Milwaukee launches new door-to-door program to get people vaccinated

By Amanda Becker

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    MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (WDJT) — As more vaccine clinics close in our area, community leaders are taking a new approach to get vaccine numbers up.

Wednesday employees and volunteers of the Community Mobilization Project were bussed to Sixth and Keefe to start knocking on doors.

It’s one of 15 zip codes that city leaders say vaccinations and outreach are low.

The city of Milwaukee launched the community mobilization project to get more people in underserved communities vaccinated.

“Our hospitalizations are down, that our deaths are down. That is all good,” said Mayor Tom Barrett Wednesday. “We really have to meet people where they are in their lives.”

Members of the project will now go door to door to reach more people.

In eight days so far, they’ve knocked on more than 1,000 doors and vaccinated 137 people right in their own homes.

Lorraine Lathen, Director of the Community Mobilization Project, says it is important to make sure the people going door to door are people who also live in these communities.

“They listen to people about what their concerns are. They respond to those and they share their own journey,” said Lathen.

They have a large goal of talking to thousands more people.

“One census track alone can be about 3,000 people, one census track,” said Lathen. “We’re trying to reach 297 census tracks. So I hope that kind of paints the picture.”

If people aren’t home they leave flyers on their doors in hopes to catch them at a better time.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley says there are many reasons these areas are lagging in vaccines.

“Like socio econonomic status, like minority status, like they’re housing status or whether they may not be able to leave their homes,” said Crowley.

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