Global Coalition On Building on a pioneering model from Age-friendly NYC, the playbook offers step-by-step guidance for Age-friendly Cities and Communities to lead on adult vaccination, for COVID-19 and beyond.
New York, NEW YORK (March 25, 2021) –The Global Coalition on Aging (GCOA) today released a first-of-its-kind playbook to help Age-friendly Cities and Communities around the world address community concerns and increase confidence in the COVID-19 vaccines. The playbook, Building Confidence in COVID-19 Vaccination: A Playbook for Age-Friendly Cities, offers step-by-step guidance to replicate the successful vaccine confidence initiative led by GCOA with the Age-friendly NYC Commission, in early 2021.
In February and March 2021, GCOA organized a series of community-focused webinars, on which the playbook is built. The webinars brought together close to 20 international medical experts and leaders from minority and faith communities across the City of New York to:
- demystify the science behind COVID-19 vaccines, their development, their safety, and efficacy and
- to directly address the questions and concerns shared by older New Yorkers, their family members, and those that serve older adult communities.
The GCOA vaccine confidence initiative and resulting playbook offer an accessible and replicable model for leaders around the world to tailor as they reach out to the older adults in their own communities.
“New York’s unique experience as an early epicenter of the global pandemic, the diversity of our older adults, and the strong leadership of our city agencies and the Age-friendly NYC Commission made us a very good proving ground for such an effort,” explained Michael Hodin, CEO of the Global Coalition on Aging.
“We are sharing our experience with the world, especially through the World Health Organization’s Age-friendly Network of Cities and Communities. We hope this helps not only for a positive and successful COVID-19 vaccine rollout but can also become a model for other recommended adult vaccine immunization efforts, from flu and shingles to pneumococcal pneumonia,” said Hodin.
While the playbook was created to support the worldwide rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, the strategies and resources outlined in the playbook can be used by cities everywhere to strengthen public health through adult vaccination more broadly. GCOA also partnered with Novim on the Alliance to Beat Covid, a resource platform to encourage vaccination against COVID-19. Now more than ever, leaders and the public appreciate the critical role of prevention in combatting disease. Building Confidence in COVID-19 Vaccination: A Playbook for Age-Friendly Cities will be shared with the WHO Network of Age-friendly Cities and Communities and is available to any and all local leaders wishing to elevate healthy aging through a community-focused approach to adult vaccination. The playbook is available as a free download on the GCOA website.