Text Banking Toward the 70% Goal

By Yesenia Montenegro

“Hi! I wanted to make sure you know the COVID-19 vaccine is available to everyone who is 12 and up! You can text your zip code to 438829 to find your closest vaccine site. Can I count on you to get vaccinated?”

Throughout June and July, thousands of texts like these were sent out to people across the country, including quite a few sent by attendees at a text banking event I organized on June 19. After missing out on high school senior year milestones, having to learn virtually, being unable to visit family, and seeing overall how this virus was affecting people, I wanted to get involved.

This summer I started writing for the COVID-19 Observer, the news page of COVID-19 Wall of Memories, a website dedicated both to memorializing those who have died of the disease and sharing news and information about it. They also engage in community activities, and this summer one of them was the National Month of Vaccine Action, a presidential initiative that ran from June 4 through July 4. The goal was to motivate eligible people to get vaccinated and reach the goal of 70 percent of U.S. residents fully vaccinated. After months of vaccine availability for adults, and now even for children ages 12 and up, we have barely crossed the 50 percent milestone.

The Month of Action allowed organizations, businesses, volunteers, community leaders and social media users to organize events and share information to increase vaccine access.

A key contributor of the month was Made to Save, a national education and grassroots campaign, created to increase access to COVID-19 vaccines. Made to Save is an initiative from Civic Nation, a 501(c)(3) organization. Civic Nation is an organization designed to help grassroots organizations achieve their goals and make a change. Some of their causes include gender equality, sexual violence, and voting participation.

“Our goal is to empower individuals, companies, institutions, and organizations to create a more inclusive, equitable America,” Civic Nation state on their website.

Volunteers were encouraged to come up with creative events that would allow attendees to share vaccine information with others, or allow attendees to have their own vaccine questions answered. The goal was to increase the number of vaccinated Americans and motivate citizens to get vaccinated if they hadn’t done so yet.

Made to Save provided activity-specific resources for volunteers. Some of these included fact sheets, slideshow templates, information to share with attendees, and virtual event host training.

To do my part in the Month of Action, I organized a virtual text banking event with COVID-19 Wall of Memories.

Volunteers signed up to text friends, relatives, coworkers, neighbors, and anyone else they could think of. The text bank was intended to allow people to connect with people they already knew, to encourage vaccine conversations among friends and family members.

According to Made to Save, 40 percent of people are more likely to get vaccinated if they know someone who has been vaccinated already. This is why I decided to text friends and family, instead of using a text banking platform and texting strangers, who would be more unlikely to respond.

In order to prepare and organize the event, I attended a text banking training, which was hosted by Made to Save on Zoom. Since I had never hosted an event like this before, I wanted to make sure everything would run smoothly and that volunteers would have all the resources and information they needed from me.

The training was beneficial in showing me how to format the texts well, how to advertise my event, and how to get volunteers involved.

With the help of COVID-19 Wall of Memories, the text bank was advertised across various social media platforms. Volunteers were able to sign up and RSVP to the event online.

Despite having experience hosting events at school and church, this was my first time organizing an event since the pandemic started. I was a bit nervous, but once people started logging into the Zoom meeting I felt calmer. The training I attended had prepared me well to host the meeting.

On the day of the event, the group of seven volunteers showed up motivated and excited to promote COVID-19 vaccinations. We started the Zoom meeting by going over a slideshow presentation highlighting the goals of the event, going over possible scripts to use as guides when texting, and making sure everyone felt prepared to answer vaccine related questions they might get in response.

While texting we spoke about the responses we were getting, who we were texting, and why we wanted to volunteer.

By the end of the two hour event, the group texted over 300 people and encouraged dozens of people to sign up for vaccine appointments. Since the event was held virtually, we were able to reach people all across the country.

This month, Made to Save organized a similar event, a Back to School Week of Action. The goal of the week of action was to organize vaccination drives and motivation events for students, their families and the community.

Despite the hopeful outlook many had when vaccines became available this past spring, the Delta variant has made it clear that the pandemic is far from over. According to the New York Times, some doctors on the front lines have reported seeing more critically sick children than at any point before during the pandemic.

As students are getting ready to go back to school it is necessary for those students who are old enough to get vaccinated. By doing this they are not only protecting themselves, but also their classmates, teachers, and family members.

Hosting a vaccine motivation event showed me how influential my voice can be when trying to encourage others to get vaccinated. Even without a Month of Action, it is important for all of us to make sure those around us have access to COVID-19 vaccines to grow the number of vaccinated Americans as efficiently as possible.

If you know someone who has not gotten vaccinated yet, let them know how simple setting up an appointment is and encourage them to get their vaccine as soon as they can. The COVID-19 Wall of Memories website is a great resource for that and other COVID-related topics.

This originally appeared on the COVID-19 Wall of Memories website.

Yesenia Montenegro is a student at the University of Maryland, studying journalism and Germanic studies. Her interest in journalism began when she started writing for her high school newspaper during her freshman year. Along with writing for the COVID-19 Observer, she is also a reporter for Her Campus Maryland. Montenegro likes traveling, listening to music, and spending time with friends in her free time.

Feature photo credit: Photo by YouVersion on Unsplash