hartford and to determine common reasons as to why people have not received the COVID-19 vaccine. Our work specifically focused on why residents in Hartford and surrounding communities are hesitant to receive the vaccine.
Throughout our process we began to realize how beneficial it was to understand the narrative of the local community health workers, working specially with the COVID-19 vaccine, and their experiences. We wanted to know more about the common beliefs in Hartford surrounding the pandemic, specially the COVID-19 vaccine, and this sparked our research questions:
“What are some of the common reasons for Vaccine Hesitancy?”
“What were community health workers’ experiences with members of the community hesitant to receive the vaccine?”
Hispanic Health Council is a non-profit organization located in Hartford whose mission is to promote equity and address health disparities for Hispanics, Latinos, and other vulnerable communities through research, advocacy, and culturally resonant services.