Lake County directing COVID-19 relief funds to hard-hit communities
An initiative to distribute 70,000 safety kits and educational materials to Latino and Black communities in Lake County hit hard by the coronavirus is underway.
Those groups have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 and need culturally relevant resources and information to help prevent its spread, according to organizations convened by the Lake County Health Department.
A $50,000 grant from the Lake County Community Foundation kick-started the initiative. Volunteers at the Puerto Rican Society in Waukegan have been preparing family safety kits consisting of masks, hand sanitizer and educational materials.
But the ball really is about to get rolling with the authorization this week by the Lake County Board of $1 million in federal COVID relief funds for materials, printing and other costs.
The effort is being led by Asociacion Comunitaria Latina and the African American Community Partnership Group, which represent more than 50 organizations serving minority communities.
"Our mission is to reduce the contagion rate in areas we know have high numbers," said Cynthia Vargas, communications chairwoman for Asociacion Comunitaria Latina.
The federal funds will allow both organizations to use targeted strategies in English and Spanish to provide personal protective equipment and raise awareness in communities of color of how to prevent COVID-19, said Gale Graves, African American Community Partnership Group co-chair and interim assistant director of the Waukegan Public Library.
The initiative also will allow the groups "to begin to address the inequities in the health care system that lead to higher instances of chronic health conditions and access to quality care," she said.
Graves said that for every white person who tests positive for COVID-19, four Black and nine Latino individuals test positive, and mortality rates are twice as high. Latino residents account for about 22% and Black residents about 7% of Lake County's population of 696,535.
"Communities of color disproportionately are affected by living conditions, work circumstances and underlying health conditions that make it more likely for them to contract COVID-19 (and to have a more severe case) because they lack access to the resources and information they need to practice social distancing and maintain their health," according to information provided to the county board.
Asociacion Comunitaria Latina and the African American Community Partnership Group will work together to leverage purchasing power for materials but will compile their own kits with culturally relevant materials.
Three-quarters of the funding will go to Asociacion Comunitaria Latina, with the remainder to the African American Community Partnership Group. The Waukegan Public Library will serve as the lead fiscal agent.
Efforts are moving into high gear, Vargas said. "We are looking for volunteers to help assemble the kits."
Anyone interested can email dominguezdm28@gmail.com or stop by the Puerto Rican Society, 150 S. Sheridan Road, Waukegan, from noon to 8 p.m. Monday to Thursday or 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.
Waukegan will be the first distribution area. Future distribution sites have been identified in Highwood/Highland Park, the Round Lake area, North Chicago, Zion, Mundelein, Wauconda and Antioch.
Support for the effort came from a special county committee tasked with identifying and making recommendations on how and where $121.5 million in federal relief funds should be directed.
Committee Chairman Paul Frank described the use of the $1 million as an "appropriate and necessary" community prevention effort.
"Any way we can expand the opportunity to get the materials in the hands of people who need it is an opportunity worth exploring," Eric Waggoner, the county's director of planning, building and development, told the committee.