Vaccine Access Fund

LISC, Uber, Paypal Giving Fund and Walgreens have joined forces to create the Vaccine Access Fund, a $12 million initiative that addresses health inequities and facilitates rides to vaccination sites and other places where people can learn about the vaccine from trusted contacts.

After enduring more than a year of the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of Americans have received vaccines to help stem the spread of the virus. In order for the nation to fully recover and rebound, more U.S. residents must be inoculated, as quickly as possible, including children as vaccine approvals expand.

Unfortunately, the same systemic inequities that caused the pandemic to so disproportionately ravage low-wealth, Black and Brown communities are also influencing vaccine rollout.

Earlier, one of the barriers to rapid vaccine deployment in underserved communities of color was transportation, contributing to the lagging rates of vaccination in Black and Latinx communities and low-wealth areas. Without a ride, many people had no way of getting to a vaccination site. The Vaccine Access Fund supported community-based organizations to book free Uber rides for people to get where they needed to go for a shot. Now that vaccines are readily available in most places, free rides are helping those community organizations to connect with people to talk about the vaccine and encourage them to pursue a shot.

How the Fund Works

Connecting People to Rides

LISC is managing the Vaccine Access Fund by working, as we have for 40 years, with community-based nonprofits and other groups to set up and support the free rides program. These groups are at the heart of the Vaccine Access Fund—and they do everything from educating residents and helping people get appointments to assisting with childcare options, providing language translation and delivering other vital services.

The fund provides organizations with access to the Uber Health platform and resources to pay for rides—both key tools that support their broader efforts to close gaps in vaccine access for people in underserved and low-wealth communities.

Vaccine programs are administered state-by-state. Our network of local partners can ensure that transportation resources are distributed effectively and are consistent with local vaccine rollout dynamics.

LISC’s Role

• We identify local organizations led by and serving communities of color and low-wealth areas, and that are working to make vaccine access equitable.
  • If your organization is supporting vaccine access for communities of color and low-income communities with transportation needs, please share information with us here.
• LISC provides technical assistance to administer the free rides program through the Uber Health platform and to pay for the rides through the Vaccine Access Fund.
• Local organizations will coordinate the free rides directly with residents and through faith-based institutions, businesses, housing developments and others in their community.
• The program prioritizes Black and Latinx adults, people living on low incomes and others for whom transportation is a barrier.

Together, we aim to ensure a more equitable and safe recovery for all Americans.

Join the Vaccine Access Fund

LISC aims to raise additional resources to support local organizations working on vaccine transportation and other COVID relief and recovery efforts. To join these efforts, contact Erin Kelley at ekelley2@lisc.org.

Uber

Uber

PayPal

Walgreens