The Brian Coyle Neighborhood Center was home to a handful of free pop-up vaccine clinics held by the Minneapolis Health Department last year.
Thanks to around $3 million in federal COVID-19 funds, the city’s health department partnered with local organizations to meet communities where they are, at locations they trust, and provide free vaccinations. In the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, a predominantly East African community, that location is the Brian Coyle Center.
“These communities have a lot of disparities and they have a lot of gaps in access to health care,” said Awol Windissa, director of community health for Pillsbury United Communities, which runs the Brian Coyle Center. “Many of them don’t trust to go and get vaccinations from other providers or they don’t have health insurance, so they come to us because they trust us.”
Last year, the Minneapolis Health Department held 87 vaccine clinics in underserved areas around the city, targeting communities with lower immunization rates and higher barriers to accessing health care. Despite plans by city health officials to continue their work through this year, including five more pop-up clinics that had been scheduled for this month, the program was cut following the Trump administration’s revocation of remaining funds – about half of the initial $3 million.
“It’s devastating to see how those resources were taken from our communities,” said Sebastiana Cervantes, a senior public health specialist and immunization coordinator with the city. “It’s just been a whirlwind, but we’re still here.”
Cervantes said the pop-up clinics were unique due to their efforts to work outside of normal working hours, taking place during evenings or weekends to better accommodate the communities they would serve. Through partnerships with local organizations, the walk-in clinics would be held at locations in those communities, providing vaccinations and translation services, if needed, free of charge.
Those community partners included violence prevention group A Mother’s Love and the Jordan Area Community Council on the city’s North Side, as well as Corcoran Park and the Phillips Community Center in south Minneapolis. The department has also worked with Minneapolis Public Schools to hold several clinics at schools across the city, as well as Hispanic Advocacy and Community Empowerment through Research (HACER) to reach Spanish-speaking communities.
“They’re not going to go to a clinic but they might come to a community organization that they trust and if we’re there, then we become trusted partners by extension,” said Luisa Pessoa-Brandao, the city’s director of public health initiatives.
In addition to translation services, the decision by health officials to avoid asking patrons for any documentation made the clinics especially accessible to those without permanent legal status amid heightened fears of immigration enforcement in recent months, said Rodolfo Gutierrez, HACER’s executive director.
The more people that are immunized, the less vaccine-preventable diseases will spread. The loss of the free clinics means fewer people will be vaccinated, which hinders public health, he said.
“It is important to take these kinds of approaches, community approaches, and to encourage that kind of confidence in people that they are not going to be exposed if they are undocumented,” Gutierrez said. “But further than that, that is what public health means.”
At these clinics, city health officials last year administered more than 800 COVID-19 vaccines, more than 700 flu shots and more than 500 mpox vaccinations.
According to data from the Minnesota Department of Health used by city health officials, immunizations rates across the city fell during the COVID-19 pandemic. As of September, about 30% of 6-year-olds citywide have not received the immunizations required by law before enrolling in kindergarten, which include vaccines for chickenpox, polio, hepatitis B, and measles, mumps and rubella, among others.
Of the 87 clinics held during last year’s efforts, 21 of them focused on children. City health officials offered 12 different vaccines to youth at these clinics, and nearly 1,500 shots were given.
City health officials would also use the state data – which breaks down immunization coverage rates by race and ethnicity – to decide where to hold clinics by looking at which groups showed lower vaccination rates.
A measles outbreak last year disproportionately affected the city’s Somali population, fueled in part by a debunked research study claiming a link between vaccinations and autism.
City health officials worked with the county to hold walk-in clinics at locations like the Brian Coyle Center and administered the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to anyone who needed it. But alongside the clinics, the city would hold educational sessions aimed at addressing community members’ concerns, said Pessoa-Brando.
“We were in a community that we know has concerns about vaccinations, so we wanted to be there to answer questions,” she said. “To provide vaccines as well, but for the most part, to also make sure that the information is getting out on why, and on safety and to try to combat the misinformation that swirls around.”
Part of the withheld funds were set to expire in June, while the rest was to be used by the Health Department through March 2026. Pessoa-Brandao said the city will look for funding alternatives to keep the program going, but in the meantime, the loss of the program will impact the city’s most underserved communities.
“It’s not that there aren’t places in the city where people can go and get these vaccines, but it’s the loss of accessibility because of the ease of access,” she said.
