Kansas City VA Medical Center partners with Veterans Community Project to vaccinate Veterans
On Monday, April 29, 2021, the Kansas City VA Medical Center joined forces with the Veterans Community Project (VCP) in an effort to expand the reach and further vaccinate Kansas City area Veterans in a rapidly changing vaccination landscape.
As our nation continues vaccination efforts and more and more people are vaccinated, further establishing herd immunity, every Veteran vaccinated is a small victory. KCVA has vaccinated over 35% of registered Veterans in the metro and surrounding communities. When the opportunity arose to partner with VCP for an off-campus vaccine clinic, KCVA took their vaccine clinic on the road.
We are headed into the community to vaccinate Veterans
Paula Roychaudhuri, Associate Director for KCVA, said, “We’re going to go into the community. We’re going to continue doing that. We’re going to meet our Veterans, their families, and caregivers where they’re at, and we’re going to reach as many Veterans as possible, in any community location.”
Every Veteran vaccinated is a little victory
Presently, all KCVA vaccine clinics are open to walk-ins to allow more flexibility. Over a dozen Veterans called to make a confirmed appointment for this Pfizer two-dose vaccine clinic. In the first two hours of the clinic, our vaccinators had administered more than two dozen vaccines to area Veterans and Veteran family members, and caregivers.
Charles Leaper, an Army Veteran, said, “it was important to him to get vaccinated to benefit the community, and so he could safely be around his family members, primarily his 92-year-old grandfather.”
The combined efforts resulted in 42 more Veterans and family members vaccinated by the end of the clinic.
All KCVA vaccine clinics are open to walk-ins
“It’s the little triumphs at this stage in national vaccination clinic efforts. Every additional vaccine dose that we utilize results in another Veteran vaccinated and one step closer to the goal of establishing herd immunity and ending this pandemic,” said Roychaudhuri.
Veterans helping Veterans! “They know, as far as they can walk in and see familiar faces, whether it is an individual who has been here since the beginning, but we have a very open-door policy,” said Vincent Morales, Army Veteran and co-founder of the Veterans Community Project.
A strong sense of community
A handful of Veterans founded the Veterans Community Project to serve homeless Veterans through relationships and a strong sense of community. The VCP community is an innovative village of 49 tiny houses for Veterans experiencing homelessness. It is located on the southside of Kansas City and provided a strategic location for Veterans interested in receiving a vaccine living in Eastern Kansas and Missouri.