How an after-school program achieved a high vaccination rate in a Black neighborhood where most young adults are unvaccinated
WASHINGTON - William Pitts was one of the first on staff to be vaccinated.
He spent much of the pandemic stuck at home, missing the boys he once regularly saw at the after-school program where he works.
He hesitated to get vaccinated initially. The 78-year-old, known to everyone in this Northeast Washington community as Elder Bill, had read about the Tuskegee syphilis study and revelations that Johnson & Johnson's baby powder targeting Black women had asbestos.
"I didn't have much trust in the medical establishment," Pitt said.
But each week, he tuned in to Zoom sessions about the virus hosted by a Black scientist on the board of directors at the Life Pieces to Masterpieces after-school program. The sessions eased his concerns.
Once he was vaccinated against the coronavirus this spring, other employees - mostly Black men in their 20s and 30s - felt more comfortable getting shots, too.
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The program ultimately mandated vaccination for all 18 employees of Life Pieces To Masterpieces. Today, everyone there is vaccinated. The more than a dozen volunteers who interact with students are also vaccinated. So are the eight teens and college students involved with the program. More than 60 percent of parents with children in the program said everyone eligible in their households is vaccinated, too.
In a slice of the nation's capital with a vaccination rate below 30 percent for eligible residents younger than 40, the figures are a success.
And ones that Mary Brown, founder of Life pieces to Masterpieces, worked hard to get.
Brown said that although she understands the often complicated reasons vaccination rates in the District of Columbia's Black neighborhoods are so much lower than in other areas, she was determined to have a different outcome for her program.
Fifteen close relatives of children enrolled in the after-school program have died after contracting the virus since March 2020.
Unvaccinated people in nearby neighborhoods are still getting sick and dying.
"These kids have been through hell," Brown said. "I am not letting anyone near these children who is not vaccinated."
Brown founded Life Pieces to Masterpieces 25 years ago to serve Black boys who primarily live in Wards 7 and 8, the portions of the city with the highest concentrations of poverty. It tutors children and uses art to teach them about expression and leadership.
Most of the participants are in elementary school, though the program serves young men until they are 25, providing them with mentors through college and graduate school. Older participants receive stipends and also tutor the younger children. It's so popular that there is a waiting list of elementary-age boys hoping for an open slot.
When the pandemic hit, Life Pieces to Masterpieces changed quickly. Brown saw her families getting sick in those early days. Parents lost their jobs and then rushed across town to collect final paychecks, only to find empty shelves at the grocery stores.
Brown's employees attended a city training on how to deliver food to people during the pandemic. She secured resources for homeless families. She pulled mothers in abusive relationships out of their homes in those days of shutdowns, and she found the women and their children other places to live.
In fall 2020 when public school buildings were still closed, Brown gained access to a public urban garden and park in the neighborhood and built a full-time, outdoor school for more than 40 children.
"I always tell them that their job is to dream big, and my job is to make that happen," said Raymond Covington, a retired government attorney and president of the program's board of directors. "The program had to keep going."
The team transformed the Marvin Gaye Greening Center into a small, leafy oasis. They erected a tent and installed fans. They rented portable toilets that staff cleaned after every use. They procured an extra van to pick up and drop off children each day, spacing them out on the commute.
They also outfitted the park with WiFi, so the 40 or so children could log on and participate in virtual learning each day. With staff and tutors on-site, Brown said all of her students made academic progress during the year. In the afternoons, after their virtual days ended, the teenagers came to provide and receive tutoring.
"If I didn't trust Life Pieces to Masterpieces, I wouldn't have put my son in, and then I would have had to drop out of school," said Cherle Latson, a vaccinated mother and college student whose 9-year-old son attended the day program.
The city has relied on community organizations like Life Pieces to Masterpieces to reach the people it has struggled to persuade to get vaccinated.
Brown sympathizes with families wary of the vaccine, citing generations of mistrust, capped with a vaccine delivered during a presidential administration that was marred by frequent allegations of racism.
"We are living proof of what's possible when you have a community that has love, trust and integrity," Brown said. "Because this stuff, these fears, are deep."
The key, Brown said, was that the program had the right people in place before the pandemic took hold.
Among them: Keith Crawford, a longtime volunteer and scientist who researches infectious diseases at the National Institutes of Health. He directed Brown on how she could reopen the program safely in those early days. Everyone already knew him when he launched weekly sessions educating them about the virus, safety precautions and vaccination.
Elder Bill logged on. So did the teenagers. And many of their parents, too.
"I asked him what's real and what's not," Pitts said.
By January, Life Pieces to Masterpieces had drained its funds - which it receives from grants, private donors, and its partnership with the school system - and could no longer operate a full-time program. But with schools starting to reopen for some students, the program shifted back to its after-school program. Crawford began talking with anxious families about how school buildings could safely reopen.
Tory'elle Coleman, a 17-year-old rising senior, attended all the weekend sessions. His mother had made inaccurate claims about the dangers of vaccination and didn't plan to get it. But Coleman relayed what he learned from Crawford. Together, Coleman and his mother got the shots.
"I told her that if you and me are safe, and our grandma is safe, then the kids here have less risk of spreading it to their grandmas, who may have underlying conditions," said Coleman, who started the program as a toddler.
Tre'von Davis, 20, had a similar experience. When the Delaware State University student moved back into the dorms last fall, Brown purchased air purifiers and cleaning supplies for Davis and the other college students in the nonprofit.
On his college campus, Davis said his friends spewed false information they read online about vaccination, half-joking about turning into Martians. But Davis, and everyone in his family, knew the facts and got the shots.
"They made sure I was safe," Davis said. "So when the vaccine came around I wanted to make sure everyone here and all the kids were safe."
In the summer, the program moved back to a public school building and Brown was allowing employees to be tested weekly if they were not vaccinated. But that became too complicated; many staff members were missing work as they waited for results.
So the board decided to mandate vaccination and gave employees paid time off to get the shots and recover from any side effects. Brown fired those who refused vaccination and said that involved very few people.
Now, as students prepare to return to in-person school and an indoor after-school program, she said everyone feels prepared.
And if a parent wants to be vaccinated, Brown said she will still drive them to get the shots.
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